Tre Tout or rue Saxps—by Paul de Tang. Fish Unwin, London. 1921.
The author of this book gives a graphic description of life in a mining camp, from the first discovery of a gold trail by the hero Robert Ray, the onrush of people to make their fortunes, the failure of the gold streak and sudden break-up of the camp. Throughout the book runs the love story of Robert Ray, and although at the end of the book the reader's mind is rather confused by the complicate ed relationships of the different persons in it, the tale is very readable. Ray is rather "one of the white hen's chickens," and it would be a relief if just once during the story he did not do the right thing at the exact moment. The author has idealized his char—lacter beyond all human similitude and little erring would have made him much more real atid popular with the reader. The same may he said of the heroine, Ruby [oering, whose perfection becomes rather a bore. The minor characters are well drawn, and the interest of the reader is well sustained throughout the boo! lopment. OF the 274 pages devoted to the evolution of the aeroplane the first 220 only take the reader as far as M. Paulhan's flight from London. to Manchester in April. 1910. Be it said that this - period was undoubtedly extremely interesting, and the early work of the Wright. brothers. Langley, and the French pioneers is discussed very fully. Of course it is purely a matter of opinion, but in a history of the facts of aeronautics. one would have preferred to see more attention paid to the early days of flying, from. 1909 to the beginning of the war, and rather less to purely experimental work. Much has already been published about this early experimental work and little credit has been given to the men who took the biggest risks of all when flying became possible and before it became comparatively safe, as it had become just before the outbreak of war.
On the whole one may say that. the book is an extremely good history of aeronautics up to the time when men began to fly, and a very sketchy history after that date.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.