The Modern Odyssey: or Ulysses up to date, London: Cusseil and Ca., Limited. under apparently A CHANGED TONE, very readable book, The fact m remarkable when it is further to be merely the record of a tour ud the world along paths already worn bare by the hurrying feet of vocal globe trot-tera. The Modern Odyssey, however, rises far superior to the general the author la observant and reflective; he picks out thi ies of the countries he p the ref 6 in keenly alive to nature's loveliness; he is possessed of an agreeable style; and Inst, but not least, he is further endowed with a sly and ready wit. With these for his stock in trade he sets out from Holyhead and succeeds in not missing one of the great Americun liners at Queenstown, His first two chapters are in u very light vein, and luite mislead the reader as to the rest of the contents of the book, Here is a specimen of the author in his LIGHTEST VEIN, taken from his second chapter in which the run from Queenstown to New York is playfully recorded. Time passes slowly at sen, The intelligent traveller should endeavour to beguile the tedium of the voyage by extending his knowledge of the natural history of the ocean. There are many creatures whose habits he may advatirageously study; auch as the ship's cat, the ship's rary the guillemot, the dolphin, the whale whose blubber is ssid to oppe: th which most concerns him personally is the Atlantic chicken, Not much is known about this remarkable bird. Though not web-footed, it seems to be met with only on the Ocean.
probably hatched artificially from an egg placed too near the galley fre, It strength and vigour by picking up rep in the lee scuppers. Naturalists aay Uhat it roosts on the cylinder covers and crows to the dawn in the main rigging.
From the foregoing it might be thought that the author derives his the school of which Mr. the third chapter we yssey la mainly
York opens the reade this playful suddenly sketches faithfully and forcibly ish hurrying life of that City of Perpetual Mot ashe calls it. New York," as he says, tis more than a mere city; it is a congested nation of people in hurry, jostling one another on Manhattan Island." The power of racy description which he here discloses encourages the reader to travel on with him through to Chicago then to Niagara; and afterwards across the continent by C.P.R. Impressionist pictures sketched with no little skill help the reader to arrive at acme of the author appreciation and enjoyment of the superb scenery. His chapter on CALIFORNIA, giving at some length the history of how it came to be lost to Great Britain—as usual by the sheer stupidity of the F.0.—i perhaps the most interesting and valuable in the book. It should be read by every. one who takes an interest in the spread of Greater Britain, and laid to heart. Ie is instructive, and anything but amusing—to an Englishman, Probably Am would find it both amusing and instruct Certainly the laugh is on their side. The author's account of the young life of the AUSTRALIAN CITIES, of which he visited Melbourne, Adelaide, Ballarat, Albany and Sydney is very comforting to anyone fearful lest Australia in the pride of her prosperity should tend to become Americanised. up his criticism of life in the Australian cities in these words: "The din, bustle, and worry peculiar to the New World are absent. America is a machine in perpetual motion, on insufficiently lubricated bearings, Every one is panting in the race for power or wealth. Life in the At! Ni d States is represented by an express train rushing wildly over an uneven couutry; life at the Antipodes by the measured progress of a well laden ship over a tran quil ocean, An air of steady and sober prosperity pervades an Australian city. It is well built, well governed and pleasing. if
Mel always Handsome, in appearance, The could be desired, Moro atte to the intereste of individuals id to comfort of the commun-
ud the neat, orderly appearance of a large Australian city, when compared with the haphazard, helter-skelter agglomeration of building, moderate and splendid—which constitutes a city in the United States at once strikes a traveller recently arrived from the other side of the Pacific.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.