The New York herald., 1922-12-10
HREQUENTED WAYS" as book
II of intensive travel and human


assumption that the female mind is lack
ing in ability to correlate facts and make
orderly deductions. Dr. Newbigin is one
of the few members of her sex that is en-
titled to write the initials of the ROYAL
Geographical Society after her name She
is the erudite editor of "rhe Scottish Geog-
raphical Magazine" and in her latest book
she has achieved something new in travel
guides.
"Frequented Ways" not only glorifies
scenery, it explains it-tells how rivers
and mountains came to be, what shaped
them. The Alps are not just cloud kissing
peaks to DIR. Newbigin but glaciated mas
terpieces whose history she skilfuny spells
in the vocabulary of the geologist
Against a mighty backdrop of ntassits,
forests and ice leveled plains she drama
tizes civilization. How does temperature
affect temperament? How are modes Of
life governed by the stature of trees and
the direction of waterways? Why is the
Matterhorn needle sharp and the glorious
Schlern in the Dolomites fiat as table at
its crest? Why is one valley wall steep
and another gently inclined?
The relation of physical geography to
the inhabitants of Europe and their means
of making a living leads to the statement
that the best paying business on the
French Riviera is tourism. not so much be-
cause the azure coast is fair as because
its fields crowded seaward by high noun
tains, are too restricted to permit extern
sive cultivation, and valleys are too short
to accommodate important streams.
Several chapters that require study but
well repay 1t, are given to a discussion of
winds, their vagaries and inconsistencies
to the habits Of plants. the processes of soil
formation the economies of crop raising
and distribution. The author interprets
the face of Mother Earth as she beams or
frowns, encourages or deters her children's
progress. The book plumbs a hoard of
knowledge about European lands and peo-
Piles. Some day we hope this distinguished
woman traveller may cross the ocean to
inquire about the mysterious past of
American prairies. streams and ranges, and
present to European readers proof that
over here. no less than "over there" "the
habitable earth is full of bliss"
People and Places-A Life on Five Con-
tinents' leaves us breathless and some
by chapters from Australia to Fiji and
New York; from the Malay Peninsula.
Java, Christmas Island and Borneo to
South America and the West Indies. A
hotchpot of "reminiscences recounted with
racy pen by the inevitable Britisher with
an official past, who, in this case, elects to
remain iameless.
The author is at his best describing
blood chilling encounters with ferocious
jungle buffaloes, with tigers, charging ele-
plants. hurting baboons and man-eating
black panthers. The trophy heads of Bor-
neo make another good story. In Dyak
houses they hang in punches from the CELL
ing. Recipe for preparing the head of an
enemy: Fill 1t with hot stones till it
shrinks. then hang it up; sew up the lips
so it cannot reply" OF more practical use
is the information about Panama" hats,
the best of which are made at Monte
Criste Ecuador. They are called Panama
only because they are shipped from that
port The author before leaving the coun-
try exacted written promise that some
thing would be done about rectifying the
misnomer in the Ecuador Congress.
'"The Charm of the Middle Kingdom" for
James Reid Marsh author of a sketchy
volume on China. lies in it's simmer and
color, in the porcelain hue of its ladies'
cheeks and in almond eyes that glow with
restrained coquetry" upon foreign stran-
gers. 1t upsets all our ideas about Chinese