NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 437 



States in the latter part of March or early in April, and are 

 generally first seen by the fishermen off the coast of North 

 Carolina, in the region of Cape Hatteras. The year 1885 was a 

 remarkable one in annals of American fishing ; it was a period 

 of glut in Mackerel. About 175 vessels were engaged in the 

 fishery, and to New York alone probably no fewer than 850 trips, 

 all told, were made; these averaged from 140 to 150 barrels 

 each, so that during the season about 125,000 barrels of fresh 

 Mackerel were landed in that city, this quantity representing 

 about 31,250,000 fish. 



The reappearance of the Tile-fish (Lopholatilus chamaleonticeps) 

 is detailed by Dr. Bumpus. Most naturalists are familiar with 

 the facts of the recent sudden appearance and subsequent dis- 

 appearance of this fish ; and it was included by Mr. F. A. Lucas 

 in his memoir on " Animals recently extinct or threatened with 

 extermination, as represented in the Collections of the U.S. 

 National Museum." Recent investigations have shown that the 

 area of the distribution of the Tile-fish " probably extends from 

 69° to 73° west longitude, and along a band of the sea bottom of 

 varying width, and from seventy to eighty fathoms in depth, 

 although no tests were made in deeper water." It is also clearly 

 a "warm water " fish. 



The usual American enterprise has been exhibited in all 

 things pertaining to economic ichthyology. The demand for 

 fresh Herring as bait in the Cod fisheries led, in 1890, to the 

 building of a number of freezing-houses along the New England 

 coast, where shore Herrings are frozen during the fall, and kept 

 for use during the winter and early spring ; while " The Mussel 

 fishery and pearl-button industry of the Mississippi River," already 

 referred to in the pages of the 'Zoologist' (1899, p. 480), receives 

 ample and well-illustrated treatment, and again proves that man's 

 interference with nature has not yet reached its full dimensions. 



