THE SEA AND ITS STORY"
Tun book is something of an olla podrida ; 'but if the ingredients are miscellaneous, they are of excellent quality. No one will fail to find the subject in which he may happen to be interested treated in a readable article, the work of an expert, and judiciously illustrated. The style is commonly popular, but this does not hinder the information given from being solidly informing. That from time to time it is really stirring no one can deny. There is salvage work, for instance. Who would not be moved when he hears about some relic of the great Armada, one of Philip's gold coins, or a sword, possibly a skeleton Then there is the diver's occupation, not without an occasional suggestion of the ludicrous. No one but a Jules Verne could describe the spectacle so strangely grim of two men fighting under the water for the possession of a gun. This actually took place in one of the numerous attempts made to recover the wreckage from the Royal George.' As for the chances of getting back treasure from this or that ship, it is a fact that nine million pounds' worth goes annually to the bottom on our coasts. And the sea has many secrets besides these lost treasures. Science, it may be, has removed some of them ; but some remain, and probably will to the end of the chapter. One of the best articles is "Shooting in the Navy," with its appropriate lesson from the Russo-Japanese War. Generally, too, we would praise the articles which deal with the human side of sea life. Wonders cease to astonish, but of heroism, as, to mention one case, of pilots staunch in their duty, we never tire. The fact is that few of us know how much patience and endurance the average sailor has to display for a large part of his life. We may think little of him while be is on land—he is not always at his best there —but his sea life is something to be wondered at. Part of the book, and that not the least interesting, is given to stories of great sea-fights and shipwrecks : not unfrequently a new light is thrown on familiar narratives. So it will be seen that there is plenty to attract readers of many kinds. One reflec- tion we may make in conclusion. There has been an inevitable loss of seamanship in the Navy—it has gone with the sailing element—but in compensation there has been a great increase elsewhere, so strong is the hold which yachting is taking on our youth.
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