106 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



can not only read and retain the knowledge gathered 

 by others, but visualise the actions of Nature in 

 all its aspects. Nothing finer has ever been written 

 than "The Three Sealers" (The Seven Seas), or some 1 

 of the animal studies in the Jungle Book, such as 

 " The White Seal," and yet Kipling has never been in 

 Alaska. I believe he got the whole of his material 

 for these subjects by talking to one man who had 

 lived on St. Paul (the fur seal island), and a careful 

 study of Elliot's Fur Seals of Alaska. One day I 

 called his attention to an error occurring in the 

 verses beginning, " In the Neolithic Age," in which 

 he says : " When the reindeer roared as Paris roars 

 to-night." Now the reindeer does not roar during 

 the rutting seasons, but emits a series of low grunts 

 which are neither dignified nor awe-inspiring, as is 

 the voice of the Red Deer stag, so I ventured to 

 suggest that the poet should substitute the latter 

 animal for the former, to which I received the 

 following reply 



" Bateman's, 

 " Burwash, 



" Sussex. 

 " DEAR MR. MILLAIS, 



" I'm just back after three months abroad, 

 to find your letter of the 28th of November. It 



1 The word " some " is meant to express that, whilst as 

 literature his studies of tigers, elephants, wolves, etc., are 

 excellent, there runs through their expressed thoughts ideas 

 that are purely human, and not animal. Many of his wild 

 beasts' conversations are distinctly as grotesque as they are 

 imaginary, for animals do not judge things from the human 

 standpoint, and the more we study them the more do we 

 find that to do so is to take an altogether incorrect view of 

 mammalian life. In such cases the remark of the veteran, 

 John Burroughes, who abhorred all Nature-fakers, is about 

 the best, " Why can't they let a straddlebug be a straddlebug ? " 



