Nature

of Europeans' interpretation of Australia. And this tradition of interpretation is a case instance of intercultural understanding generally. As Burridge sees it, the genuine interest of the European West in other cultures for their own sakes is a very unusual phenomenon in the history of culture , one which he sees rooted in the attitudes to otherness formed in the ancient Mediterranean and early Christian world. A sensitivity to Christian values and to 'we-they' dialogue informs this book, even though in the dialogue the Australians are not speaking for themselves; accordingly, in my judgement, Burridge is de rigueur for anyone who cares about understanding in the context of cultural diversity. On that note, then, let us call it a day - and call :1974 also a very satisfying year. (WILLARD G. OXTOBY) NATURE Lome E. Render, The Mountains and the Sky. Glenbow-Alberta Institute and McClelland and Stewart West, 223, $27.50 In this impressive work we have both an historical survey and an artistic revelation of the many ways in which artists have recorded their views of and feelings about the colourfully splendid mountains and prairies that are the natural heritage of western Canada. These have been portrayed with perceptive understanding and in a trenchantly informative style by Lome E. Render, the Director of Exhibitions at the Glenbow. He develops the story of this visual representation from the documentary recorders of the first half of the last century through the first professional artists who came as visitors with the opening of the CPR to the early resident artists, settlers from outside, and finally to those artists that have been born and raised in the west. This book is superbly illustrated, partly in colour, partly in black and white, with reproductions of paintings, draWings, and woodcuts, all of which are owned by the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, an indication of the wealth of its collection and of its primary position in the cultural history of the west. The especially fine quality of the colour reproductions is a tribute to the advance which has been made in that technical field in Canada in recent years. In this account of the artistic responses to the wild, natural wonders of the Canadian west we have a major contribution to the social and cultural history not only of the west but also of the manner in which Canadians and others have come to comprehend the colour, shape, and character of one of the most magnificent and unforgettable parts of this land. This book should be in every Canadian library and available to all who want to see and feel the nature of Canada. Hugh Maclennan and John de Visser, Rivers of Canada, Macmillan, 270, $26.95 In the preparation and writing of this work the author has visited, lived with, and interpreted all the main and many of the lesser rivers of this country. In his very personal and penetrating way he has linked them with Canada past and present, has thought out, and portrayed the roles which they severally have played in the formation of the political nation, in the development of its human and social character, and in the preservation of its existence. He shows his nostalgia for the quieter, simpler, more assured life of the past, some of which still exists along the valley of the St John in \'lew Brunswick and among the brooks of Nova Scotia, the author's home background. He takes pride in the majestic history of the St lawrence system and in the great roles played by the long, lonely Saskatchewan and the savage Fraser in the creation of Canada. There is even praise for the perfect blending of modern technology and wild nature in the gargantuan Churchill Falls engineering triumph in labrador. Yet at the same time the book is full of fear and suspicion of the danger and threats offered by that same technology and by industrial civilization, whether it be in the 'new empire' of the Mackenzie, the pollution of the noble St Lawrence, the once lovely Miramichi and dozens of other streams, or in the continuing maleficent alteration of the natural environment. Maclennan, like 50 many others, has been severely shaken by the cultural...