WILDERNESS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23539, 17 January 1942, Page 5

WILDERNESS

CURRENT BOOKS

♦ Alaska Challenge. By Rath and Bill Albee. Robert Hale Ltd. 345 pp. (18/6.) Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.

The Albees, having a serious notion; (o study “primitive people, how they] lived, why they behaved as they did,; the effect of civilisation on them.” de-i cided to do it the hard way—first-j hand instead of from textbooks. Hence their plan to trek north from British Columbia, through the Yukon, to Alaska. It was a mistake to reject the telegraph trail and to take one nearer tne Rockies, with an old pros-] pector's map as sole guide; for the: map, hopelessly wrong, lost them ini a vast stretch of Indian moose country.] The lone trapper who rescued them was af first so frightened by their shouts '{hat he ran for his life! Butt the error is responsible for a fine section of the book—and changed the: Albees’ mind; they did the next 700} miles in a boat they built. Family; cares anchored them for three years, when they went on to teach in an Eskimo school at Cape Prince of Waleg —to teach, where they had. first, everything to learn: but this was the chance they had really pursued, and they siezed it with all four capable hands,! This account of a year's work in developing contact and • confidence be-' tween racial strangers is absorbingly! good, and encouraging, too. The Albeegl are a remarkable pair, amusing, like-j able, strong in sense and courage; and] so is their book. BIOLOGY AND RELIGION Christianity and the MechudK&l By! W. Osborne Greenwood, M.D., B.S.* F.R.S.E. Eyre and Spottiswoodo, 296 pp. (9/- net.). Dr. Greenwood’s starting point is tha ] contradiction between the physicists, who are “virtually unanimous in recognising a Deity,” and the biologists and bio-chemists, who adopt a mechanistic theory of the universe. Energy, being omni-present, is omnipotent and therefore “competent to produce and maintain life.” The author’s purpose is, first, to show that the division in the house of science can be closed and, second, that this reconciliation also harmonises scientific truth with Christian faith. "The world, nay, the whole universe, cries cut for the recognition of intelligent purpose." Dr. Greenwood’s examination of modern scientific evidences and theories is intended to be followed by the general reader, and can be.

YOUNG READERS

SABRINA AND JAMES I Go by Sea. I Go by Land. By P. L. Travers. Peter Davies. 20T pp.' |l/Si net.) Sabrina Lind, aged 11, writes the diary of her journey with her brother James, aged 9, from blitzed England across the Atlantic to safe Canada and the United States, and of their ex* periences there. Sabrina seems to do a little rather rapid growing up and becomes a very acute inquirer, observer, and reporter, indeed, whether at the World’s Fair or in Central Park or in the Planetarium; and James, full of sturdy sense, moves on from socking an uppish American boy who patronises England to socking an uppish Eng-1 lish boy who sneers at America. Bothu children are delightful; so is every dayi in the Diary—or Dairy. CHIEF OP THE CAHNMAH Nemarlnk, King of the Wilds. By loud L. Idriess. Angus and Robertson Ltd. 221 pp, (4/6).

In this book Mr Idriess tells a true' story of Australia’s frontier , history. The stretch of the northern territory known as the Wild Lands lies southwest of Darwin, between the Daly and Victoria rivers and backed by tumultuous .mountains ranges. Here. a handful- of mounted police and their trackers were pitted against Chugulla, Tiger, and Nemarluk, fierce and skilful tribal leaders, whose clash with the white man’s ways, and laws was, after all, only a blind struggle to preserve their own. Seeing this clearly. Mr. .Idrieffl writes with - genuine sympathy for his Stone Age hero, who, as he says, "debetter fate”-;than to die in prison, broken-hearted. JAN Karalta. By Mary Grant Bruce. Angus and Robertson Ltd. 233 pp, (4/8). Jan, an English sea captain’s daughter sent out to Australia during ths war, rapidly learns to love Karalta, her- new holme, and her new country. She does more; she plays a clever and brave part, in alliance with Gerry, the Don R, or dispatch rider, in detecting and trapping a German agent whoso work was exposing Australia to great danger. This lively story will please . girls between 10 and 15. ENGLEFIELD ANIMALS Monty the Frog. Told and nWstr*ted by Cicely 'Englefteld. JohnMurrsy, 43 pp. (2/- net.) rV . , Miss Englefteld adds the adventures of Monty the Frog to the serfio'whjch she has already narrated and pictured for very young children who, aboveall, like stories' about, animals. *'fTbe’ Englefteld animals are delightful :m word and looks.