The Ivory King. By Charles Frederick Holder. (Sampson Low and
Co.)—This "popular history of the elephant and its allies" is well done. It gives the natural history of the animal, as well as that of its predecessors the mastodon and the mammoth, tells many carious anecdotes of its intelligence, and describes the methods by which the wild animal is captured and tamed. There is a history of the use of the elephant, in ancient and modern times, as a combatant and as a performer in the amphitheatre. Here, however, some very curious details supplied by the elder Pliny might advantageously have been given. "Jumbo," of course, is not omitted in a book of this kind. His life, the deplorable bereavement which England suffered when be was sold to Barnum (Mr. Holder hails from New York), his lamentable end, and the permanence which has been given by the art of the staffer to his remains, are duly described.
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