io THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



the last few years on what is known as Nature- 

 teaching. Some of these are very good, others 

 only good, and further grades need not be 

 specified. All of them attempt, more or less 

 successfully, to rouse an interest in wild life, 

 animal and vegetable, and to moderate the 

 thirst for destroying it. The rare fern is treated 

 as respectfully as the rare butterfly. There can 

 be no doubt whatever that the excellent Boy 

 Scout movement has in great measure been 

 responsible for this literature, for there is 

 obvious necessity for encouraging this combi- 

 nation of observation and restraint in an 

 immense body of youngsters suddenly turned 

 loose, often without the embargo of trespass, 

 in the most peaceful corners of England. 

 Therefore book after book appears in which 

 the Boy Scouts (and other boys who are too 

 lazy to scout) are taught to watch squirrels 

 without catapulting them and count the eggs 

 in the blackbird's nest without taking them. 

 This is very admirable doctrine, and, so far as 

 England is concerned, it could not be bettered. 

 All lads are not, however, destined to stay in 

 England. Many one might say most of the 

 best and brightest turn their eyes to other 



