April 15, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



623 



formal than the short addresses mentioned 

 above. All of these evening meetings could 

 easily finish by 9 :30, and give an opportunity 

 thereafter for banquets and social gatherings, 

 which have been a characteristic feature of 

 previous meetings. 



We believe that a classified system, such as 

 described above, and including not only the 

 regular papers presented before the American 

 Association but also those before special socie- 

 ties, would do much for the advancement of 

 science in America. The attending scientists 

 would have, in the morning, a series of general 

 scientific papers of interest to most of them, 

 while meetings of subsections or special socie- 

 ties occurring in the afternoon would give an 

 opportunity for the consideration of technical 

 questions. The semi-popular short addresses 

 in the evening would appeal to many of our 

 members, while the more formal public lec- 

 tures by prominent men would be an im- 

 portant stimulus and result in materially ad- 

 vancing science in America. 



■ E. P. Felt. 



THE WRITINGS OF WILLIAM J. LONG.* 



The last quarter of a century has seen a 

 remarkable development of that form of lit- 

 erature which consists of charming popular 

 writings about animals and their doings. A 

 leader in this movement was John Burroughs, 

 whose work combines literary grace with sci- 

 entific truth to a degree not surpassed by that 

 of any other modern nature writer, and there 

 are several others in this country writing in 

 the same spii'it. Recently, however, there have 

 arisen somewhat suddenly into prominence 

 three writers on nature subjects whose works 

 enjoy a popularity far surpassing that gained 

 by any of their predecessors or contemporaries. 

 These three are Mr. Thompson Seton (earlier 

 known as Seton Thompson), Mr. W. J. Long 

 and Mr. C. G. D. Eoberts. Of the former I 

 know little, but the two latter have written 

 extensively of New Brunswick animals, and 

 hence I have been much interested in their 

 works, upon which I propose to make some 



* Read before the Natural History Society of 

 New Brunswick (Canada), March 1, 1904. 



comments from the point of view of New 

 Brunswick natural history. 



In examining the works of these two grace- 

 ful writers, two queries naturally arise: First, 

 as to the cause of their surpassing popularity, 

 and second, as to their real scientific worth. 

 The cause of their popularity is easily found. 

 It does not lie in their literary charm primar- 

 ily, for in this they do not so far surpass other 

 nature books, but it consists in this, that they 

 tell about animals, not as they are, but as 

 people like to think they are. It is the hu- 

 manization and idealization of animals, which, 

 under the influence of the remarkable literary 

 skill of these authors, has made their animal 

 stories so popular. To accomplish this end, 

 they have had to cut loose from the trammels 

 of fact which hampered their predecessors, 

 and have given their imaginations full play, 

 thus producing fascinating works of fiction 

 disguised as natural history. It is, however, 

 this disguise which constitutes the chief 

 ground of criticism against these works. We 

 all agree that the use of animals as the heroes 

 of romances is perfectly legitimate, but if 

 such works pretend also to be accurate natural 

 history, they unfairly deceive their readers 

 and dishonestly claim a position to which they 

 have no real title. It happens unfortunately 

 that the works of both Mr. Long and Mr. 

 Eoberts are widely accepted as accurate in 

 their natural history by the great majority of 

 readers. Mr. Long positively claims that all 

 he writes is accurate fact based on his per- 

 sonal observation, while Mr. Eoberts allows an 

 extensive personal knowledge of animals to be 

 inferred, and takes no steps to correct this 

 popular error. 



Mr. Long has published five books on ani- 

 mals, containing many references to New 

 Brunswick. The most characteristic feature 

 of these books, especially of the later, is the 

 marvelous character and remarkable number 

 of the experiences the author claims to have 

 had in his observations of animals. The ag- 

 gregate of Mr. Long's reported observations, 

 both as to quantity and character, is such that 

 if all he reports is true, he has seen more 

 widely and deeply into animal life than all 

 other students of animal habits taken to- 



