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traditions by a learned class. Iolo's varied writings touched Welsh consciousness at many points-he was, I believe, the first to evolve a vision of an autonomous and complete Welsh history, free from dynastic or ecclesiastical overtones. The writer is right to show the close connection of the myth-making poets and writers of this period with early romantic nationalism. One might add that in the case of Bohemia (the forgeries of Koniginhof, for instance) we have an instance of literary forgery exactly in Iolo's own manner. G. J. Williams himself was fond of comparing Iolo with his contemporary Sir Walter Scott, whose fictional Scotland was one of the most influential visions of the nineteenth century. It is a suggestive lecture, but I think historians would wish to know why forgery went so closely hand in hand with poetry and scholarship in this epoch, and why in some countries more than others. After all, Iolo's period was one when romantic enthusiasm for the past was not matched by exact scientific knowledge. Countries unlike Wales had the beginnings of a network of libraries and academies, and a scholarly machinery which could put a stop to forgeries within a few years of their perpetration. Gaelic Scotland, Iolo's Wales, and Czechs and Slovaks of this period did not have such a framework. Considerations of this kind would have gone some way to provide answers in this lecture. PRYS MORGAN Swansea THE DESERT AND THE DREAM: A STUDY OF WELSH COLONIZATION IN CHUBUT, 1865-1915. By Glyn Williams. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1975. Pp. 229. £ 8.00 In the preface to his study of Welsh colonization in the Chubut province of Argentina, Dr. Williams indicates the questions he wishes to consider. Why was it necessary for Welshmen to emigrate, and why to Patagonia? What kind of people emigrated and how did they adapt themselves to the new environment? How successful were they in maintaining their cultural identity? Dr. Williams takes the story up to 1915, for by that date the process of emigration had largely ceased. He promises to complete his account in a second volume. Given the quality of the first one, it is to be hoped that Dr. Williams will not delay long in fulfilling his promise. The quantity of research contained in this book is little short of remark- able. Although the author's training is in anthropology and sociology, he roams freely amongst the disciplines of history, geography, geology and agriculture. His use of sociology is effective and unobtrusive. A long descriptive passage is often very neatly rounded off with a sociological insight-usually derived from a sensitive appreciation of how the values and norms of the settlers influenced their perception of what was, for many years, a harsh reality. If, indeed, there is an overall criticism of this book, it is that perhaps there is too much geography and not enough sociology. The earlier chapters, where Dr. Williams is concerned with the people who migrated, are the most fascinating. There are some aspects that could have been