Project Gutenberg's The Wonders of the Jungle, by Prince Sarath Ghosh

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Title: The Wonders of the Jungle
Book One

Author: Prince Sarath Ghosh

Release Date: March 16, 2008 [EBook #24852]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Midnight Pool: Animals Drinking]

HEATH SUPPLEMENTARY READERS

THE WONDERS OF

THE JUNGLE

PRINCE SARATH GHOSH

BOOK ONE

D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO ATLANTA

DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO LONDON

COPYRIGHT, 1915,

BY D. C. HEATH & CO.

* * * * *

PREFACE

One of the great thinkers of the world has said that all the sciences
are embodied in natural history. Hence natural history should be
taught to a child from an early age.

Perhaps the best method of teaching it is to set forth the
characteristics of animals in the form of a narrative. Then the child
reads the narrative with pleasure and almost as a story, not as a
tedious "lesson."

I have followed that method in the Wonders of the Jungle. The present
work (Book One) is intended to be a supplementary reader for the
earlier grades in grammar schools. If it be found useful, I shall
write one or two more books in progressive order for the use of higher
grades.

In Book One I have depicted only such wild animals as appeal to the
interest of young children, and even to their sympathy and love. In
subsequent books I shall describe the animals that prey upon others.
As those animals are not lovable, it would be better for the child to
read about them a year or two later. But even to those animals I shall
be just, and shall depict their good qualities as well as their
preying habit