Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 35.djvu/582

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lectures on this subject before the Lowell Institute in Boston, and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, will welcome this elegantly printed volume as the most elaborate and complete presentation of this marvelous geologic period. The broad and critical knowledge which the authors have gained through long field-work, the admirable literary style with which the complex facts are grouped and explained, the abundant illustrations by engravings and maps, and the copious index making the volume a convenient manual, will be sure to incite many to observe for themselves the records of the Ice age in the vicinity of their own homes.

The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States. By George Brown Goode and a Staff of Assistants. Sections III, IV, and V. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Four Vols. Pp. 176, 178, 808, 887, with Plates and Charts.

This great work is designed to give a complete survey of all that relates to our fisheries, and includes in its portly volumes a vast amount of information on every branch of the subject. This information is presented, moreover, in a way to attract readers, notwithstanding its discouraging voluminousness, and invite them to keep on. The first part of the present installment, Section III, is devoted to a description of the "Fishing Grounds of North America," and is edited by Richard Rathbun. The term "fishing-grounds" is defined to apply to "those areas of the sea-bottom which are known to be the feeding or spawning grounds of one or more species of edible fishes, and which afford fisheries of greater or less extent." The most important of our fishing-grounds are located off the eastern coast of North America, between Nantucket and Labrador; the most distant fields lying in Davis Strait off the coast of Greenland. These, with the other fields of the eastern coast down to Mexico, are described, under thirteen local or special headings, by Joseph W. Collins and Mr. Rathbun; the sea fishing-grounds of the Pacific States coast, by President Jordan; those of Alaska, with their resources, by Tarleton H. Bean; those of the Great Lakes, by Ludwig Kumlien and Frederick W. True. In addition, President Jordan furnishes a discussion of the "Geographical Distribution of Food-Fishes in the Several Hydrographic Basins of the United States." The text is supplemented by thirty-two "ocean temperature charts." Section IV comprises an account of "The Fishermen of the United States," by Prof. Goode and Mr. Collins, including the classification of their nationalities, their distribution, delineations of their mode of living, character, habits at work, intelligence, tastes, and other qualities. A feature of special interest is the section on the part played by "fishermen as investigators." In Section V, the "History and Methods of the Fisheries" are related in two very large volumes. The review of this part tends to take the form of an enumeration rather than an analysis. Nineteen authors are represented in the different papers. The accounts cover the history of the several fisheries described; their beginning, growth, or decay, and present condition; the methods pursued at the different grounds where each fishery is prosecuted; processes of preparation for the market; applications of the fish; statistics of returns and value; inquiry into the agencies which have affected the prosperity or existence of the fishing stations as such; and a variety of such other information as may help to a clear and comprehensive view of the condition and prospects of fishing enterprise. The first volume relates to food-fishes; the second to marine mammals, reptiles, and invertebrates which are used for food or other economical purposes. The special subjects are the halibut, cod, haddock, hake, mackerel, menhaden, herring and "sardine," Spanish mackerel, millet, red snapper, salmon, whale, blackfish and porpoise. Pacific walrus, seal and sea-otter, turtle and terrapin, oyster, scallop, clam, mussel and abalone, crab, lobster, crayfish, rock lobster, shrimp and prawn, leech and trepang, and sponge fisheries, industries, and trades; with special chapters on "The Shore Fisheries of Southern Delaware," the "Havana Market Fishery of Key West," "The Pound-net Fisheries of the United States," and "The Fisheries of the Great Lakes." In nearly every chapter may be found illustrations on the depreciation or destruction of fish-beds once extremely valuable and prolific, of the manner in which we have allowed great resources to go to waste through the reckless prosecution of speculative enterprises. One