SOME BOOKS OF THE WE.EK.
[Under this heading we notice each Books of the week as have stet Mss reserved for review in other forms.] Ibex Shooting on the Himalayas. By Major N. Taylor. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. 6s.)—Major Taylor has succeeded in doing what very few sportsmen seem able to accomplish. He has described a hunt clearly and simply from start to finish, so that we can follow the climbers, see the stalk, and appreciate the tension of the last hour or so. He keeps to the story he is telling, tells it well, and uses the right word in the right place. 'The shikari, Lassoo, occupies a prominent position in these arduous stalks, and he seems to have possessed as nearly as possible the judgment, the perfect knowledge, and the mountaineering skill of the ideal shikari. He talks like a book, and we realise that he is a fine character. Major Taylor in recording his first experiences gives the reader his impressions, which have the freshness natural to novelty, a freshness in which the true value of the shikari'i3 apparent. He is indispensable, especially when be holds you by the legs while you shoot from the edge of a precipice. Many sportsmen, however, forget how dependent they are on his guidance,—with them the Sahib is first, then the sport, lastly the shikari. Major Taylor puts all the incidents of an ibex hunt in their true proportions, for the avowed purpose, he says, of instructing beginners, and also, we think, from a sense of fitness, and a very vivid narrative he makes of it. We should like to have seen a photograph of the poultry going up to the hills perched on the top of the coolies' loads. This is a capital little book, and would be recognised as such by sportsmen who will never see an ibex. The photographs do not represent the actual country, but they are typical enough to be regarded as a harmless fraud.
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