Abstract
MR. FORAN'S "Transport in Many Lands" is not, as its title may seem to suggest, a systematic account of the various methods of transport practised by different peoples, but to the general reader it will probably prove more entertaining. It is a record of personal experience and observation, more especially in the indulgence of a personal preference for animal transport, in the course of some forty years of travel in many of the remoter quarters of the globe. The elephant holds pride of place, both as a worker in the teak forests of the East, and as an impressive member of the pageantry of eastern princes. Some of the instances of its intelligence when logging timber are indeed, as the author describes them, almost 'uncanny'. Next to the elephant comes the camel, which as Mr. Foran points out, when discussing ancient trade routes, is one of the most ancient forms of animal transport on an economic scale employed by man. One of the most surprising uses, to which the author has put it, is as a mount for polo in Egypt. Apparently the experience was enjoyable. Following on the llama in South America and yak in Tibet, Mr. Foran deals with pack animals, the horse, mule and donkey, and then reindeer, oxen, and dogs, concluding with a chapter devoted to some of the strange vehicles and methods of transport he has seen, in which the power of man himself is harnessed. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to point out in reference to Mr. Foran's account of the reindeer that the Samoyedes and Ostiak of Siberia are not Eskimo.
Transport in Many Lands
By W. Robert Foran. Pp. 260. (London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co. Ltd., 1939.) 7s. 6d. net.
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Geography and Travel. Nature 145, 295 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145295a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145295a0