380 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Annual Report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, for the 

 Year 1879. Octavo, pp. 631, Government Printing Office, Washington, 

 D. C. 



This Report, prepared by the able, earnest Secretary and Director, Spencer 

 F. Baird, comprises the following points, viz : 



1. Annual report of the Secretary, giving an account of the operations and 

 condition of the establishment for the year 1879, ^^^h the statistics of collections, 

 exchanges, etc. 



2. Report of Executive Committee, exhibiting the financial affairs of the 

 Institution, including a statement of the Smithsonian fund, the receipts and ex- 

 penditures for the year 1879, ^'^^ the estimates for 1880. 



3. Proceedings of the Board of Regents for the session of January, 1880. 



4. General appendix, consisting of scientific papers, original and selected, 

 of interest to collaborators and correspondents of the Institution, teachers, and 

 others engaged in the promotion of knowledge, contributed by such well known 

 writers, explorers and original investigators as Professors E. S. Holden, Otis T. 

 Mason, G. C. Broadhead and Franz Joseph Pisko, and Messrs. Edward H. 

 Knight, Brainerd Mitchell, James Hough, S. T. Walker and many others, in- 

 cluding several prominent army officers whose anthropological articles are of the 

 highest value. 



If so interesting and instructive a work were to be published by a regular 

 publishing" house and not known as a "public document " the demand for it 

 would be unusual. 



Book of the Black Bass. By James A. Henshall, M. D. Large i2mo, 

 463 pages; Cincinnati, Robt. Clarke & Co., 1881. $3.00. 



It is impossible to read this book, which is devoted to a scientific and life 

 history of the black bass and a practical treatise on angling and fly fishing, with a 

 full description of tools, tackle and implements, and which contains scores of 

 illustrations, without becoming convinced that Dr. Henshall is a true " brother 

 of the angle," as well as a thoroughly informed naturalist, on this subject at least. 



One hundred and ninety-one pages are given to the scientific history of the' 

 black bass, its nomenclature, morphology and physiology with instructions for 

 stocking inland waters with this valuable and attractive food ; one hundred and 

 thirty. six to description of rods, lines, hooks, flies, baits and miscellaneous imple- 

 ments and one hundred to instructions and directions for angling and fiy fishing 



