Evening star., 1925-03-13
THE PUBLIC
LIBRARY
IL. Books of Adventure.


The great DR.. Johnson condemns
the authors of travel books who
pass a desert and tell that 1T is
sandy; who cross a valley and find
that 1t is green. He that reads those
books must consider his labor as
Its own reward, for he will find moth
ing On which attention can fix or
which memory can retain THE
globe trotter who travels for days
and writes for weeks" is also crit
icized by Kipling.
Though the reader may we'll shun
the travel records of such writers,
nevertheless Winter days have a
tendency to arouse the spirit of
Wanderlust which makes good travel
books most attractive.
Dependent upon the mood, one may
care especially for exploration into
little known lands abounding in
thrilling adventures or the more
leisureiy and comfortable sojourning
in civilized countries related with
keen appreciation OF the significant
factors and In style which differ
entfates literature from book making.
A book of the former kind is "On
the Gorilla Trail (G76- B723o), the
mere title of which suggests adven-
ture and thrills. Mary Hastings
Bradley found them ap1enty, when
with gun in one hand and baby
in the other" accompanied by her
husband and party of scientists
from the American Museum of Natu-
raj History of New York, she jour
neyed into the Eastern Kongo to
bring back material for a museum
group and photographic and scientific
records. She writes fascinatingly of
thrilling lion and elephant hunts of
dead" lions that roared and OF the
hongo, where your worst fears are
never realized, but something that
you didn't fear happens instead" In
addition to the exciting Incidents OF
her journey, Mrs. Bradley also draws
beautiful pictures of the dark con-
tinent OF her thought upon leaving
Africa she writes: Lost 10 US were
the vast spaces, the splendor OF wa
ters, the mad glory of volcanoes, the
fairy isles Of hidden lakes, the en-
chantment of cloud-wrapped heights:
lost the solitude and the beauty and
freedom that make our civilization
seem prison and marJ-et place"
we had to go out and hunt hard
for all dangers that we had" wrote
Mrs. Bradley. There are explorers,
however, to whom they have come
without seeking and brought tremen-
dous hardship. Algot Lange, author
of In the Amazon Jungle" (G9e-
L26D journeyed into the headwaters of
the Amazon, a deadly region where
Few men have gone and lived to make
record Of it, in search of fresh rub
ber trees. Assailed by swamp fevers
and sicknesses, bitten by insects and
reptiles, Mr.. Lange came finally, the
lone survivor, into the territory of
the Mangeroma cannibals, who re-
stored him to health and guided him
back TO civilization. His account of
his stay with these people, of their
weapons. habits. form of battle and
method OF cooking the human cap
tives, forms one of the specially in
teresting parts of the book and is
at the same time a valuable contri-
button to the ethnoIogy of the
western Amazon region.
Red Dusk and the Morrow"
F5466-DSS5r), by Sir Paul Dukes, is
a spirited adventure book which par
takes largely of the nature of a de-
tective story. The author went to
Russia as ar official of the English
Secret Intelligence Service, his main
object being to ascertain the Russian
peoples point of view of the Com
munist experiments of the bolshevik
government With the aid of numer-
Gus DISCUSSES and names, he lived
among the Russian people, now as an
employe of the extraordinary COM
mission of the Soviet government,
now as a soldier in the red army
and at other times as a peasant. The
conclusions he draws on the present
government and the possibilities of
the future Russian nation are most
illumina ating
After the great war, two aviators
seeking solitude. repose and "adven-
ture in the sense of unexpected Incl
dent rather than OF hazardous activ-
ity," yielded to an old longing and
went to the South Seas. "Faery Lands
OF the South Seas" (G16-HI44) is a
beautiful portrayal of the native life
and folk lore of the islands where
they lived year. Notable for its
effective descriptions and the dreamy
atmosphere and charm of the islands
which they make the reader feel it
Will be enjoyed even by those who
poke fun at South Sea Island enthus-
lasts
No list of thrilling adventure tales,
however short, would be complete
without one dealing with the expert
ences of Arctic or Antarctic explorers.
south (G149-Sh12so), by Sir Ernest
Shackleton, is detailed account of
shackleton's last expedition, 1914-17,
IN attempt to cross the Antarctic
continent from sea to sea via the
Pole. Extracts from diaries and ex-
cellent illustrations make the expert
ences of the explorers particularly
vivid, and one is impressed by their
splendid spirit in the face of severe
cold, hourly danger, short rations and
the greatest personal privations.
Two books that take the reader to
still different lands are "Samurai
Trails" CG67K637s) and by Camel
and Car to the Peacock Throne" (G63-
P8O. The first is a charming book
on Japan as two travellers saw il who
made their journey on foot, following
little known ways and unfrequented
places. The dry humor of the author
lends additional charm to his narra-
tive. The second book takes one
through Palestine, across the Syrian
Desert, through Mesopotamia and
Persia to Teheran and back through
Kurdistan, and includes capture by
Bedouin brigands and numerous
other exciting incidents. This book
is also informative for its historical
reflections and comparisons and for
the light it throws on the political
situation in the respective countries