er een Dae BON Bb Ub EN 37 
MONARCH OF DEADMAN BAY. By Roger A. Caras. Chapter-head 
Drawings by Charles Fracé. 
Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1969. 185 pages. $4.95. 
lis small book carries the subtitle, “Life and Death of a Kodiak Bear.” It 
is been described as “narrative fiction.” In it the problems of survival of 
species are woven into the life of an individual bear who in his long life 
id due to his enormous growth became the actual Monarch of Deadman 
wy on Kodiak Island. 
Although the title may suggest that it is a book for children, this it is 
t, except maybe for youngsters of upper high school classes. Use of such 
ords as “thigmotaxis” and “intraperitoneal” seems to prove this. Whether 
e author is a scientist, I do not know, but his writing obviously is based 
|research in depth and on extraordinary observation. 
Caras calls the Kodiak bear the largest carnivore in the world. Until 
an came along with high powered rifles, the species had nothing in the 
orld to fear. Now it is an endangered species. “There are fewer than two 
ousands Kodiak bears alive in the world today as opposed to thousands 
millions of men. The game is rigged and the bear can never overcome the 
use odds.” Further, “experts have estimated that Kodiak Island is sub- 
sted to more hunting pressure per square mile than any other area of equal 
e on the North American continent, and perhaps in the world.” 
The biography of Monarch begins with his mother’s mating and con- 
ues until his ignominious death seventeen years later. While under the 
fluence of a tranquilizer from a scientist’s gun, he was attacked and killed 
-a smaller life-long antagonist. 
Caras punctures the hypocritical egotism of many hunters by the vivid 
rase, “it was killing he came for, not communion with the Great Out- 
ors.’ Monarch was sought after by dozens of hunters, not only as a 
yphy animal but one widely known as a killer. This name was earned by 
s actually having killed two men, one an inexperienced, under-armed man, 
nting illegally and without a guide; the other also inexperienced whose 
ide was unable to protect him. 
The great bear’s character is summed up by the author: “The Monarch 
is a volcano, both in size and power, waiting for external stimulation. Left 
yne, he would be forever quiet within. But Monarch’s kind is almost never 
t alone.” 
—Ray M. Barron 
THE HUDSON RIVER: A Natural and Unnatural History. 
By Robert H. Boyle. 
W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1969. $5.95. 
is country is blessed with great rivers. We have roaring, cascading rivers; 
iet, placid streams, and creeks that sometimes run dry. When one thinks 
a really majestic river in the country, there is only one—the Hudson. It 
es in a little mountain lake, called Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack 
yuntains of New York, and flows 300 miles south into the Atlantic Ocean. 
ra portion of its course, it flows 16 miles thru a narrow valley, bordered 
rocky palisades. The area resembles the great Rhine River at this point. 
w York City owes its founding to the Hudson River, for the early settlers 
re impressed by the large harbor at the mouth of the Hudson. 
