Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎537r] (198/238)

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.
K. B. Basu; 106, Grey Street, Calcutta, 1901.
1. Memoirs of Maharaja Nub Kissen Bahadur, by N. N. Ghose,
Barrister-at-Law, Advocate High Court, Calcutta, Fellow of the University
of Calcutta, author of “ Kristo Das Pal: A Study.” The learned author,
with the view of making the memoirs as complete as possible, searched, or
caused to be searched, all the official documents in the libraries of the
respective departments in India and at home, including the British Museum
and the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. in London. The work has been written at the request
of Raja King Binaya Krishna, a descendant of Nub Kissen; also the expenses of
printing and collecting the materials have been borne by him.
The volume is well printed. It contains a copious index, and very
many interesting and beautiful portraits of Rajas and Maharajas connected
with the subject of the memoirs. All available facts, political or private,
of the Maharaja’s career, and the circumstances of the times, are so
collected together from official documents as to form a most interesting
narrative. His first appointment was as Persian tutor to Warren Hastings,
afterwards Moonshee to the East India Company, and subsequently to
Hastings and Clive. Ultimately he acquired, step by step, higher appoint
ments, and in consequence of his faithful services, sometimes at the risk
of his life, he acquired wealth and position, and hence founded his family.
The work reflects great credit, ability, and skill on the part of the author.
Adam and Charles Black; London, 1901 .
2. North America, selected by F. D. Herbertson, b.a., London;
edited, with introduction, by A. J. Herbertson, ph.d. (Freiburg-i. B.),
f.r.s.e., Lecturer in Regional Geography in the University of Oxford.
This is a part of a series of descriptive geographies drawn from original
sources, and selected from works written by eminent authorities who have
visited the places and scenes described. It is well illustrated, with a
copious and minute index, and a full and extensive bibliography, em
bracing the Far North, Canada, United States, the Cordilleras, and Mexico.
The chapters on Alaska are specially interesting. After describing its
physical features, its plants, and animals, it states that the Alaskan native
is a seafaring one. “ While the land cannot offer him sufficient subsistence
to keep soul and body together, and affords only now and then a shelving
beach for his squalid villages, the sea, on the other hand, gives bountifully
of its kind: The Indian has come to utilize almost every product of the
island, channels, and streams. His bill of fare consists of clams, mussels,
herring and its roe, cod, salmon, halibut, porpoise, seal, duck, geese, and
the eggs of aquatic birds.” He is well acquainted with all the fishing-
grounds. The halibut is caught by hook and line. The line is made
“ from the giant kelp, which sometimes attains a length of 300 feet in