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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



"In Beaver Another interesting book on wild life based on long and 

 World."* intimate personal knowledge and observation is from the 

 pen of a fellow Sierra Club member, several of whose 

 former works have already been mentioned here. For twenty-five years 

 Mr. Enos A. Mills has been a lover and student of the mountains of 

 the West, notabl)^ of Colorado. Early becoming interested in beaver 

 life, during all this time Mr. Mills has had certain colonies of beaver 

 under observation, has noted and taken measurements of their wonder- 

 ful engineering works — their dams, canals, and houses, has watched 

 the cutting of their harvests and the disasters that wiped out whole 

 colonies or forced the survivors to emigrate. Remarkable instances 

 are given of the magnitude and scope of the work undertaken suc- 

 cessfully by these busy denizens of stream and pond. "As animal life 

 goes," Mr. Mills thinks, "that of the beaver stands among the best. 

 His life is full of industry and rich in repose. He is home-loving and 

 avoids fighting. His lot is cast in poetic places." 



Though mostly composed of new material, several papers concerning 

 beaver that have already appeared in his earlier books are properly 

 included here, notably chapters in the life of his favorite Moraine Lake 

 Colony. A significant point in the value of nature study is made in 

 Mr. Mills' concluding pages. "Beaver works may do for children what 

 schools, sermons, companions, and even home sometimes fail to do — 

 develop the power to think. No boy or girl can become intimately ac- 

 quainted with the ways and works of these primitive folk without hav- 

 ing the eyes of observation opened, and acquiring a permanent interest 

 in the wide world in which we live." M. R. P. 



"California Another book crammed full of outdoor interest is 

 Coast Trails. "f J. Smeaton Chase's "California Coast Trails." The 

 author is an Englishman who has resided in Cali- 

 fornia for some time. Accompanied on the first lap of his cruise by 

 an artist companion, Mr. Chase made a nearly continuous trip on 

 horseback from Mexico to the Oregon boundary. He followed the 

 coast, carrying his simple camping outfit on the animal he was riding. 

 According to his own testimony, "the facts and beauties in nature 

 and the humane and historic elements in life" were the "points of 

 special attraction" on this pilgrimage. One must adjudge him to 

 have been notably successful in his attempt to portray these elements 

 of California life, for he has produced a very readable volume. 

 Sketches of the old missions, occasional humble survivals of Spanish- 

 Californian life in out-of-the-way places, and glimpses of sleepy vil- 

 lages far from the railroads, are mingled with exhilarating descrip- 

 tions of ever changing scenery. Incidents both comic and serious en- 

 liven the narrative, and one is glad, finally, that the author was not 

 swallowed up in the quicksand from which he had such a narrow escape. 

 W. F. B. 



* In Beaver World. _ By Enos A. Mills. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and 

 New York. 191 3. With illustrations from photographs by the author. 221 pages. 

 Price, $1.75 net. 



t California Coast Trails. By J. Smeaton Chase. Houghton Mifflin Co., Bos- 

 ton. $2.00. 



