The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-03
NEW BOOKS.

ENCES," by Charles G. P Roberts; published by l.. c, Page 6 Co.,, Boston; $2O0; for sale at Judds.
 Mir. Roberts is king in his field of literary achievement. His Red Fox, Watchers of the Trail" and other books are models, and unsurpass- ed and his new works shows still finer work and like its predecessors will af- ford delight to many thousands of readers particularly so to lovers of the animal kingdom. Thus his latest book shows more strikingly than ever his dramatic insight and poetic feeling for and appreciation of nature. The re- cent tempest raised by President Roosevelt over some of the nature stories, or tales of animal life leaves MT Roberts unscathed as his nature tales. are avowedly fiction. Revealing and portraying as they do secrets of the wilderness sllences with mas ter's hand and in the main no doubt, as regards the land animals dealt with, with fidelity and with no claim to an authoritativeness, the book dis arms the criticism which has recent ly rent the air in some literary circles. There is no more fault to be found with them than with Mir Kiplings Jungle Stories.' and this will apply also as to MT. Roberts stories of those animals whose habits and habtations are well-nigh or wholly inaccessible to all-curious man. Such animals are, for instance, the polar bear whose lit- tie tragedy is told in the first sketch The Summons of the North" the great Quahdavic salmon, the shark, the sawfish, the giant cutie of the China seas, and his enemy, the in- domitable grampus or killer whale.
 In writing of these animals the au- thor has made no pretence of experi- ence in their ways When I write of the kindreds of the deep sea- he says in his preface "I am relying upon the collated results of the observations of others and so, in telling of these strange creatures, he has restricted himself to mere descriptions of their actions as they have been observed and recorded by men and has avoided all reference to their psychological processes. Says he, 'I have made no vain attempt at interpretation of the lives of creatures so remote from my personal knowledge, and for such tales as "A Duel in the Deep The Terror of the Sea Caves or The Prowlers,' my utmost hope is that they may prove entertaining, without being open to any charge of misrep- resenting facts"
 Many Of the stories relate to deni- xens of the forest concerning whom the author has lived in personal, in- timate and sympathetic acquaintance in the wilderness ever since he was boy in the Province of New Bruns- wick This is capital story of q fight between bull moose and a bear; another equally good one is of a white stallion cast loose in the wild; an ex- quiste little story about a squirrel, called When the Logs Come Down; story about buck and another about a heron and third about bear, and so on.
 MT Roberts ventures on the danger zone when he attributed reasoning powers to animals, He says: Tn cer- tain of the stories dealing with the results of my own observation and ex perience I have dared 10 hope that I might be contributing something of value to the final disputed question of animal psychology would merely take this occasion to reaff1rm with confidence the belief, which find shared by practically all observ- CTS whose lives are passed in the clos est relationship with animals-by such vitally interested observers, for in stance, as keepers, trainers, hunters and trappers-that the action of ani- naals are governed not only by instinct, but also, in varying degree, by pro eesses essentially akin to those of human reason
 MT. Roberts is happiest in treating of living creatures, of which he has had intimate knowledge through per sonal observation, but in all the stories he makes charming fiction and shows himself to be rare literary artist. His new book is receiving everywhere high and unstinted praise. The Bos- ton Transcript says; No modern writer so deserves the title of poet lau- reate of the animal world as MT. Rob-. ertse
 The Brooklyn Eagle says: But while it is romance, he is careful new Ger to exceed the bounds of probabili- hes. As said, however distinctly the characters of his forest dramas are in- dividualized, they are never more won derful than other members of the same family. This essential quality being maintained, whatever of verbal or po- etic embroidery, or picturesque descrip- ton is woven into the narrative only adds to it's fascination and charm"
 The New York Sun says: "Of the literary excellence of these stories there can be no doubt. Their author displays to a remarkable degree a power fey suggesting both the animate and the inanimate. One can almost see the heron strutting with the frog in his mouth, the squirrel squatting on the bow of the boat the bee trying vainly to obtain a foothold on the float ing body of the moth A few words just the right words-and the author creates for the minds eye the appear ance, the action and the attitude of the real animal. This, of course, has been his first care-to create animals, liv- ing, moving animals, in the readers imagination. But he has done another thing, too4-he has put about these an- finals the very atmosphere in which they live. The silence of the forests, the clear coldness of the streams, tlle darkness of the mole hole, the insur- mountable walls of the pitcher plant they are there, around the animals, as