His victims are so cleverly bitten through the head that they remain alive but are unable to escape. Thus are the young cats provided with fresh meat, which they have the joy of catching themselves. Let us laugh at the odd appearance of Mrs. Porcupine. She decides on grapes today for the menu of her family. She goes forth to a vine where plenty abounds, shakes the vine, rolls carefully in the grapes as only porcupines know how, and proceeds homeward, a grape on the end of each quill!

In the last chapter the author gives remarkable Biblical proof of the immortality of the animal soul. LENA R. CARLTON

THE WORTH WHILE
IN THE SOUTHWEST*

This is a convenient little volume to tuck in a suitcase. Even if you do not visit all the Indian villages in the leisurely fashion advised by the author, you may at least become better acquainted with the picturesque pueblos, the arts, legends and ceremonial dances of the Hopis and Zunis. There is fascination in the mellow tints of mesa and cliff, wonder for the sixteenth-century Spanish explorers, and awe for the prehistoric dwellings of Montezuma's descendants. Particularly interesting are the chapters on the village of Acoma and El Morro, the autograph rock of the Conquistadores. H. M. G.

THE MELODY
OF EARTH†

This is a collection of garden and nature poems selected by Mrs. Waldo Richards from the poets of the present day or those who have written within the last ten years. Most of the poems are by American writers, but we also find the names of Verhaeren, Rabindranath Tagore, Yates, Noyes, Masefield and other English and Irish writers in the list of authors represented.

The headings of the different groups of poems indicate the variety of garden pictures-"Within Garden Walls," "The Pageantry of Gardens," "The Gardens of Yesterday," "The Lost Gardens of the Heart." There are poems of every season-of lilac time and Indian summer, of the roses of June and the snows of winter. There are exquisite songs of the coming of spring birds, of the nightingale at sunset, of the whirring hummingbird and dainty butterfly. Every phase of garden life is pictured, from the romances of the stately old gardens overseas to the homely virtues of the vegetable gardens of the present day, with a special "Grace for Gardens," for the "beans and peas and the corn full on the ear," which should have been chanted by every war-gardener.

In the group called "Pasture and Hillside" we are taken farther afield, and in "Underneath the Bough" we find poems not only to the

*Finding the Worth While in the Southwest. By CHARLES FRANCIS SAUNDERS. Illustrated. Robert McBride & Co., New York. 1918. Price, $1.25 net.

†The Melody of Earth. Edited by MRS. WALDO RICHARDS. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York. 1918. Price, $1.50 net.

familiar trees that become garden friends, but also a song to one known to Sierrans in the high mountains, “A Lady of the Snows," as Miss Harriet Monroe charmingly describes the mountain hemlock.

Even the mountain climber who agrees with Joyce Kilmer when he says, "I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree,"

will find this collection a very delightful book to have with him for a noon-hour in the shade of a pine. E. LE B. B.

A GUIDE TO THE
NATIONAL PARKS
OF AMERICA*

This is a practical guide to the national parks, dealing more with routes, accommodations, etc., than with scenic descriptions. The author takes up the parks in the general order of their magnitude and importance, beginning with the Yellowstone. Here will be found detailed information concerning rail and stage transportation, hotels and camps, with fares and daily rates as authorized by the Government. All tours, either by stage or by pack train, are included. The author also gives advice on the necessary equipment for the national park visitor, and the more important park regulations in force at present.

J. N. LE C.

SIGN More than twenty years of serious study of the sign-language TALK of the American Indian lie behind Ernest Thompson Seton's

preparation of this illustrated dictionary of 1600 signs used by the Indians of the Great Plains. He is conversant with all the elaborate codes prepared by American army officers, with the writings of Indian agents and missionary workers who were experts in gesture language, and has taken his own manuscript from tribe to tribe for consultation with the best sign-talkers of the present day. The sign-talk of the Cheyenne tribe is taken as a standard, as theirs has been simplified to become largely a one-hand code; but some signs of other tribes have also been added, as well as a hundred or more used by the deaf in Europe and America.

So enthusiastic is the author about the uses of sign-language that he proposes it as the future universal world language. With this thought in view, he has added the French and German equivalents of the English word expressing the root-idea of each sign. Among the many advantages which the author finds for the Indian sign-language over the complete sign code of the deaf is that the former expresses ideas instead of spelling out words, and therefore can be used by people with

*A Guide to the National Parks of America. Compiled and edited by EDWARD FRANK ALLEN, editor of "Travel." Robert McBride & Company, New York. 1918.

Price, $1.25 net; postage extra.

† Sign Talk. By ERNEST THOMPSON SETON. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City and New York. Price, $3.00.

no knowledge of the spelling of words, and between people who know different languages.

Even if we do not share in the anticipation of a future of universal sign-talking, we should be grateful for the patient research which results in preserving to us so much of the fast-disappearing life of our American Indians. E. LE B. B.

GUIDE TO Published by the Department of the Interior, Ottawa, JASPER PARK* this guide to Jasper Park gives a very comprehensive description of one of Canada's largest and most beautiful playgrounds. An account of the early history of the region, quoting from thrilling narratives of the first explorers, fur-traders, and missionaries to the Indians, forms an interesting chapter. The descriptive material is profusely illustrated with beautiful photographs, not only of the scenic wonders of the park, but also of the fauna and flora. A list is given of trips to be taken in the region, with details of distance, time, and height of peaks, that makes one wish to follow each careful direction and see for one's self the lofty peaks, snowy cirques, glacial rivers and quiet lakes of this Rocky Mountain park.

It is well printed and bound in an attractive green flexible binding. Six topographical maps go with it.

IN THE WILDS
OF SOUTH
AMERICA†

E. LE B. B.

This book embodies the experiences of a field naturalist and collector during six years in the tropical wildernesses of South America. Altogether Mr. Miller covered over 150,000 miles in his expeditions, circling the coast region of all that part of the southern continent which lies north of Buenos Aires. The opening chapters relate to explorations in Colombia. Then follows the story of his adventures and observations during an ascent of the Orinoco to the mysterious Mt. Duida. The reader catches glimpses of rubber camps where orgies of dissipation and occasional wholesale murders take place, when the bands of natives, returning from the forest, are paid for their deliveries of rubber. A chapter on "Life in the Guiana Wilds" tells of the interesting custom, called "beena," among the Patamona Indians, which is thought to insure success on a hunt. Several chapters are devoted to the Roosevelt South American Expedition, to which Mr. Miller was attached as field naturalist. The chapter entitled "A Forty Days' Ride Through Wildest Matto Grosso" should satisfy the most exacting reader of exploration literature. Here is found a description of the Salto Bello Falls, where

*Description of and Guide to Jasper Park. Published by the Department of the Interior, Ottawa. 1917. Pages, 97. Price, 50 cents. Sold by Railway News Company, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In the Wilds of South America. By LEO E. MILLER, of the American Museum of Natural History. With over 70 illustrations and a map. Charles Scribners' Sons, New York. 1918. 8vo. Pages, xiv + 424. Price, $4.50 net.

the Papagayo River, fully five hundred feet wide and containing an enormous flow of water, plunges into a gorge in a sheer drop of two hundred and eighty feet. The height of the fall exceeds that of Niagara by more than a hundred feet, and the roar of the water is said to be awe-inspiring in the extreme. After leaving the Roosevelt Expedition, Mr. Miller went down the west coast of Peru, crossed the central Bolivian highlands, and passed down into Argentina. Any one who is interested in the little-known savages of South America should read his chapter on "The Yuracaré Indians of the Rio Chimoré." Throughout the volume the natural-history interest of the reader is satisfied by delightful descriptions of South American birds and mammals, many of them quite rare. Who would not like to know about the habits of a night-monkey no bigger than a good-sized mouse, or an ant-eater, with a wonderful golden fur, that lives a diurnal life in the tree-tops? We regret that we are unable to devote as much space to the volume as it deserves. We recommend it warmly as a most entertaining and informing volume. It contains a map and more than seventy photographic illustrations. The frontispiece is a beautiful color plate of the cock-ofthe-rock, a rare bird of gorgeous plumage, whose nest and eggs Mr. Miller found for the first time. W. F. B.

"TOURING This little work is well worth reading, and is of the greatest AFOOT"* possible interest to all trampers and mountaineers. It is also of a special interest to knapsackers, those who "back-pack.” While we do not agree with everything the author says, largely because western conditions are somewhat different from those found in the east, he gives every evidence of knowing what he is writing about. His suggestions on the various kinds of back-packs, footwear, making of caps, outdoor beds, food list and light-weight mess kit are full of valuable suggestions. W. E. C.

We are in receipt of the 1918 Annual of the Mountain Club of South Africa, published by the Cape Town Section. It is a publication of 158 pages, with a large number of photo-engravings which convey a clear idea of mountain scenery in the Transvaal and in the vicinity of Cape Town. There are a number of interesting articles illustrating climbs undertaken by South African mountaineers. We welcome to our library this new acquaintance from the antipodes.

*Touring Afoot. By C. P. FORDYCE. Outing Publishing Company, New York. Price, 80 cents.