ST.

_Eminent Botanist on scientific expedition_. "Dear me! Why didn't I
take up Zoology instead of Botany? This seems such an interesting
specimen."]

* * * * *

Miss Ella Sykes, after going with her brother and a camera on his
special mission to Kashgar during the earlier days of the War, has
detailed in charming fashion, under the title _Through Deserts and Oases
of Central Asia_ (Macmillan), their travels in lands still almost
unknown. Sir Percy Sykes himself has added some chapters on the history
and customs of the district in order to allow himself the pleasure of
referring affectionately to his hunting of the giant sheep--the _Ovis
poli_--of the Pamirs. Between them they have given me a good deal of
information, with a lot of really capital photographs, about a
country--Chinese Turkestan--that one may have just heard of before,
though it is impossible to be sure. Resisting a burning desire to pass
on newly-acquired learning to the first listener, I will be content to
say that a more readable volume of its kind has not come my way for a
long time, and incidentally the country itself seems surprisingly
desirable. For one thing it is free from the mosquitoes that spoil so
many books of travel, while the people are peaceful, reasonably
contented and not liable to jar on the reader's nerves, in the
time-honoured fashion, with spears and poisoned arrows. Even the yaks,
that one had supposed to be fearsome beasts, are mild benevolent
pacifists. The authors do not suggest that it is all Paradise, of
course, though for the Moslem there may be something of that sort in it.
"Praise be to Allah! I have four obedient wives, who spend all their
days in trying to please me," said a Kirghiz farmer to Sir Percy. But
even Paradise may be a matter of taste.

* * * * *

If _War in the Garden of Eden_ (Murray) cannot be numbered among the
books which must be read by a serious war-student it is in its
unassuming way very attractive. Captain Kermit Roosevelt made many
friends while serving as a Captain with the Motor Machine-Gun Corps in
Mesopotamia, and here he reveals himself as a keen soldier and a
pleasant companion. In style he is perhaps a shade too jerky; his
frequent failure to make his connections gives one a sense of being in
the hands of a rather rambling guide. But the important points are that
he is an engaging rambler, and that he can describe his experie