The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-28
THE ROOSEVELT HUNT BOOK.

African Game Trails; an Account OF TN
African Wanderngs of an American
Roosevelt. With Illustrations from
Photographs by Kermit Roosevelt ant
Other Members of the Expedition. an, an'
Published by Charles Scribners Sons
New York.
This is fine large volume. embracing
the full account of President loose
welt IS hunting trip to Africa in con
necton with the scientific work OF tht
Smithsonian Institution During all ol
that trip he kept sedulonsly In mino
his official errand, and there is through
ont constant and repeated recognition
of the official character of his expedi
tion, and his obligation to the lnstitu
ton to supply it with fauna and hora
but especially fauna, TO enrich its great
collection.
1t is a superb volume indeed, got out
in superb style. It's publication marks
the completion of a plan that Mr. Roose
Welt has cherished definitely for sew
eral years. AS early as the winter OF
sibility of it, and from time to time
he consulted leading authorities on
hunting in Africa until in the latter
months by his persistence he had ac-
simulated the facts which he needed
and formulated a plan which he car
ried out with fullness and exactness,
On March 15, 1909, he said to friend
Gone year from today if all goes right
/ shall arrive at Khartoum, and when
I arrive there the book will be fin
ished.' On the evening of March 14th
one year later. he arrived at Khartoum
q few hours before the appointed time
and the next day dispatched to his pub
fishers the final chapters, appendices,
and title page of the volume, exactly
as he had expected to do. Writing
from Cairo he said, et1 regard tins
book as cherished thing. ] have put
my best into it, Any reader OF the
volume would be astonished at the skill
and fullness with which that serious
purpose was carried out.
The great publishing house, the
Scrihners, who issue this book, were
fortunate in getting the inside track k
on this Roosevelt nara ative, both for
their magazine and the publishing
rights for the book. They set forth
very fairly and fully the merits. OF
the work and do not, in their enthu-
siasm, overdraw It's merits
The author planned and achieved n
great gift TO the nation, the Importance
of which will only be fully realized as
the years reveal the completeness or
the collection which the expedition that
he commanded has furnished to the Ma
tional Museum at Washington. Ten
years later, a leading authority has said,
tion will be impossible because OF the
tion vii lbe impossible because Of the
rapid advance of settlers who drive
out the game Through the agency Of
Mr.. Roosevelt and the generosity OF
certain friends of his who backed the
scientific side of the expedition, the Ma
tional Museum Will have collection of
the large and small game of Africa
that will be unique in the world. This
volume is the historic record Of that
great work written by an author who
from boyhood has been student of
nature and who has produced many vol
umes leading up to this splendid
achievement.
The reader of "African Game
Trails" will be impressed with the
fact that the author conceived it from
the beginning as book and not as n
series of detached articles. II is not
a mere sportsman S narrative of hunt
ing He has reproduced the environ
ment, the wild natives, the half-civ
pioneers and missionaries, the social
and political atmosphere of new coun-
try. in the making, part of which he
believes will be a great "white man IS
country 1t is doubtful whether there
exists in all the literature of hunting
and adventure such complete picture
"a narrative that reproduces a coun-
try that is, in its teeming multitudes
OF wild creatures, very like a prehis-
toTic continent.
The greatest game in the world is in
Central Africa, and all of it was OBJ
served and hunted by Mr., Roosevelt
successfully; and the telling of its ro-
mantle story is illuminated from the
vast stores of reading and observation
which his alert mind and wonderful ca,
pacity for absorbing knowledge from
the best men in the world have given
him.
His method. with some variations,
has been to make each chapter an ex-
preston of the life and surroundings
and habits Of some one species of great
game, with much incidental informa-
tion about the small game, trees and
plants and landscape in the midst of
which that particular species makes its
home. The human interest is never
lacking The life Of the safari, the
bar 1baric and simple"hearted natives
who win his real liking, the settlers on
the cutposts of progress who remind
him of his early days in Wyoming, the
hardness of the struggle and the charm
of it-all these. woven compactlY In
forceful, direct language, make Of the
narrative never -tO-be forgotten series
of pictures.
Those who have denied to Mr.. Roose-
Welt possession of real literary style
will surely be converted by this vol
ume. There are descriptions of tropic
Storm loneIy rides on the veldt, of the
coming Of spring, tho charm of a boun-
teous bird life, Of the weird sounds
of the huge game in the night, OF the
beauty of sunsets on the Nile, and the
starlit equatorial eyenings-these, in
felicity Of phrase and the power to
reproduce the picture as he saw it, are
literature Of high order.
The worldwide interest in this book
is shown in the fact that it will appear
in England. France, Germany and
Sweden in tho respective languages OF
those countries. and inquiries have been
received from Spain, Brazil, Japan and
other nations with view to reproduc
ing the volumes there. The publisher.
have prepared for the United State.
four separate editions, the Library Edi
tion, Subscription Edition, Limited Au
tograph Edition, and Elkhorn Edition
TO be added to the complete uniform
set cf Mr. Roosevelt's works published
by MessIs. Scribner.
7 nc Il