ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



like a pack of school boys. There is little in 

 their lives to make them happy. They live in 

 eternal winter where the snow-covered moun- 

 tains look down upon range upon range of white 

 hills, and their transient homes are filthy and 

 infested with vermin. But they are immune to 

 suffering and privation; their excess of .jubi- 

 lance and joy in living spills over in the midst 

 of the hardest labor. Thej' laugh at everything, 

 good or bad. They seem to have acquired some 

 rough, instinctive philosophy which gives a 

 bright color to the world. 



One day when I was tragopan hunting I came 

 across one of their settlements, where eight per- 

 sons and thirty-three hybrid yaks were gather- 

 ed in the semblance of a village. A single shed- 

 like building was perched on a small, grassy 

 platform which jutted out from the thousand- 

 foot slope of a great Himalayan mountain, a 

 precipitous slope dotted here and there with 

 rhododendron trees in full scarlet bloom. It 

 ■was a sudden rift in a driving, vaporous cloud 

 which revealed this isolated dwelling, and, when 

 closing, shut it as quickly from view. This 

 seemed in some way to emphasize how hopeless- 

 ly these human beings were set apart from the 

 world, to show how every outside influence must 

 die out before it could reach them, to bring out 

 with merciless detail the completeness of their 

 segregation. 



When I climbed down to the shed, I found 

 the people stolid, unwashed — the women hardly 

 to be distinguished from the men. They were 

 all of them dressed in layer upon layer of tat- 

 tered, dirty cloth, and stood silent, close to- 

 gether, as if afraid. But after I had been with 

 them an hour the mental and physical differ- 



ences became apparent. One small boy, clad in 

 the rags of his ancestors, was the superior be- 

 ing among men. He stepped forward of his 

 own accord and made friendly advances, vol- 

 unteering the information that his name was 

 Yat-ki. His small, dark face with its Mongo- 

 lian eyes and typical low, broad forehead was 

 alight with eagerness and curiosity. 



This young Tibetan readily understood the 

 business which had brought me to the moun- 

 tains, and pointed out a distant gully where 

 pheasants thrived in abundance. Also he of- 

 fered his services as guide should I have need 

 of one. He asked about my camera, and when 

 he learned that it was my ambition to point it 

 at the yaks, drove several up to me. In all of 

 this he conducted himself with the greatest 

 gravity and courtesy. The other members of 

 his clan were stupid, with that impregnable 

 stupidity which far transcends the reputed stu- 

 pidity of animals. When I was leaving and 

 asked for the symmetrical copper jar from 

 which I had been served with yak-milk, it was 

 Yat-ki who engineered the bargaining which en- 

 sued. And when I had climbed back up the 

 slope and turned to look down at the plateau, 

 I saw him standing far out on the ledge, wav- 

 ing both hands in farewell. He seemed smaller 

 than when he had stood beside me, younger, 

 even a little helpless, with the snow whirling 

 up around him like luminous spray from the 

 depths of the blue valley which lay so far be- 

 low. He could not have been more than twelve 

 years old, but he was centuries older than his 

 people in sympathy, in tact, in imagination. I 

 hope that since that day the gods of his Tibetan 

 elan have dealt kindlv with him. 



TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



By Professor George W. Hunter, 

 Head of the Department of Bioloe/i/, De Witt Clinton High School, New York. 



IT is not often that a book reviewer is privi- 

 leged to write of a book which contains his 

 own impressions or his own experiences, but 

 sometimes this happens. It was my own pecu- 

 liar good fortune to be for a few short weeks 

 one of the little laboratory group whose mem- 

 bers have given to the scientific world some of 

 their observations and conclusions in the volume 

 published by the New York Zoological Society 

 and entitled "Tropical Wild Life in British 

 Guiana." by William Beebe, Director, G. In- 

 ness Hartley. Research Associate, and Paul G. 

 Howes, Research Assistant. 



Kalacoon, as a laboratory station, was well 

 located for the purpose to which it was put. 

 Perched high on a two hundred foot elevation, 

 overlooking three great rivers — each broader 

 than our Hudson ; at the edge of a primal jungle 

 which stretches immeasurable leagues away to 

 the banks of the Amazon. And yet within five 

 short hours of Georgetown, and within half an 

 hour of New York by cable, this place is ideal 

 for the study of tropical wild life. As we are 

 told in the introductory chapters, several types 

 of ecological vantage ground are at hand. The 

 Hills rubber plantation with its recently 



