THE PYRAMID OF LIVING THINGS

To complement the increasing attention to ecology, here is a sound, frequently fascinating study of a number of widely varying biomes (ecological environments); the desert, the tropical rain forest (which has flooded many a collection), the deciduous forest, the Arctic, and Antarctic tundra, the taiga, the savanna. In each, life patterns are described, the detail of interrelationships is explored, the quality and variety of existence is suggested. One reservation: Mrs. Raskin interrupts her interesting account at several well-chosen points to tell us how man--the destroyer, the polluter--is creating havoc in the natural order; like other conservationists, she looks differently on the disruption of an ecological system by, say, a beaver--an interesting dichotomy in the cold light of reason. But the book is well done, should be useful, and could be read for interest.