BOOK NOTICES. 



TWO NEW ANIMAL BOOKS. 



This may be called the wild animal age. 

 Never in the history of the world have 

 people in general manifested so much in- 

 terest in the study of wild animals and 

 birds as today. This is shown in various 

 ways. One index of it is contained in the 

 large number of books being written and 

 published devoted to this interesting and 

 important study. Three such books have 

 come to my desk within the past 2 weeks. 

 One of these is entitled "The Outcasts," 

 and was written by W. A. Fraser and pub- 

 lished by Chas. Scribner's Sons, of New 

 York. In this book Mr. Fraser tells, in his 

 usual natural and interesting way, the story 

 of an old buffalo bull and a half-breed dog. 

 These animals lived some 20 years ago, in 

 the time when buffalo were plentiful in 

 the. Western Canadian provinces. The bull, 

 which Mr. Fraser has christened Shag, 

 had grown old and had been driven out 

 of the herd by the younger, stronger and 

 more active males. In his lonely wander- 

 ings he was joined by the dog, whose name 

 is A'tim. His mother had been one of the 

 nondescript dogs owned by the Cree In- 

 dians and used for sledging. His father 

 was supposed to be a coyote, and on ac- 

 count of his mongrel origin he was repu- 

 diated by both races. This placed the dog 

 and the buffalo on a plane of common sym- 

 pathy. They talk over their troubles, they 

 sleep together and feed together whenever 

 and wherever anything good can be found 

 for either to eat. Their story is pathetic 

 and tragic and will be eagerly followed by 

 thousands of nature lovers. The book is 

 beautifully illustrated with a series of full- 

 page drawings by Arthur Heming, and re- 

 tails at $1.25. 



Another of these books is by Maximilian 

 Foster, and the title" is, "In the Forest." 

 It deals almost wholly with stories of 

 moose, caribou, bear, buffalo and smaller 

 animals. It has 19 full-page drawings by 

 Karl Rungius, all of which are done in his 

 masterly style, and every student of ani- 

 mal nature should have a copy of this book 

 even if he should never get time to read it. 

 Any person with a taste for the study of 

 nature can revel in these pictures, and any 

 one of them is worth twice the price of 

 the book. It sells at $1.50, and is pub- 

 lished by Doubleday, Page & Co., New 

 York. 



The 3rd book referred to above also 

 treats of wild animals, and of this I shall 

 have something to say in a future issue of 

 Recreation. 



York. It is doubtful if many people read 

 it in its serial publication. It does not be- 

 gin with a rush and enthrall the reader with 

 the opening pages. It must be untied 

 slowly and carefully, like a great bale of 

 Oriental stuffs, wrapped and wound and 

 sealed ; but Mr. Kipling is once more writ- 

 ing of his own people, of the land and 

 the scenes he loves. As the bale is un- 

 rolled the rich, magically woven Eastern 

 tapestry comes slowly into view, with its 

 gleams and fragments of color, its lights 

 and shades, its blending of gorgeous 

 dyes, its harmouious combining into one 

 sumptuous whole, which shows the master 

 hand at the loom. "Kim" has not a strong- 

 ly dramatic motive, and by so much it 

 lacks being a great work ; but it is a won- 

 derful piece of craft, a magic picture of 

 Oriental life, painted by an artist who 

 handles his materials with the skill that 

 conceals technique. "Kim" has not the 

 swift touch and the intense humor of Kip- 

 ling's short stories ; but his admirers will 

 be glad he has written it ; glad he has 

 once more " 'Eard the East a-callin'." 



L. H. Smith has written a book entitled 

 "A Sportsman's Taxidermy and Photog- 

 raphy." The title indicates so thoroughly 

 the nature of the work that it is not nec- 

 essary here to go into details on that 

 point. Mr. Smith is an old-time sports- 

 man, naturalist, dog fancier, and a well 

 known writer on these various topics. The 

 book is beautifully illustrated with photo- 

 graphs of mounted birds, animals, hunting 

 scenes, fishing scenes, etc., and contains 

 many valuable hints on collecting, mount- 

 ing and photographing. It is published 

 by the Sportsmen's Review Publishing Co., 

 Cincinnati, Ohio. 



"Sport Indeed" is the title of a book 

 written by Thomas Martindale and pub- 

 lished by Geo. W. Jacobs & Co., 103 South 

 Fifteenth street, Philadelphia. It is a col- 

 lection of hunting stories, and is devoted 

 to moose, caribou, deer hunting, brant and 

 quail shooting, trout fishing, etc. Mr. 

 Martindale is an interesting writer, and is 

 full of the spirit of his subject. This book 

 will make a valuable addition to the 

 sportsmen's literature of the day, and 

 should be in every sportsman's library. 

 The price of this book is $1.60. 



"Kim" is just out in book form, pub- 

 lished by Doubleday, Page & Co., New 



"Why not honor the poet while he is 

 living? Why wait until he is dead before 

 ^organizing clubs to finid out what he 

 means ?" 



"Well, I suppose the longer we wait, the 

 less likely we are to find out." — Life. 



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