REVIEWS 699 



ZOOLOGY 



Modern Whaling and Bear Hunting. By W. G. Burn Murdoch, F.R.S.G.S. 

 [Pp. 320, with 1 10 illustrations, chiefly from drawings and photographs by 

 the Author.] (London : Seeley, Service & Co., Ltd., 1917- Price 21 s. net.) 



THIS book, as its expanded title points out, is " a record of present-day whaling 

 with up-to-date appliances in many parts of the world, and of bear and seal 

 hunting in the Arctic regions." The author who, as artist and historian, accom- 

 panied the Scottish Antarctic Expedition which sailed from Dundee in 1892, has 

 every claim to be considered one of our leading authorities on the subject about 

 which he writes. The result is a most interesting volume full of the smell of 

 whale-oil, the blare of the Arctic ice, and the smack of the salt ocean. It is, on 

 the whole, decidedly entertaining to read, though we must confess it suffers in places 

 from a little unnecessary repetition. To those interested in either whaling or bear 

 hunting it will prove a mine of information and experience, and it has also a strong 

 appeal to any outdoor naturalist or sea lover. 



In the course of much knocking about the writer gathered an amount ot 

 knowledge which enabled him, in company with a Norwegian, Henrikson, to 

 design an oil-motor whaler. This vessel appears particularly seaworthy and well 

 arranged, and in the opinion of a nautical friend to whom we showed the plans 

 should be a very serviceable boat for its purpose. 



Perhaps one of the most remarkable points that stands out in connection with 

 the whaling industry is the extraordinary way in which the British have regarded 

 it as a " speculation " from the commercial aspect, and the Norwegians, on the 

 other hand, have turned it to account. This is a point made much of in the 

 present book, and one that deserves to be hammered into the " business man." 

 Apart from the employment it provides and the utility of the products, neither 

 points to be disregarded, we read of a Norwegian company paying a dividend of 

 150 per cent., and another recently established which started with a 70-per-cent. 

 profit in its first year. The latter, too, operated from the Falkland Islands — British 

 dependencies. A year before the war the author and others started a whaling 

 British industry in the Seychelles, but owing to the " war economy " of transport 

 and coal imposed on them by the Government, were obliged to go into liquidation. 

 Is it an accident or is it Fate playing one of her ironical jests, and so bringing it to 

 pass that two of the most-needed products in this country now should be oil and 

 fertiliser — the two staple products of the whaling industry ? 



We hope the author will return to the attack after more normal times have 

 been restored, and then we trust he will meet as much success in his venture as 

 in the production of this book — which is considerable. 



C. H. O'D. 



The Life of Inland Waters. An Elementary Text-book of Freshwater Biology 

 for American Students. By J. G. Needham and J. T. Lloyd. [Pp. 438, 

 with a frontispiece, 244 figures, and 19 initial and tail-pieces.] (Ithaca, 

 New York: The Comstock Publishing Co., 1916. Price $3.) 



The primary appeal of this volume, as its sub-title indicates, is to American 

 students, and as the forms studied are all local ones, it can never be used as a 

 text-book in this country. Limnology, or more particularly the study of the 

 ecology of the fauna and flora in and adjacent to fresh water, is a branch of 

 biology that has been comparatively neglected in this country. Here, of course, 

 no place is far from the sea, from which we draw enormous supplies of food, so 

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