Few among those who have achieved distinction in American letters brought to their special work so broad an equipment of scholarship as George Bancroft, generally acknowledged to be the foremost historian of the United States. His acquaintance with scholars and men prominent in various walks of life, all over the world, was an exceptionally wide one. He was not only a great scholar himself; he was also profoundly interested in matters relating to the welfare of his country, and achieved positions of the highest political importance, including the ministry to Great Britain during the crisis of 1848, and to Germany at the time of the FrancoGerman War. It is, perhaps, not generally remembered that it was to him (while he was Secretary of the Navy under President Polk) that we owe the establishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. "The Letters and Diaries of George Bancroft," edited by M. A. DeWolfe Howe, the first instalment of which will appear in the

NOTES

traits.

An article that will appeal to all interested in animals, and especially to the sportsman, will be the one fon "Heads and Horns," by William T. Hornaday, to appear in the September number. The author, known all over the world as the Director of the great Bronx Zoological Park, which is to be the finest in existence, is one of the best known and most skilful of all those who have hunted and collected wild animals throughout the world. Those who have been fortunate enough to view the remarkably lifelike groups of large game shown in the museum in Washington have Mr. Hornaday to thank for making taxidermy a new art, one which gives to these groups the postures and appearance of life. He is in fact the founder of the new taxidermy, which is a far cry from the old familiar and often ridiculous "stuffed" animals.

September number, are a most important contribution to both the literature and intimate history of his time. These first letters have largely to do with his experiences when a young man of only eighteen in the famous University of Göttingen. He undertook a surprising amount of work there and came in contact with a number of the famous scholars of that day. These letters contain an

In this article Mr. Hornaday describes a large number of animals in different parts of the world that carry horns, and tells of some of the very remarkable specimens that he has gathered. It is by no means merely a naturalist's article, however. There is the note of adventure and descriptions of the picturesque environments among which some of the rarest and most valued of these animals are found. It covers an experience of many years and gives an impression of the amount of labor, skill, and hardihood required in this special kind of work.

Mr. Hornaday is our foremost authority on the subject of natural history, and is well known as the author of several books. The most recent of them is his authoritative volume "The American Natural History." His book describing the experiences of a hunter and naturalist in India, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula and Borneo, entitled "Two Years in the Jungle," continues to have a wide popularity. This article will be illustrated with a number of beautiful examples of heads and horns from the author's large and unique collection.

Of all the correspondents who have gone to the Far East to follow the fortunes of the armies or to make studies of the conditions in Russia and Japan none have brought to their work a clearer vision or a more searching capacity for securing the essential facts and meaning of important movements than Mr. Thomas F. Millard, who represents this magazine. Readers will recall his recent articles written while with the Russian army. The article that he contributes to the current number on "The Fruits of Japan's Victory" is an illuminating presentation of some aspects of the Japanese spirit and purposes that have not heretofore been generally known, and a forecast of future things of grave importance to the world at large. Mr. Millard has been in Japan for some time, but is now back in Manchuria. Further articles of his will appear in the Magazine, that together with this will give the most comprehensive and convincing views of the effects of the war, not only upon Russia and Japan, but

upon our own political and business relations with the East.

It is quite a common experience with young artists after achieving a particular success by the marked individuality and strength of their early work to wish to experiment along other lines that may make some momentary and especial appeal to them. Few of the younger men of to-day who have made a decided and immediate impression have so consistently sustained the original high quality of their work as Walter Appleton Clark. From the first he conveyed an impression of seriousness of purpose and an intention to work out carefully his chosen treatment of particular subjects, and his drawings have been always more than ordinarily interesting to artists and laymen alike.

Mr. Clark has only recently returned from a residence in Europe and his work is again appearing in this Magazine, in which his most important drawings have appeared. The colored cover of this number is a beautiful example of Mr. Clark's decorative work.

Readers of the Magazine will readily recall the articles which have appeared in its pages written and illustrated by Mr. Dwight L. Elmendorf, who is known very widely by the remarkable photographs which he has made in his travels in various parts of the world, and especially by those made with the aid of the telephoto lens. Among these were some recent ones giving views of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, taken at a distance of over fifteen miles. Mr. Elmendorf has been remarkably successful in using this special lens and has mastered its difficulties better than anyone else. It is a well-known fact that he takes his photographs only for his own special purposes, and none of them has ever appeared outside of the pages of SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE. An article by him entitled "The Edge of the Desert," illustrated with views of the little known and wonderful Roman ruins of northern Africa, will be one of the attractive features of the September number.