REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES 
13 
the same circumstances, would insist on publishing the “Natural History” on 
highly-glazed paper and illustrated with half-tone process-blocks. If this had 
been done, the result would have been very much what the brothers Kearton and 
Messrs. Cassell have given us ; and, if we do not worry ourselves about the dura- 
bility of the volume through long years to come, we must admit that this result is 
a most charming edition. Mr. Kearton’s notes are not very voluminous, though 
perhaps the “R.K.s” make them over-conspicuous. Those on the birds are 
accurate, informing and generally valuable ; but generic names should invariably 
have their initial letters in capitals ; and, as the Romans chose to make the names 
of trees feminine, no botanist, ancient or modern, ever called the broad-leaved elm 
“ ulmus montanus.” As to the illustrations, we have nothing of which to com- 
plain. Selborne, like modern Bohemia, has no sea-coast, so that the group of 
puffins on p. 63 is, perhaps, out of place ; but this is perhaps the only picture 
which could not have been taken within the area of Gilbert White’s purview. 
Photographs may not be able to rival the work of pencil and brush from an 
artistic point of view ; but some of us who love our Selborne — the place, not the 
book, or rather the place because of the book — will be very glad to add the 
accurate reproductions of its beauties by the camera to the many more or less 
idealised pictures which we already possess. With some of the Messrs. Kearton’s 
admirable portraits of animals and plants we are already familiar from their pre- 
vious books, though many of these are new'. A large proportion, however, of the 
illustrations in the present work, of which, by the courtesy of the publishers, we 
are able to give four examples, are views in Selborne itself ; and for these alone 
we would willingly pay the entire price of the volume. 
A First Book of Forestry. By Filibert Roth. Ginn and Co. Price 3s. 6d. 
The Government of the United States has for some years shown itself fully 
alive to the national importance of husbanding the forests of the country. It has 
organised a Foiestry Bureau in its Department of Agriculture, and a Forestry 
Division, of which Mr. Filibert Roth is the chief, in its Department of the 
Interior. The officials of these departments have for years fulminated Cassandra- 
like warnings as to the inevitable results of reckless clearing, forest-fires and 
wasteful methods of work ; and have, moreover, issued an invaluable series of 
practical reports and educational manuals on forest science. This little book, with 
less than 300 pages of large print, but with nearly 100 excellent illustrations, is 
designed as an introduction to forestry for public schools and country homes. It 
is wonderfully comprehensive, dealing with the conditions of forest growth, such 
as soils, moisture, temperature, and altitude ; methods of management, such as 
coppicing, seed-raising, thinning, turpentine-collecting, cutting and timber- 
measurement, the botanical and physical properties of wood, and the methods of 
distinguishing the common trees of the United States. Everything is explained 
with the most practical detail, but in the simplest of language. It might have been 
well to have introduced the scientific names of the trees earlier than in the 
appendix ; but this is the only improvement we can suggest. 
A Biological Investigation of the Hudson Bay Region : North American Fauna, 
No. 22. By Edward A. Preble, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 
This is a report issued by the United States Government of a purely scientific 
reconnaissance undertaken under the orders of that Government through a portion 
of Canadian territory, mainly with the view of comparing the animal life of the 
region with that of Alaska. The region explored is between the northern end of 
Lake Winnipeg and Hudson’s Bay, the region of the Nelson and Churchill Rivers, 
a part of Keewatin. A full bibliography of previous work is given, a general 
description of the vegetation, and a full enumeration of the mammals, birds and 
batrachians of the region. Six new mammals are described but not figured, 
though fourteen plates of slight landscape interest are included. The whole of 
the scientific work is admirably done ; but the Government printing-office have 
cruelly “stabbed” the pamphlet. We could have wished this had come from a 
Canadian source. 
Report of the Massachusetts Audubon Society , 1897-1902. 
Five years of good work is here recorded. We quote, as of general interest, 
the opening paragraphs of the Report : — 
“ Bird protection in its broadest sense appeals to many persons and diverse 
