Notices of Books . 
108 
[January, 
new theory of the migrations of the herring. He denies that it 
at any time of the year inhabits the deep-sea bottoms, where its 
favourite food, small oily crustaceans, cannot be found. During 
the summer it lives scattered, in the open seas, between Iceland, 
Scotland, and Norway, and approaches the Norwegian coast in 
a south-easterly direction at the beginning of the spawning- 
season. The Nordland great herring lives, in Sar’s opinion, to 
the north-west of Nordland and Finmarken, but somewhat 
nearer the coast. The periodicity in the herring fisheries, the 
occurrence at certain intervals of years unusually productive, is 
a question still in dispute. It would be very rash to deny the 
possibility of such a phenomenon. 
The artificial cultivation of carp in ponds, as carried on in 
Holstein and East Prussia, is described at some length. We 
have heard it maintained that land laid out in well-arranged 
carp-ponds will yield a larger return than the same superficies 
devoted to grazing oxen or sheep. The profits in Silesia are 
given as about £y ios. per acre. 
All persons who take an interest in fish, whether zoological, 
economical, or gastronomical, will find this volume most in- 
structive reading. Great credit is due to Prof. Spencer F. Baird 
for the zeal with which he pursues the important investigations 
with which he has been entrusted. 
The Lazy Lays and Prose Imaginings. Written, printed, pub- 
lished, and reviewed by W. H. Harrison. A.D. 1877 
(Popular Chronology). A.M. 5877 (Torquemada). A.M. 
50,800,077 (Huxley). London : 38, Great Russell Street. 
We have here a somewhat singular book, partly in prose and 
partly in rhyme, sometimes comic and sometimes sentimental. 
On its cover it bears emblazoned a griffin who is to keep watch 
on the Arimaspians of the nineteenth century — i.e., American 
publishers. The author gives, among other things, instructions 
how to “ double the utility of the printing-press.” The simplest 
way to effeCt so desirable an end would be, in our opinion, to 
print less rubbish, in the prevalent shapes of novels, stump- 
orations, biographies, quack advertisements, and the like, so that 
books and papers worth reading might stand out more distinctly 
before the world. Mr. Harrison unfortunately takes a very dif- 
ferent plan : he aims simply at economising paper by introduction 
of characters which would none of them take up more room than 
does the letter “ i.” We can see not the least good in his pro- 
posals. The introduction of a new character, which would 
certainly not be adopted all the world over, would retard instead 
of promoting civilisation, and would be particularly unfortunate 
