{"product_id":"2940014010184","title":"In Search of the Unknown","description":"Where the slanting forest eaves,\u003cbr\u003e    Shingled tight with greenest leaves,\u003cbr\u003e    Sweep the scented meadow-sedge,\u003cbr\u003e    Let us snoop along the edge;\u003cbr\u003e    Let us pry in hidden nooks,\u003cbr\u003e    Laden with our nature books,\u003cbr\u003e    Scaring birds with happy cries,\u003cbr\u003e    Chloroforming butterflies,\u003cbr\u003e    Rooting up each woodland plant,\u003cbr\u003e    Pinning beetle, fly, and ant,\u003cbr\u003e    So we may identify\u003cbr\u003e    What we've ruined, by-and-by.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBecause it all seems so improbable--so horribly impossible to me now,\u003cbr\u003esitting here safe and sane in my own library--I hesitate to record an\u003cbr\u003eepisode which already appears to me less horrible than grotesque. Yet,\u003cbr\u003eunless this story is written now, I know I shall never have the\u003cbr\u003ecourage to tell the truth about the matter--not from fear of ridicule,\u003cbr\u003ebut because I myself shall soon cease to credit what I now know to be\u003cbr\u003etrue. Yet scarcely a month has elapsed since I heard the stealthy\u003cbr\u003epurring of what I believed to be the shoaling undertow--scarcely a\u003cbr\u003emonth ago, with my own eyes, I saw that which, even now, I am\u003cbr\u003ebeginning to believe never existed. As for the harbor-master--and the\u003cbr\u003eblow I am now striking at the old order of things--But of that I shall\u003cbr\u003enot speak now, or later; I shall try to tell the story simply and\u003cbr\u003etruthfully, and let my friends testify as to my probity and the\u003cbr\u003epublishers of this book corroborate them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the 29th of February I resigned my position under the government\u003cbr\u003eand left Washington to accept an offer from Professor Farrago--whose\u003cbr\u003ename he kindly permits me to use--and on the first day of April I\u003cbr\u003eentered upon my new and congenial duties as general superintendent of\u003cbr\u003ethe water-fowl department connected with the Zoological Gardens then\u003cbr\u003ein course of erection at Bronx Park, New York.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a week I followed the routine, examining the new foundations,\u003cbr\u003estudying the architect's plans, following the surveyors through the\u003cbr\u003eBronx thickets, suggesting arrangements for water-courses and pools\u003cbr\u003edestined to be included in the enclosures for swans, geese, pelicans,\u003cbr\u003eherons, and such of the waders and swimmers as we might expect to\u003cbr\u003eacclimate in Bronx Park.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was at that time the policy of the trustees and officers of the\u003cbr\u003eZoological Gardens neither to employ collectors nor to send out\u003cbr\u003eexpeditions in search of specimens. The society decided to depend upon\u003cbr\u003evoluntary contributions, and I was always busy, part of the day, in\u003cbr\u003edictating answers to correspondents who wrote offering their services\u003cbr\u003eas hunters of big game, collectors of all sorts of fauna, trappers,\u003cbr\u003esnarers, and also to those who offered specimens for sale, usually at\u003cbr\u003eexorbitant rates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo the proprietors of five-legged kittens, mangy lynxes, moth-eaten\u003cbr\u003ecoyotes, and dancing bears I returned courteous but uncompromising\u003cbr\u003erefusals--of course, first submitting all such letters, together with\u003cbr\u003emy replies, to Professor Farrago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne day towards the end of May, however, just as I was leaving Bronx\u003cbr\u003ePark to return to town, Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department,\u003cbr\u003ecalled out to me that Professor Farrago wanted to see me a moment; so\u003cbr\u003eI put my pipe into my pocket again and retraced my steps to the\u003cbr\u003etemporary, wooden building occupied by Professor Farrago, general\u003cbr\u003esuperintendent of the Zoological Gardens. The professor, who was\u003cbr\u003esitting at his desk before a pile of letters and replies submitted for\u003cbr\u003eapproval by me, pushed his glasses down and looked over them at me\u003cbr\u003ewith a whimsical smile that suggested amusement, impatience,\u003cbr\u003eannoyance, and perhaps a faint trace of apology.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Now, here's a letter,\" he said, with a deliberate gesture towards a\u003cbr\u003esheet of paper impaled on a file--\"a letter that I suppose you\u003cbr\u003eremember.\" He disengaged the sheet of paper and handed it to me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oh yes,\" I replied, with a shrug; \"of course the man is\u003cbr\u003emistaken--or--\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Or what?\" demanded Professor Farrago, tranquilly, wiping his glasses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"--Or a liar,\" I replied.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter a silence he leaned back in his chair and bade me read the\u003cbr\u003eletter to him again, and I did so with a contemptuous tolerance for\u003cbr\u003ethe writer, who must have been either a very innocent victim or a very\u003cbr\u003estupid swindler. I said as much to Professor Farrago, but, to my\u003cbr\u003esurprise, he appeared to waver.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I suppose,\" he said, with his near-sighted, embarrassed smile, \"that\u003cbr\u003enine hundred and ninety-nine men in a thousand would throw that letter\u003cbr\u003easide and condemn the writer as a liar or a fool?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In my opinion,\" said I, \"he's one or the other.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"He isn't--in mine,\" said the professor, placidly.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47180226887920,"sku":"2940014010184","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014010184_p0.jpg?v=1763599070","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014010184","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}