Book Reviews. 



121 



"Field-Days in California recently brought a number of notable 

 California." eastern writers under its spell. Among these was 

 Bradford Torrey, who served his apprenticeship as 

 a bird student and nature lover in the East. His regularly appearing 

 books gained for him a steadily enlarging circle of readers. For three 

 years he had been a resident of beautiful Santa Barbara. There he 

 died last autumn before he had seen even a proof of the latest and» 

 unfortunately, last of his books, "Field-Days in California." * In the 

 delightful opening chapter of "A California Beach" he offers his 

 apology for having fled the more rigorous chastisements of a New 

 England climate. "The implacable years," he writes, "are having' 

 their way with me; the almond tree begins to flourish. ... It is time 

 to be comfortable, something tells me; and so, as bad boys were said 

 sometimes to do in other days, I have run away from school." It 

 seems part of the fitness of things that he was the editor of Thoreau's 

 Journal. No one of our day had more of the latter's unaffected in- 

 timacy of observation and simpHcity of statement. This book exhibits 

 him at his best. It is full of fascinating ornithological incidents told 

 with scientific truthfulness and great charm of expression. The pub- 

 Hshers have appropriately sought to give the volume something of a 

 memorial character by providing a portrait of the author and illustra- 

 tions of localities treated in the book. W. F. B. 



"The Ephebic Oath A book of unusual merit is this dainty volume 

 AND Other Essays." t of essays by Alexander McAdie. In its sin- 

 cerity, its high idealism, its beauty and sim- 

 plicity of style it may well rank some day as a classic. Many of the 

 descriptive passages are very fine, particularly of the sea fogs which 

 Mr. McAdie loves so well. "Seen from above, the fog is no longer gray 

 and forbidding, but white as driven snow, a coverlet that throws back 

 into sunlit skies the genial warmth of summer days. . . . The very 

 soul of the sea, it rises like a spirit from the breast of waters. . . . 

 Seen from below, a level sweep and monotone of drab; seen from 

 above, a ruffled sea of light and shade, a billowing cradle for the im- 

 perious winds." A true San Franciscan, Mr. McAdie also loves the 

 hills. "Although we dwell near the water's edge, we are at heart and 

 in essence a hill people . . . the call of the hills is with us in our 

 busiest hours and eager faces are lit by the soul's yearning for the 

 freedom of the upHfted places, the sacred stillness of the heights. . . . 

 In temples built of unhewn stone we worship, and with one impulse 

 bow before the widespread altars of cloud and sky and hill, asking a 

 rebirth of our better selves." The book, which is most attractively 

 printed and illustrated, is ^ bit of pure literature of which Mr. McAdie 

 may justly be proud. M. R. P. 



*Field-Days in California. By Bradford Torrey. Houghton Mifflin Company, 

 Boston. $1.50 net. 



t The Ephebic _ Oath and Other Essays. By Alexander McAdie. A. M. Robert- 

 son, San Francisco. 1912. Decorations by Lucia K. Mathews; frontispiece by 

 Arthur F. Mathews. 63 pages. Price, $1.50. 



