HAWAII WITH SYDNEY A. CLARK,

Prentice-HallInc. p. 304. $3.50.

Sydney A. Clark '12 has a happy talent for telling the bewildered tourist the exact things that should save him heartache and pocketbook constriction amid alien scenes. Perhaps I should not use the word alien in this connection because it is a large and emphatic part of Mr. Clark's effort, in the volume now under inspection, to convince an apparently stubborn public that the "loveliest fleet of islands anchored in any ocean," as Mark Twain called them, are really a part of United States territory. It is a point worth stressing; for any area so different from our mainland that can be seen without Toms formalities has a double claim upon the traveler.

Mr. Clark divides his book into three sections called Foreground of the Picture,Background of the Picture, and Yourselfin the Picture. These consider in the right order the various things that an intending visitor to a strange area probably will want to know. Foreground of the Picturedescribes the means of reaching the Is- lands, takes up the superficial questions such as the transportation of cars, the weather, and the first concrete things that the visitor encounters. And more important than any of these is Mr. Clark's passion for telling the innocent abroad just exactly what everything will cost, from taxi fares to hotel accommodations. At least he gives an accurate survey of prices as they existed at the time of his last visit, with a warning that such matters may fluctuate with the seasons. Incidentally Hawaii has no seasons to speak of, but one point which I find lacking in Mr. Clark's book is the emphasis that native islanders place upon the desirability of visiting the Islands during our summer time, a point which would not perhaps occur to the average mainlander who thinks of summer as the time to move somewhat further northward from wherever he may be. The average temperature summer and winter in the Islands does not vary by much more than five degrees and it so happens that from May to September the sunshine is brightest and such storms as there are usually hold aloof.

Background of the Picture does a brief, workmanlike job on that part of the history of Hawaii following the first contact of northern Europeans with the group. Considering the purpose of the book there is almost nothing to carp at except perhaps a too tolerant reference to various theories of the origin of the Hawaiian people. Mr. Clark seems to imply that the "lost continent of Lemuria" theory has been as seriously entertained as the ones which depend upon sea-borne migration, which of course is not the case. He dwells but briefly upon the rich, unwritten history of the Islands but that may be as well; for anyone who is led into an interest in the group by this book will have much more into which to progress on his own initiative.

Yourself in the Picture provides a minute and accurate description of all the Islands accessible to tourists, laden with the sort of hints that will prevent the stranger from spending his money amiss. All in all the book, as an elementary treatise for those who know nothing of the Islands to begin with, is very close to ideal.