232 
Analyses of Books. 
(April, 
of our practice. We give an instance : — The raising of carp has 
long been found in North Germany a fairly profitable business. 
Farms in watery situations are very frequently fitted up with a 
series of properly arranged ponds for the young fry, for the larger 
carp, and a wintering-pond. The former are shallow, but for 
the latter a depth of 8 to 12 feet is required. It is found that in 
many seasons more money can thus be realised from an acre of 
fish-pond than from an acre of arable land or pasture ; and it is 
somewhat strange that our farmers, in their very natural anxiety 
for profitable means for utilising the soil, have done so little in 
this direction. 
The culture of carp is described very thoroughly in this report. 
In Upper and Nether Lusatia the production of carp amounts to 
from 8000 to 10,000 cwts. A single German breeder of gold- 
fish raises annually 300,000. He employs fifteen labourers, a 
night-watchman, and a book-keeper, besides the men employed 
at his sale-rooms in Berlin. All these persons* earn a good live- 
lihood, and the profits are considerable. 
Passing from these practical faCts, it must be noted that the 
present report contains very valuable contributions to the natural 
history of the herring, the cod, and certain of the Salmonidae, 
especially the Californian salmon. 
The liberality of the American Government in supplying not 
merely valuable information on pisciculture, but in forwarding 
large supplies of the ova of esteemed food-fishes to New Zealand, 
Tasmania, &c., deserves the warmest acknowledgment. 
A Polar Reconnaissance. Being the Voyage of the Isbjcern to 
Novaya Zemlya, in 1879. By Albert H. Markham, 
F.R.G.S. (Captain Royal Navy). London : C. Kegan Paul 
and Co. 
Captain Markham is evidently an enthusiast in the cause of 
ArCtic exploration. The voyage here narrated may be looked 
upon as a feeler serving to ascertain the most hopeful track for a 
future Polar Expedition. The author, from his own experience, 
endorses the view of Sherard Osborne, that, in order to pene- 
trate into the still unknown north, it is necessary to find a coast- 
line trending northwards with a western aspeCt. As such he 
seleCls the west coast of Franz Josef Land, stretching to the 
north from 8o° lat. He considers it essential, however, that the 
Expedition should be prepared to spend a winter in the ice, and 
to send out extensive sledge parties. 
The first part of this work contains an account of earlier 
voyages to the north-east — English, Dutch, Russian, Norwegian, 
Austrian, and Swedish. The author regrets the comparatively 
