UTKA OF THE BARREN GROUND

In choppy, unvaried sentences, the author narrates the story of Tutka, a caribou who roams the desolate plains of Northern Canada, known as the Barren Grounds. Tutka loses the herd in a wild, blinding storm; he is attacked by wolves, captured by Eskimos, and taken away from the tundra. After more hard knocks, the animal escapes and finds his old herd. For all this bloody excitement, the picture of the nearly uninhabited wilderness is two-dimensional; the power and bleakness of the plains are not accentuated. Nothing very distinctive marks this tale of a caribou, who is so lacking in recognizable traits that he might as well be a reindeer, an elk,--even a bear.