TRAILING AND CAMPING IN ALASKA.
Trailing and Camping in Alaska. By A. M. Powell. (Hurst and Blackett. 7s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Powell's " hot-pot " of trailing adventures—he describes in this book not one but many trips— is full of interest and entertainment. He has plenty of American humour, and is, perhaps, least effective when he tries to be serious and in earnest. He is very good when he jots down adventures as they come, and generally he contrives to bring the North-West home to us very vividly. He understands pioneers and prospectors and their views of life. Especially he realises the strong strain of fatalism, without which no man could possibly accomplish their feats of endurance and daring. The prospector—more particularly, it would seem, the copper-ore prospector—is reckless to the point of insanity. When one hears of two men, without any special provision, journeying for fifteen days across the Wrangell ice- field, eating frozen food the whole time, the faculty of wonder is exhausted. As surely as some particular trail is declared to be certain death, a determined party is sure to win through and falsify the judgment. Mr. Powell has pictured these strange people to the-life, and, to supply the necessary shadows, he has thrown in some bad men also. Copper is, so to speak, a necessity of life ; let all who use it read Mr. Powell's book: they will see for themselves where Nature places her treasures, and realise a little of the price which she exacts from pioneers and discoverers.
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