His Master Purpose. By Harold Bindloss. (John Long. 6s.) —The
hero of this novel, Geoffrey Thurston, emigrates to Western Canada in the third chapter, and the story thereafter concerns itself with his career and adventures in British Columbia. The author certainly contrives to make his readers understand the struggle with elemental forces which has to be undertaken in a new country by those who would successfully harness Nature to man's service. Extensive drainage works do not sound a romantic subject on which to found a novel, but when these works mean the blasting of walls of rock to deflect the course of a river the story of their accomplishment evidently affords considerable scope for adventure. The character of the hero is well drawn and convincing, though the heroine is decidedly wooden.