394 



NATURE 



[June 2, 1910 



supplies the key-note by comparing some oil-sands 

 with " fresh caviare " (p. 286). 



In the chapter devoted to the geology, chemical 

 composition and treatment of petroleum, the author is 

 evidently less at home, and there are many statements 

 to which exception might be taken. Thus the de- 

 scription of the structure of the Peruvian oil-fields 

 (p. 53) is inaccurate, a series of anticlinals with inter- 

 vening synclines being represented as a persistent 

 monoclinal. The expression " concentration " (p. 59) 

 for the flowing of oil to replace that which has been 

 ejected with much solid matter in suspension is a 

 novel one in this connection, and the same may be 

 said of the terms "low density," "low resistance," 

 and "high absorption," applied to the spaces vacated. 



As the author fails to distinguish between benzene 

 and benzine (pp. 132, 138), it is not surprising that 

 he should assert that the frequency of association of 

 petroleum with coal and lignite is "a source of specu- 

 lation." Taking the Stock Exchange meaning of 

 speculafion this may be true, but the frequency, even 

 of adventitious proximity, still less of any causal re- 

 lationship, is an obsolescent fallacy which it is not 

 worth while to controvert afresh. 



As this purports to be a practical work on petroleum 

 mining and oil-field development, it is regrettable that 

 greater judgment has not been displayed in the selec- 

 tion of the illustrations. Many of the plates add, no 

 doubt, to the attractiveness of the volume, but convey 

 no instruction. Amongst these are the photographic 

 illustrations of groups of specimens of oil-rocks, 

 bitumens, &c., a "mud-volcano" showing a level sur- 

 face on which walking is being cautiously attempted, 

 and a cart laden with Trinidad pitch. 



More care should have been exercised in proof- 

 reading. Thus in the last line but one of p. 223 the 

 word "for " should be "by," and, judging by the con- 

 text, the word "not" has been omitted in the first 

 line of the following page, the author being thus 

 made to state the reverse of what he intended. 



ESSAYS ON ANGLING. 



Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream, and Kindred 

 Studies. By G. E. M. Skues. Pp. xii + 133. 

 (London : Adam and Charles Black, 1910.) Price 

 35. 6d. net. 



IT is long since we have read any book, written by 

 an angler for anglers, with so much pleasure as 

 Mr. Skues's "Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream." 

 The polemics of ardent advocates of the dry fly or the 

 wet fly may instruct, and possibly convert, but they 

 weary the reader; the object of the present book is to 

 advance no theory, but to make the angler approach 

 his subject (and his trout) with an open mind, and 

 think out for himself the problems with which he is 

 confronted. Herein, we conceive, lies the true value 

 of the book. The scene is laid upon the banks of a 

 chalk stream, or of some carrier in the water-meadows 

 that holds dark, hog-backed trout; for setting we 

 have the willows and lush herbage of a southern 

 valley, while the reed warbler, the dabchick, and the 

 corn-crake, are cast for minor parts; yet there is 

 NO. 21 18, VOL. 8.^] 



counsel which we would commend to those whose 

 waters run through heather and bog-myrtle, where 

 the trout are small, with fair golden bellies and ring- 

 spotted sides, and the angler's music is the sweet 

 spring cry of the curlew or the drumming of the 

 snipe. 



It is of the essence of Mr. Skues's teaching that the 

 angler should cast aside the dogmas of his predeces- 

 sors, and should study nature for himself; nature as 

 seen in the trout, and on the banks of the stream, 

 and, above all, in the life-histories of the insects eaten 

 by the trout. There is no dogmatism here, but a 

 pleasant didactic manner, instructing while it amuses, 

 and amusing when it does not instruct; the moral is 

 pointed by tales of full baskets or of bad days (our 

 author's methods seem to have eliminated blanks), and 

 there are constant reminders that bring the reader 

 from his theories straight back to the river's bank. 

 We may learn how to tie flies in imitation of the 

 nymphs of Ephemerids, and how to fish with them, 

 of an effort to reproduce the alder-fly lava and its- 

 results, and of the sad fate of the artificial fresh- 

 water shrimp ; we may further read of the undoing 

 of trout that bulge or tail, of trout that live in strange 

 and unapproachable holes, and of those gourmet trout 

 whose tastes need humouring. 



The temptation to quote from Mr. Skues is irresist- 

 ible, the difficulty is to select ; whether to reproduce 

 his tale of the day on which there was no rise of 

 fly but a strong rise of water-rats, or his comments 

 on flies, or on human nature and its reluctance to 

 jeopardise a shilling cast and twopenny fly for the 

 sake of getting a fish out of some weedy or bushy 

 hole. Here, for instance, is one comment with which 

 we cordially agree : — " Indeed, why a trout should 

 take any artificial fly is a puzzle to me. The very 

 best are not really very like the real things. One thing 

 is clear : It is not form which appeals to the trout, but 

 colour and size." In the light of this passage, the 

 flies shown on the frontispiece should be studied and 

 compared with the actual flies and nymphs. 



Throughout the book the same ruling idea is found ; 

 the preaching of no system, the upholding of no tradi- 

 tion, but a plea for "unfettered judgment, independ- 

 ence of tradition, and, above all, the inquiring mind.' 

 We wish Mr. Skues success in his campaign ; inci- 

 dentally we wish him many readers, and we wish his 

 readers many more such books as this. But when 

 these books come let them be indexed ; good advice 

 is elusive, and captions alone are not always sufficient 

 guides. L. W. B. 



ZOOLOGICAL STUDIES. 



Studies from the Zoological Department, Universit't 

 of Birmingham. Vol. ii. Edited by Prof. F. W]] 

 Gamble, F.R.S. (1910.) 



THIS volume consists of reprints of sixteen papers! 

 from various journals, the outcome of work done! 

 in the years 1905-9 by the staff and students of the! 

 zoological department of the University of Birming-' 

 ham. It is appropriate that the first paper in the 

 volume should be one by the late head of the depart- j 



