We often wonder who reads the average travel-book, usually a
badly written, blatant self-advertisement, and it is refreshing therefore to come across such a narrative as Forest Life and Adventures in the Malay Archipelago, by the dis- tinguished Swedish naturalist, Dr. Mjiiberg (Allen and unwm, 12s. 6d.), competently translated by Miss Anna Barwell. The author had his adventures (indeed, he thought it wise always to have a loaded revolver in his pocket), hut he tells them with a becoming modesty which other soi- disant explorers might emulate. His observations, mainly in the tropical forests of Borneo, are told in a language which a layman can understand, and we are introduced to many eccentricities of fauna and flora which are of enthralling interest. There is a delightful story of a gluttonous python which, having swallowed a captive pig, found its meal so obstructive that it could not escape from the pen in which the boar had been confined.
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