a 
fee 
- Fuly v4, 1873] 
-mands investigation. 
_ becoming scarcer. 
NATURE 
221 
There is a point connected with angling which is raised | has, it is true, mentioned one or two things worth 
by Captain Dick, but not for the first time, and which de- 
It seems to be beyond question 
that, over the whole of Great Britain, trout are every year 
It is very seldom that the angler 
now-a-days makes a basket equal to what would have 
been called a very common take a score of years ago. 
So alarming has been this decrease that district associa- 
tions are being formed for the purpose of watching and 
protecting the spawning grounds in theic neighbourhood. 
The falling off is probably due to a variety of causes, 
such as over-fishing, pollution of streams, want of protec- 
tioa of spawning fish and spawning beds, the prevalence 
of pike, &c. It is certain that many streams and lakes, 
easy of access to populous districts, suffer from being 
over-fished ; but the example of Loch Leven, already re- 
ferred to, shows what may be done if proper precautions 
be taken. This lake is only 3} miles by 2}, and 9 miles 
in circuit, and is open to anglers from all quarters (by 
paying a ceriain sum per hour) during the four months 
May, June, July, and August. The rest of the year the 
like is closed, and the spawning grounds are carefully 
watched. There are both pike and perch in the lake, but 
nets are freely used to keep down these marauders. The 
results of these measures are worthy of notice. For the 
last fifteen years the takes have been gradually increasing, 
and last year upwards of 17,009 trout were taken by the 
rod. During the months of May and June this year 
nearly 9,000 have been taken, and it may be added that 
the average weight of Loch Leven trout is a little under 
1lb, What has been done by private enterprise for this 
lake might and should be done by Government for all the 
lakes and rivers in the country. There is no reason, 
that we know of, why there should not be a close time 
for trout as well as for salmoa. The pollution of rivers 
by public works is a more difficult question to deal with ; 
bat surely something could be done to prevent such whole- 
sale destruction as that, for example, which took place in 
the first week of July this year in the rivers Teviot and 
Ribble. In the former of these rivers tens of thousands 
of fish, including trout, smelt, grayling, and even 
salmon, were poisoned in one day. Unless some action 
be taken by Government strictly prohibiting manufac- 
turers from sending their poisonous refuse into our rivers, 
not only will the fish in these soon become extinct, but 
the rivers themselves thus impregnated will act as open 
sewers generating and propagating disease in every 
direction. With a little judicious legislation, the quantity 
of fish obtained in fresh water might be so largely in- 
creased as to become important as an item of food for the 
people. We have indicated how this might be done with 
regard totrout, &c. With regard to salmon, all that is 
necessary to do is to blast the rocks at the Falls of the 
Tummel, the Gary, and the Spean, in Scotland, and of 
the Axe, and other rivers in England, and the area of 
the spawning grounds of this monarch of our rivers would 
at once be doubled. This could be done at little expense, 
due allowance being of course made for vested rights 
and any interests involved 
A single glance at any page of Captain Dick’s book 
is sufficient to show that he is more accustomed to 
wield the rod than the pen; indeed we fail to sce 
setting down in an article or essay, but not worth 
writing a book aout. His list of artificial flies is very 
full and may be of service. The only contribution to 
Natural History we can find is his statement—which 
we are inclined to accept as fact—that “although fish 
generally lie with their heads pointing up stream, they 
never, by any chance, take a fly in that position, but always 
make a decided turn in the act of rising, and take the fly 
with their heads pointing down stream.” He adduces 
this as a reason for fishing down stream, of which prac- 
tice, in opposition to the best anglers, he is a strenuous 
advocate. As to fishing with minnows, he prefers the 
ordinary metal kill-devils to natural minnows and to all 
other imitations. In this, also, experienced anglers wi.l 
generally disagree with him, There is no lure more 
deadly for large trout, in certain seasons, than the natural 
minnow, and next after that, we should say, is the phan- 
tom minnow. In his remarks on pike-fishing, the author 
does not refer to the spoon-bait, which nevertheless, in 
lakes, especially in dull weather, may safely be backed 
against any other lure. Why does the author almost 
always use the word “ fisherman,” and only once the much 
more precise term “angler”? Strictly speaking, “ fisher- 
man” is a generic term, and applies equally to net and 
rod-fishers, but by common usage is generally employed 
to denote the former; whereas “angler” is a distinctive 
term which can be applied only to the rod-fisher. 
MIVART’S “ ELEMENTARY ANATOMY” 
Lessons in Elemzntary Anatomy. By St. George Mivart, 
F.R.S. Pp. 535. (Macmillan, 1873) 
HIS modest volume is one of the series to which 
Huxley’s “Physiology,” Olivers “ Botany,” and 
Roscoe’s “Chemistry” belong. Like them it has the 
indispensable merit of being an elementary manual 
written by a master of the subject; for while special 
investigations may be often well performed by advanced 
students, primers and text-books can only be properly 
written by experienced teachers. 
The plan of the book is to describe in a popular 
manner the various bones and other parts of human 
anatomy, excepting the reproductive organs, and then to 
point out the chief variations among other vertebrata. 
It would perhaps have been better to have called it 
“Elementary Lessons in the Comparative Anatomy of 
Vertebrate Animals :” for as all the organs are used to 
illustrate those of man, consideration of non-vertebrate 
classes is very reasonably omitted. Moreover, for reasons 
given in the preface, with which every teacher of the 
subject will probably agree, the largest space is given to 
the account of the endoskeleton. The whole forms a cole 
lection of facts, accurate in detail, carefully arranged, and 
clearly described. One would think there must be slips 
among so many isolated statements, but we have failed 
to detect one in a careful perusal of about 300 pages. 
The sixth chapter contains a review of the general mor- 
pholozy of the vertebrate skeleton, and here Mr, Mivart’s 
well-known views, communicated to the Linngean and 
Zoological Societies, are expounded fully but simply, 
the raison Wétre of the gallant captain’s work, He | Without admitting all his positions, as for example the 
