34-0 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



"You cannot sit by the old woman's fire, 

 and smell the herbs she was always steep- 

 ing, and play with the figures which she 

 carved so cleverly, as Flying Plover could," 

 says the author, "yet I hope you will like 

 her stories, for all that." And we think you 

 will and that you will also like the beauti- 

 ful drawings by Charles Livingstone Bull. 



The Marvelous Year. Quarto, decorated 

 boards', $1.25 net. Introduction by Ed- 

 win Markham; Essays, anonymous; Por- 

 traits from paintings by Gertrude Hueb- 

 sch. Published by B.W. Huebsch, New 

 York. 



This volume supplies the most effective 

 memorial to the year in which the cente- 

 naries of so many remarkable men are cele- 

 brated that could be devised. What a year 

 it has been! Literature has paid tribute to 

 Poe, Tennyson, Johnson, fiolmes, Fitzger- 

 ald, Gogol ; Music to Haydn, Chopin, Mendels- 

 shon; Science to Darwin; the stage to Fan- 

 ny Kemble; Statesmanship to Lincoln and 

 Gladstone, and Theology to Calvin. 



There is a fine spiritual quality about 

 Mr. Markham's Introduction, in which he 

 considers the great captains of humanity 

 and interprets the leader's place in the 

 progress of man. The poet speaks. The 

 voice that once thrilled the world with a 

 single song still rings loud and clear. 



The reader's keenest interest, however, 

 centers on the anonymous writer of the 

 biographical essays. Four pages are de- 

 voted to each subject, four pages of con- 

 cise, telling English that may serve as a 

 model of style. The author has made no 

 attempt to write "Lives," but has told what 

 each life meant to Art, Literature, Science, 

 Music, or the particular field in which his 

 hero happend to be placed. 



Life-Histories of Northern Animals. An ac- 

 count of the Mammals of Manitoba. By 

 Ernest Thompson Seton. Naturalist to 

 the Government of Manitoba. Volume 

 1. Grass-Eaters. Volume 11. Flesh- 

 Eaters. With 68 maps and 560 drawings 

 by the author. New York City: Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. 



Here is a book that was needed, and the 

 supply has been laboriously, enthusiastical- 

 ly, magnificently, indeed one might almost 

 say over-whelmingly provided. 



On birds', on plants, on insects, on trees, 

 we have had publications follow in rapid 

 succession — some of them magnificent works 

 — but on four-footed animals there has pre- 

 viously been but little other than popular 

 handbooks and stories. 



Mr. Seton's popular stories are well 

 know to everybody. These sumptuous books 

 of details and careful investigation show 

 that the author not only can write popular 

 stories, anecdotes and personalities, but 

 can also write popular natural history on a 

 strictly scientific basis. 



It is the first time that a natural history 

 has been offered to the public with a com- 

 plete and careful map of distribution for 

 each species. How much work has been put 

 into these maps will be realized when it is 

 stated they were begun in 1897, and worked 

 on almost continuously until the date of 

 publication. For example, the Elk map No. 

 4, required the looking up and copying out 

 of passages in some 500 ancient books to 

 give the primitive outline alone. To look 

 up these books required visits to the Lenox 

 and Astor Libraries, to the American Mu- 

 seum, New York, to the Congressional Li- 

 brary, to the British Museum, to the Zoo- 

 logical Library of London, as well as the 

 acquisition of some 50 volumes for the 

 author's own library, and all of this labor 

 appears in the simple black outline which 

 forms one element only of the map. The 

 shaded portions which indicate the present 

 range of the species called for only a little 

 less labor. 



It is interesting and important to notice 

 that this book, though in many respects 

 revolutionary and disposing effectually of 

 some established notions, has nowhere in 

 its covers any severely critical word of any 

 other man or his ideas. Contrary theories 

 are merely announced, then face to face is 

 set an overwhelming body of facts. 



These 60 chapters are 60 elaborate mono- 

 graphs. Each gives an exhaustive account 

 of the life of the creature in question. We 

 have several times been favored with mono- 

 graphic accounts of interesting animals; for 

 example, H. W. Elliott's "Fur Seal," but 

 never before two whole volumes with 60 

 monographs each of which actually gives 

 all that has been put on reliable record 

 concerning the lives of the species treated. 



The methodic plan of approach as set 

 forth in the introduction, pages 22-34, is 

 bound to be the model for all future natural 

 histories. Why the plan was' not adopted 

 long ago strikes us now as a mystery. We 

 would recommend every student of wild life 

 to familiarize himself with this "general 

 plan" and try to fill it out for each of the 

 species he is studying. No matter whether 

 it be mammal, bird, reptile or insect, the 

 schedule will be found applicable and help- 

 ful. 



While the maps date from some twelve 

 years back, the illustrations are yet more 

 historical. The earliest that we have no- 

 ticed are dated 1880, (p. 700) and the years 

 from then to now are represented in this 

 life-long work. Those who know Mr. Seton 

 will understand that over 500 of his most 

 important drawings were tied up with 

 copyrights and other control, so that he 

 could not embody them in this book. 



It is not too much to say that in future 

 all work on the life-histories on our north- 

 ern animals must take Seton's work as its' 

 point of beginning and model of method. 



It is not easy to select any one example 



