November 3, 192 1] 



NATURE 



301 



Our Bookshelf. 



Hiroshige. By Yone Noguchi, Pp. ix + 38+19 

 plates. (New York: Orientalia; London: 

 Elkin Mathews, 192 1.) 255. net. 

 We thank Mr. Elkin Mathews for sending us this 

 charming volume. We have admired once 

 more the delicate art of Hiroshige, and we 

 have read Mr. Noguchi 's criticism with interest 

 (Mr. Noguchi is always interesting) ; but we 

 are left wondering why a work of such 

 purely artistic content was submitted for review 

 in a scientific journal. And, as we muse, the 

 question takes form. Is there, after all, so great 

 a difference between the artistic and the scientific 

 approach to Nature? The multitudinous facts and 

 ideas that make up the manifold variety of the 

 world must flood and overwhelm anv mind that 

 attempts to grasp the whole. Most of us are 

 saved from seeing too much, if not by native 

 blindness, then by the blinkers of custom and 

 education ; but the penetrating eye of the artist or 

 the philosopher looks for safety to the guidance 

 of selection. He is, to quote Mr. Noguchi, "like 

 Hiroshige himself who paid no attention to the 

 small inessential details, when he grasped firmly 

 the most important point of Nature which he had 

 wished before to see, hold and draw." Perhaps 

 the man of science may learn from the great 

 artist, Hiroshige or another, that the searcher 

 after Nature's secrets must frame a clear idea of 

 what he wants to know ; that he must not be led 

 astray by facts, useful enough in their time and 

 place, but irrelevant to his quest; that he must 

 make himself the master and not the slave of his 

 facts, so as, without falsifying Nature, to 

 transcend her. It is the fearless vision, the intel- 

 ligent choice, and the controlling imagination that 

 produce alike the Inspiring picture, the supreme 

 poem, and the conquering theory of science. 



Do you not agree? Well then, let us simply 

 yield to the fascination of Hiroshige 's balanced 

 colour and of Mr. Noguchi 's curiously expressive 

 prose. 



The \Vay of a Trout with a Fly, and some 

 Further Studies in Minor Tactics. By G. E. M. 

 Skues. Pp. xvi4-259. (London: A. and C. 

 Black, Ltd., 192 1.) 185. net. 



Those who fish for trout with a fly will find that 

 this book raises most of those problems which 

 anglers debate so earnestly, if sleepily, after a 

 day by the river. Mr. Skues claims no finality 

 in his solutions, but that is not the only or the 

 chief objective. His work is in the true line of 

 descent from Izaak Walton and the Dame- — that 

 of one who loves and observes most patiently the 

 secret processes of fish-life in our chalk-streams. 



Some pages are devoted to the advocacy of 

 what, on a "dry fly" water, is usually regarded 

 as heresy. When a trout is feeding under the 

 surface Mr. Skues will suit his taste with a sunk 

 fly. Omar Khayyam held drunkenness and 

 sobriety in equal abhorrence. Mr. Skues scorns 



NO. 2714, VOL. 108] 



the insobriety of the mere "lure" angler, who 

 will play on any fishy weakness, as much as the 

 asceticism of the "dry-fly purist." If your trout 

 be only feeding on larvae or nymphs, then have 

 at him under water with a " legitimate " imitation 

 and our author's blessing. And if Viscount Grey 

 or the shade of F. M. Halford shake a depre- 

 cating finger, Mr. Skues merely taps his basket, 

 full of fat two-pounders. 



The Study of Geological Maps. By Dr. 

 Gertrude L. Elles. (Cambridge Geological 

 Series.) Pp. viii-h74 + 7 plates. (Cambridge: 

 At the University Press, 192 1. J 125. net. 



Dr. Elles has lectured for several years 

 past on this subject to women students at 

 the University of Cambridge, and the well- 

 printed and fully illustrated book under 

 notice is based upon the course of instruction 

 that she adopted. The relations of outcrop to 

 contour-lines are shown in a series of boldly 

 drawn maps, each with a section of the selected 

 bed below. The details in these are intended to 

 lead students to construct similar exercises on 

 their own account. The shaded drawings of out- 

 crops in relation to topography are excellent. 

 British examples are used as types, and include 

 the cauldron-subsidence of Glen Coe and the re- 

 versed fault in the Clifton gorge. Evidently the 

 travels of the author throughout our islands have 

 been aptly utilised. Some account might have 

 been added of the methods adopted by the Geo- 

 logical Surveys of various countries for recording 

 geological features on maps, especially in regard 

 to the differentiation of superficial (surficial) de- 

 posits, since the range and variety of geological 

 maps of our own islands are still unknown to 

 many workers. G. A. J. C. 



The Land and its Problems. By Christopher 



Turnor. (A New Series on Economics.) Pp. 



254. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 



75. 6d. net. 

 Mr. Turxor is well known as an enthusiast in 

 agricultural matters, and in this small book he 

 sets out his ideas in a clear and moderate manner. 

 His purpose is to lay stress on the vast importance 

 of the land as the greatest imperial and national 

 asset, and to show that if a permanent consolida- 

 tion of the Empire is to be achieved this can be 

 effected onlv by giving the necessary care and 

 thought to the development of our land resources. 



The author is a great believer in small holdings. 

 He does not, however, suggest that the United 

 Kingdom shouljl be devoted entirely to this pur- 

 pose, but he emphasises the national and social 

 importance of maintaining a number of these hold- 

 ino-s — i.e. farms of about 50 acres and under — 

 and on the need of improving living and business 

 conditions of the small-holders. He further insists 

 on the necessity for increasing the area of 

 ploughed land. The book is illustrated by charts 

 showing the changes in British agriculture during 

 recent years. 



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