In Search of the Okapi. By Ernest Glanville. (Blackie and
Bon. Gs.)—In this story Mr. Ernest Glanville takes two boys to the great Congo Forest, with an older man as head of the expedition. It is a great stroke of luck that two such young fellows should have such opportunities ; one may be pretty certain that it would not occur in ordinary life. Yenning is a naturalist, and eagerly joins his friend Compton, who is hunting for his father in some mysterious Garden of Rest. They begin by falling foul of the Belgians, and an Arab slave-hunter, who follows them up to the Place of Rest and attacks it. The okapi ceases to be one of their objects, and joins other dreams in the Limbo of Vanity, but they have quite enough to occupy them. And really the life of the Great River and the perpetual fascination of the journey itself through the mysterious forest need no other object to make them a sufficient inducement to the boys. The author is in his element here ; the wild creatures, the animal stories which the chief Musts tells them, the thrilling atmosphere of mystery and danger, the unseen horrors of the deadman's pool and the wonderful cavern, are very real indeed as he paints them. Mr. Ernest Glanville seems as much at home in the Great Forest as he is on the veld; and no writer has been more successful in rendering tangible, if that were possible, the extraordinary attrac- tion which the Dark Continent in its varied phases exercises on all men. But boys must judge for themselves, and follow step by step the explorers as they journey up the Great River in their ingenious boat, make their venturesome dash through the forest, and travel by the Pigmies' Road along the top of the forest. We only trust that parents may not find it necessary to lock their young hopefuls up, or to watch the Southampton Docks for some youthful enthusiast in search of the okapi.
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