[Under this heading we notice such Books of the meek
as have not been nursed for revisit) in other form.]
The Life and Work of E. X. Peck among the Eskimos. By the Rev. Arthur Lewis. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.)—Edmund James Peck began life as a boy in the Royal Navy. After some ten years' work, he purchased his discharge, and took up service as a Scripture Reader. Mission work appealed to him, and he was admitted to the Church Missionary Society's preparatory Institute. When a call was made for mission work among the Eskimos, Peck was seen to be the right man for the place. He reached Moose Factory in September, 1876, and went on thence to Little Whale River, the northernmost station of the Hudson's Bay Company, which was judged to be a convenient base for his operations. His voyage gave him a good foretaste of the hard- ships which he would have to undergo. He has been at work, with some short intervals of -rest, ever since; in 1878 he was ordained by the Bishop of Moosomin. Details of his labours are supplied by Mr. Lewis, but we cannot do more than give a very general outline. One significant fact is that Mr. Peck has not remained at one station, makin' g it the centre of his activities. He has gone about from place to place, following, so to speak, the long and frequent wanderings of the Eskimos. The pressure of want—and times seem to be growing steadily harder with this much-enduring race—continually forces the Eskimos to change their abode. If the missionary is not to lose hold of them, he must follow. This means really living in Eskimo fashion. We need not say more; nothing could more conclusively prove that such preachers may well be ranked among the faithful, who "wander about in sheepskins and goatskins "—read "sealskins" —"being destitute, afflicted, tormented." A more striking picture of hard work done with care, conscientiousness, and in circum- stances of almost unbearable severity there could scarcely be.
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