Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 249

The Animal King; or, The Round the World Wanderer by Captain Frederick Whittaker.

Two young men—Albert Austin, an artist and journalist, and Louis Bonnelle, a wealthy but discontent gentleman—seek shelter in the Adirondack mountains during a devastating tornado. After riding out the storm among rocks, they discover an abandoned canoe and paddle across a lake toward a distant light. The mysterious inhabitant of the opposite shore commands an extraordinary menagerie: bears, wolves, deer, and panthers that respond to his voice. When the animals pursue the canoe, the stranger emerges to summon them back, then angrily confronts the trespassers for using his boat. The narrative establishes this figure—apparently capable of controlling wild beasts—as the titular "Animal King."