7 NOVEMBER 1903, Page 7

The Young Ice-Whalers. By Winthrop Packard. (Longmans and Co. 6s.)—This

story has the look of having been written by an expert. The details about whalebone and blubber; about " blackflsh," which the novice mistakes for whales, and are indeed whales, but not commercially valuable; about " humpbacks " and "whale-killers,"—all these seem to come from a man who knows what he is writing about. The story of the whaling is decidedly good. But the excitement of the tale is of the land, not of the sea. The young whalers make a trip to Alaska, find gold in amazing quantities, and go home with a fortune which sets every- thing right, the tottering credit of the house of Desmond among them. The illustrations are particularly good.