October 2 1, 1922] 



NA TURE 



535 



which are by-products of the industry. Mr. Radcliffe 

 has been at great pains to bring together a great mass 

 of material which he has collated and coaxed into a 

 very readable form. The illustrations are both good 

 and numerous. The result is an important work which 

 is both entertaining reading, and of considerable value 

 as a comprehensive book of reference. In the main, it 

 consists of classified quotations which are analysed and 

 evaluated by the author. One would gather that the 

 author has thoroughly enjoyed his self-imposed task. 

 He revels in argument, and while now and then he may, 

 perhaps, be suspected of " special pleading," his inter- 

 pretations of doubtful or obscure passages are always 

 interesting and suggestive, even when he fails to be 

 entirely convincing. 



The introduction extends over sixty pages and deals 

 with a number of points of general 

 interest and with early prehistoric 

 fishing. For our knowledge of fish- 

 ing practices during the Stone and 

 Bronze Ages we are dependent upon 

 evidence which is, unfortunately, 

 meagre in amount, and requires 

 much speculation for the comple- 

 tion of the picture. Mr. Radcliffe 

 has not made an intensive study of 

 fishing as practised by recent Stone- 

 age peoples, and he makes but slight 

 use of the evidence which they can 

 afford, valuable though it may be 

 for the light which it can throw 

 upon the archaeological record. 

 Ethnological data must be brought 

 to bear upon archaeological research 

 if an adequate diagnosis of early 

 customs and appliances is to be 

 achieved. A comprehensive work dealing with 

 fishing pursuits and methods among the recent " un- 

 risen " peoples, the progress of whose more or less 

 primitive culture has been arrested or retarded at 

 various stages of advancement, still remains to be 

 written. When such a work, based upon comparative 

 study, is available, archaeological commentarists will 

 find a valuable ally which will assist materially in their 

 interpretations of ancient data. 



The present volume would have gained by a wider 

 reference to evidence derived from ethnological sources, 

 and some of the problems with which Mr. Radcliffe 

 deals so interestingly might have been more con- 

 vincingly attacked or solved. Mr. Radcliffe takes 

 especial delight in tracing the earliest references to 

 various fishing-appliances. [See Figs. 1 and 2 here 

 reproduced by the courtesy of the publishers.] 

 Martial he assigns the first mention of the jointi 

 NO. 2764, VOL. I io] 



(crescens harundo), and of fishing with a fly ; but to 

 /Elian the first definite reference to the use of an 

 artificial fly. In dealing with the latter, he appears 

 to be convinced that the artificial fly of those days 

 was an imitation, as close as possible, of a natural 

 fly ; but this view does not seem to be borne out by 

 ^Elian's description, which rather suggests the reverse, 

 i.e. a type of lure which was a novelty to the fish, 

 which were attracted by its unusual gaudiness. 

 Aristotle is given credit as the first " scale-reader " in 

 estimating the age of fishes. There seems to be a 

 zoological confusion when Mr. Radcliffe uses evidence 

 from two passages, one of which refers to the scales of 

 fish which afforded an indication of age, while the other 

 relates to the growth indications upon the shell of a 

 Murex (a mollusc). But zoological differentiation is 



scarcely Mr. Radcliffe's strong point, and he apparently 

 is convinced that dolphins are to be classed with the 

 fishes (pp. 91, 92, 95, 165, 450, etc.), and this in spite 

 of the fact that Aristotle, whom he quotes, recognised 

 essential differences between fish and cetacean 

 mammals. The plate opposite p. 180 is described as 

 illustrating a " pattern of Torpedo fish " ; but the three 

 fishes represented clearly belong to three distinct 

 varieties, all of them bony fishes, whereas the Torpedo 

 fish (a kind of ray) belongs to the group of cartilaginous 

 fishes. Again, on p. 414, he includes shell-fish among the 

 fishes prohibited by Moses, without any covering com- 

 ment. These " termino-zoological inexactitudes " tend 

 somewhat to obscure the scientific status of the book. 



A time-honoured controversy is revived and reviewed 

 in detail in chapter 2, where the author deals with the 

 various intecgretations of the function of the ox-horn 

 («p"* poos dypavXiuo) referred to in the "Odyssey" 



2 1922 



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