The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-17 00:00:00

474 almost as conspicuous figures in this memoir as Montgomery himself, We have rarely met with four volumes of a biographical character containing so little solid matter as these. Some remarks on Montgomery's genius we propose to reserve until the conclusion of the work is before us. Lake Argami ; or, Explorations and Discoveries during Four Years' Wanderings in the Wilds of South-Western Africa. By Charles John Andersson. London : Hurst and Blackett. THANKS to the narratives of Gordon Cumming and M. Gerard, we are tolerably familiar with Sporting adventures in Atrica—with the " knocking over " of lions and " bagging " of elephants ; but this handsome volume has some special claims to attention. The author penetrated to Lake Ngami, first dis covered by Messrs. Oswell, Livingstone, and Murray, in 1849. He surveyed the shores and ascertained the extent of this fine fresh-water lake, situated in about the 21st parallel of lati tude, and almost midway between the east and west shores of the African continent. He ascended for some distance the river Teoge, which falls into the lake; and after ascertain ing more concerning this region than any previous traveller, and after performing journeys unsurpassed for their length and fatigue, he returned in safety, with an abun dant store of sporting spoils. Mr. Andersson is a Swede by birth, but partly an Englishman by parentage. He came to England thinking of a voyage to Iceland ; but, fortunately meeting with Mr. Galton, then in tent on an exploring expedition in South Africa, he joyfully joined this gentleman, and sailed with him for the Cape. When there, they were advised that their best course would be to take ship for Walfisch Bay, on the west coast of Africa, some seven hundred miles north of the Cape, and commence their journey from that point. They complied with this advice, and had every reason to be grati fied with their decision. As Mr. Galton has published an account of his travels, this book is in some measure supplementary to it. The author remained in Africa two years longer than Mr. Galton, and penetrated much further into the interior. After he had reached Lake Ngami, where ho had collected his ivory, specimens of natural history, curiosities, &c., he found that it would be necessary to retrace his steps to Narnaqua-land, and there procure a waggon for the transport of his goods. This journey occupied him four months. It must ave been a wonderful effort : During the four months that I was absent from my men I travelled either alone or accompanied by a single native, sometimes on foot and at others on horseback, or ox-back, over upwards of a thousand miles of country, parts of it emulating the Sahara in scarcity of water and general in hospitality. Tongue is too feeble to express what I suf fered at times. To say nothing of narrow escapes from lions and other dangerous beasts, I was constantly en during the cravings of hunger and the agonies of thirst. Occasionally I was as much as two days without tasting fo and it not unfrequently happened that in the course of the twenty-four hours I could only once or twice moisten mv parched lips. Sometimes I was so overcome by these causes, coupled with bodily fatigue, that I fainted. Once both my steed and myself dropped down in the midst of a. sand-plain, where we remained a long time in a state bor daring on unconsciousness, and exposed to all the injurious effects of a tropical sun. I would at times pursue my course with a pained and listless step, scarcely knowing what i was about, and staggering like a drunken man. The part of this volume which will excite most attention is that which relates to Lake Ngami, and the fauna and sylva of the sur rounding region. The author was disappointed in the size of the lake, it having been repre sented as much larger than it is in reality : It is however, indisputably, a fine sheet of water ; but in size is somewhat over-rated, the estimation of its length alone being at one time considered no less than one hun dred mile+, and the width about fifteen or sixteen.... The whole circumference is probably about sixty or seventy geographical miles, its average breadth seven miles, and not exceeding nine at its widest parts. Its shape, more over, as I have represented it in the map, is narrow in the middle and bulging out at the two ends ; and I may add, that the first reports received many years ago from •he natives about the lake, and which concurred in repre senting it of the shape of a pair of spectacles, are correct. ...At its eastern extremity the Ngami finds an ou•let (the only one) in the fine and stately Rouge. The vegeta tion all along its course is varied and luxuriant, and in some places the scenery is quit e c h arm i ng , t h e b an k s o f the river being often to the water's edge covered with ma jestic trees of beautiful and dense follage....A great THE PRESS. variety of animals are found in the lake regions, more especially in the vicinity of the rivers, such as elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, giraffes, koodos, pallahs, as also two new species of antelopes—the nakong and the leche. The latter animals are well described and pictured. They appear to be beautiful spe cies of the water-buck. The author thinks that the nakong has never yet been described by naturalists. The whole account of this region is from its novelty of peculiar value. The sporting adventures of the author, if less showily recounted than those of preced ing African travellers, are not less wonderful. In the regions he traversed animal life was seen in its grandest forms. Fountains gush ing from rocks, or springing up from the barren earth, were common in the desert, and usually expanded into small lakes. To these springs—set in the midst of thirsty tracts of country, as if for the express enjoyment of the majestic brutes which have found in the interior of Africa their last and securest place of refuge—there thronged in the stillness of night the majestic denizens of the desert. These fountains, with their rugged aceesso ries of rocks, and thick gigantic vegetation, present an aspect of beautiful sublimity when lit up by the moon, and groups of animals advance towards the water, while the country for miles round seems alive with their cries. Troops of elephants advance, some times heralding their approach with loud trumpeting, sometimes only heard by their heavy march, breaking the stinness of the air " like the passage of a train of artillery." Lions invade the spot with terrific roars, or moving stealthily with a low purring noise, undistinguishable till close to the hiding place of the sportsman, waiting for them with his deadly rifle. The rhinoce roses come in such herds that they fre quently drain the copious fountain dry. In one night the author shot eight of these beasts, and might easily have killed more. Hyaenas, leopards, wild boars, and other feasts of prey, frequent these lonely springs he forms of animal life which supply these fierce creatures with food are abundant in Africa, as the stately giraffe, the zebra, the buffalo, the oryx, and the eland. For the hairbreadth escapes of the author while sporting we must refer to his narrative. He was in the jaws of death three times in one night. His book is one:for everybody to read. As a record of travel every page is fascinating, while the naturalist and geographer will be delighted with the new facts it reveals. Mr. Andersson is at once modest and spirited in his narra tive ; and his volume is as creditable to his literary talent as the enterprise it records is honourable to his courage and endurance. The plates are ndmerous and admirable, repre senting with vivid effect some of the most striking scenes he witnessed. NEW NOVELS. 1. John Halifax, Gentleman. By the Author of " The Head of the Family." London : Hurst and Blackett. 2. Leonora. By the Hon. Mrs. Maberly. Three Vols. London : Smith and Elder. 1. " John Halifax " is one of that class of novels in which attention is arrested by the dramatic skill of the writer, and the natural and forcible delineation of character, rather than by any artful complexity of plot. It is a plain story of every-day life, in which the hero, by the early exercise of industry and self denial, instead of being shipwrecked, arrives safe at the haven of wealth and happiness. It contains a picture of married life, both attractive and purifying —intended to show that marriage is an institution by which humanity attains the highest point of develop ment of which it is capable—that it concentrates all the best elements of two natures into one—and per petuates the passion of love in its highest and most Christian form. The influence of parents upon children, and the subject of family government, form, also, prominent features in the narrative ; while by the outbreak of passion in the second son, and his violent quarrel with his elder brother, we are taught the wholesome lesson that at a certain period of life men, however good, must be expected to exhibit the results of ripening passions. Indeed, the whole episode of the governess, Louise d'Argent, is instructive in the highest degree. The mild parental exhortations of the father and mother, never once losing sight of the fact that their child is now a grown man, and ultimately, with rare wisdom, SATURDA Y , yielding their ownprejudices to his i nc li nat i ons, are a model for imitation in life and for study to future novelists. The characters in "John Halifax" ar e distinct and well chiselled, and if not always true to nature are still true to themselves—the colours do not run into one another. Old Abel Fletcher, the Quaker, and his son Phineas, and John Halifax and his wife, are the figures which occupy the f oreground, and they are painted with consummate skill. The style of the book is unaffected and graceful, and it may be taken as one of the best specimens of that class of fiction known as " the romance of common 2. We were never more sensible how much the merit of a fiction depends upon its choice of a sub ject than in reading this tale by Mrs. Maberly. It is equally as well written as her previous novels : the action of the story is skilfully carried forward; and the sketches of society are marked with an air of entire truth. But the subject is unpleasing ; and that it is instructive, or meant to be so, does not at all counterbalance this defect. The time has gone by—if it ever existed—when people were to be made good by lugubrious fictions. Leonora is a beauti ful and accomplished girl, cursed with a vicious nature; and hence, from a first error, condemned to sink con tinually lower in degradation, and to bear increasing punishment and shame, till she sinks beneath the burden. Mrs. Maberly tells us that " Leonora "is rather a biography than a romance. We can believe it. But is it necessary to publish biographies of criminals in three volumes? Every fiction should, in our opinion, be rather of an elevating than de pressing character; and we may be quite sure there must be something wrong in that practice of an art which, primarily intended to afford pleasure, and to re. fine moral feeling,occasions only pain and regret. Ugly things will force themselves on our view in red life, without the necessity of our seeking them for amusement. Travels in the Sandwich and Society Islands. By S. S. Hill, Esq. London : Chapman and Hall. Ma. HILL, who has published an intelligent account of his travels in Siberia, left Kamschatka in the autumn of 1848 for the Sandwich Islan(ls, and spent some months in exploring them. His opinion of the progress of the natives in civilisation is on the whole favorable. The government is orderly, and the Christian faith is making progress. The recognition by the maritime powers of the independence of this group of islands is in their favour. The author was present at a reception given by the King to some Russian officers, and was pleased with the "modest " semblance of a European court." To the author the King said : On a small scale i am endeavouring to do, with the blessing of God, what Peter the Great of Russia did on a large scale. The success I have met with encourages me to go on, and I count upon the sympathy and good-will of all friendly nations. From Otaheite, Mr. Hill bore away a less favorable impression. He thinks French rule unfavorable to the prosperity of the island, and he strongly recom mends the recognition of its independence by all maritime powers. The only favorable circumstance he notices is that the population, after having been reduced from 200,000, the supposed number when Cook first discovered it, to 5,000 in 1817, is now—the fatal effects of contact with European life having in degree subsided—about 20,000, with every probability of further increase. Mr. descri i iiOns of the natural features of these oceanic groups are good, hut we could have wished more minute particulars of the present life of the people. Essays, Biographical and Critical, chiefly on English Poets. By D. Masson, A.M. Cambridge: Macmillan. To indicate the character of these Essays, it may be mentioned that most of them have appeared in Reviews. The essay on Chatterton is an exception ; and for this reason perhaps it is the best of the series. The author, not being confined to space, has been able to give a close and critical biography of the poet. It would well afford to stand alone as the fairest and most searching " Life of Chatterton " ex tant. The other essays appear to us more remark able for elegant diction and critical sentiment than for novel views and deep thought. We cannot think that the notion of Shakespeare's character, leaning to sentimentalism, is correct. His mind was better balanced than Mr. Masson supposes it to have been. It must have had a centre of gravity not to be easily shaken by his own conceptions. We cannot think that after writing the speech closing the pageant scene in The Tempest, Shakespeare " laid down his pen, " too agitated to write more that night." Mr. Masson does not appear to be aware that the lines which he supposes excited Shakespeare's mind so strongly were in all probability borrowed, as to their leading idea at all events, from Lord Sterling's tragedy of Darius : II I .