conditions resulting from civilization—they gradually disappear from the streams, and even if they did not are often greedy, carnivorous savages, who effectually bar a great increase of numbers, especially in small waters They must be replaced by species that take more kindly to cultivation—that may be domesticated. The trout seems well adapted to pond-culture, and its merits are well known. Prof Baird also ranks the European carp very highly in this connection, and believes that for propagation in ponds and sluggish waters, both North and South, it will excel all others. Its good qualities are: fecundity and adaptability to the processes of artificial propagation; hardiness, rapid growth, and ability to populate waters to their greatest extent; harmlessness in relation to other fishes, living largely on a vegetable diet; and good table qualities.
The volume is largely occupied by supplementary papers of unequal value: accounts of the fish-industries of other ages and countries; reports of the special efforts to transport fish, lobsters, etc., to and from California, and to Europe; and an appendix devoted to the natural history of the subject. A systematic list of food-fishes, with descriptions and some account of their range, seasons, etc., would be a valuable and much-needed contribution to common knowledge. We hope it will be possible for Prof. Baird to carry out his partial promise to issue such a work in such a way that it will be obtainable by the general public.
Ancient Society: or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization. By Lewis H. Morgan, LL. D. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1877. Pp. 500. Price, $4.
Many of the obscure problems of ethnology are here analyzed and discussed with a wealth of learning which renders the work a valuable one for both the student and general reader. In the opening paragraph the author affirms the great antiquity of mankind upon the earth, and proceeds to illustrate the extreme rudeness of their early condition and the gradual evolution of their mental and moral powers through the slow accumulations of experience. The facts presented throughout the work show that the progress of mankind has been from the bottom of the scale, and that "the theory of human degradation, to explain the existence of savages and barbarians, is no longer tenable." It is shown that human progress has been essentially continuous, and that there is a common principle of intelligence in the savage, the barbarian, and the civilized man. As a consequence of this, the same results have appeared at all times and in all areas under the same ethnical conditions. "The roots of modern institutions," the author observes, "are planted in the period of barbarism, into which their germs were transmitted from the previous period of savagery. They have had a lineal descent through the ages with the streams of the blood, as well as a logical development."
The subject is considered by the author under these four heads: 1. Growth of Intelligence through Inventions and Discoveries; 2. Growth of the Idea of Government; 3. Growth of the Idea of the Family; 4. Growth of the Idea of Property.
In the discussion of each of these the reader is made familiar with the successive phases of culture which society has passed through in the course of its development. These phases are, as defined by the author, savagery, barbarism, and civilization, constituting three grand ethnical periods in the progress of mankind. Savagery, the term applied to the lowest status, extends from the period in which mankind were without arts or definite social organizations to that in which they had attained something of both. With the close of the period of savagery that of barbarism begins. At this period the art of making pottery had been developed; the bow and arrow, and implements of flint and stone, were in use. The ethnical period of barbarism is subdivided, as is that of savagery, into three stages, representing characteristic phases of culture. It began with the simple arts referred to, and ends with the invention of a phonetic alphabet and the use of writing in literary composition. In this stage of culture are placed the Grecian tribes of the time of Homer, and the Germanic tribes of the time of Cæsar. Civilization begins with the close of barbarism. It will not be inferred that the transition from one status
