i88i.j 
231 
Analyses of Books. 
We differ from the author on many points, and on others we 
are doubtful, but whilst the theory of the origin of species is still 
so far from completion we would listen to every candid contribu- 
tion that is offered. 
United States Commission on Fish and Fisheries. Part VL 
Report of the Commissioners for 1878. Washington : 
Government Printing-Office. 
This important and bulky return comprises an inquiry into the 
decrease of food-fishes, returns on the propagation of such fishes 
in the waters of the United States, and, in addition, several 
useful appendices. In noticing this work there is one preliminary 
reflection which we are unable to suppress : what an immense 
supply of food — capable, moreover, of great extension —we must 
be content to abandon if the Vegetarian party should succeed in 
enforcing their views ! 
The author of this Report, Spencer F. Baird, justly remarks 
that “ wherever the white man plants his foot, and the so-called 
civilisation of a country is begun, the inhabitants of the air, the 
earth, and the water begin to disappear,” and he adds that “ the 
cause of this rapid deterioration is not to be found in a reason- 
able destruction for purposes of food, of material for clothing, or 
other needs. It is only as the result of wanton destruction for 
purposes of sport, or for the acquisition of some limited portion 
only of the animal, that a notable reduction is produced, and the 
ultimate tendency to extinction is initiated.” In confirmation of 
these views we find statistics proving the fearful decrease of 
food-fishes in the rivers and the shore-waters of the Eastern 
States within the last half-century. It will be well for mankind 
if they can be brought to see how suicidal has been their conduCt. 
Better still if future generations cease to look upon the taking of 
animal life as an amusement. The difficulties to be encountered 
in making the ocean supply a fair quota of food for the increasing 
population of the dry land are very serious. There is wanton or 
ignorant destruction to be checked ; there is the scientific propa- 
gation of fish to be elaborated and extended ; and there are, in 
England at least, monopolist middle-men to be hunted down, 
who have proved deadly enemies alike to the producer and the 
consumer. 
In all these directions there is still much to be done and much 
to be learnt. The natural-history of many food-fishes is still so 
imperfectly known that it is by no means certain what times and 
modes of capture interfere least with the multiplication of these 
creatures. 
As regards pisciculture our knowledge is decidedly in advance 
