Irish Ark

THE ELEPHANT AND THE KANGAROO (254 pp.)--T. H. White-- Putnam ($2.75).

As usual, readers must grant Author White (The Sword in the Stone, Mistress Mas ham's Repose) a basic, whimsical conceit. This time the Archangel Michael slithers down the chimney of an Irish farm where Mr. White is boarding, warns of an imminent flood and appoints the author as a latter-day Noah. The idea is pretty thin to start with, and it is not even corn-fed from there on. The building of the Ark, for instance, is a nail-by-nail account that only a carpenter might care to follow. Author White, who wrote the book in County Meath, finds Irishmen slovenly, superstitious, witless and whining-- when they are not irritatingly lovable, that is.

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