# The Zoologist/4th series, vol 6 (1902)/Issue 738/Notices of New Books

Published in The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6, issue 738, p. 470–472
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
This book forms one of the series known as "The American Sportsman's Library"; it transports us to the rivers and lakes of North America, and in the recital of its interesting theme we forget that we are anglers, and as naturalists absorb its interesting bionomical facts and observations. The Salmon has long possessed almost a literature of its own, and it is worthy of it; Mr. Dean Sage occupies the first section of the volume with his story of the Atlantic Salmon. We all know the perversity with which fish will respond to the allurement of the fly, and every angler has engraven on his memory the reminiscence of those hours when they would rise at anything. Even injuries will not prevent this experimental voracity. Mr. Sage has known instances of fish taking the fly when so badly hurt as to make it seem almost incredible that they should want to move. "I took one which had lately lost a good pound of flesh by a Seal bite, and saw one of twenty-three pounds taken, which I afterwards learned had been hooked, played, gaffed, and lost the evening before about half a mile below. In addition to the fly embedded in his jaw with a yard of gut fast thereto, he had a deep open gaff wound in his shoulder." "The Pacific Salmons" are described by Messrs. Townsend and Smith, and the fine species of Oncorhynchus and Salmo gairdneri (the last in reality a Trout) receive concise but ample treatment.
To Mr. W.C. Harris is given the subject of the "Trouts of America." These fish appear to have given no less sport to the angler than satisfaction to the systematist in the elaboration of species and subspecies, a question with which we are now happily quite unconcerned. The living adaptations to their environment by these fishes are remarkable. In the Yellowstone Lake, Trout ​are especially abundant about the hot overflow from the Lake Geyser Basin. The hot water flows for a time on the surface, and Trout may be taken immediately under these currents, and they have also been known to rise to a fly through a hot scalding surface. The Utah Trout not only lives in an alkaline lake, but thrives there, growing to a weight of twelve or more pounds; while a species of Salmon-Trout (Salmo bathæcetor), found in Lake Crescent, Washington, lives in deep water, in some places over seven hundred feet, and does not come to the surface at any season of the year.
The illustrations of this book are very beautiful, especially to an old angler who now no longer follows the craft. But these pages promote one considerable reflection, which is, that when fish are less stndied to be hooked, or primarily watched for that purpose, an observant naturalist may find a new field; we want Gilbert White to follow Isaac Walton.
Mr. Webber as late Forest Surveyor for the North-West Provinces, and Deputy Conservator of Forests in the Central Provinces and Gorakhpur, has had unlimited opportunities for observing the natural history features of a varied faunistic region; his official duties frequently took him to little visited spots; his love of hunting wild game increased his experience, and he has written a book which may be well placed near Hooker's now classical "Himalayan Journals." The narrative, however, is not confined to the forest regions, and some of the most interesting chapters describe a journey to the roof of the world on the Tibetan frontier, an expedition which included the hunting of the Wild Yak (Bos grunniens), and that ancestral Sheep—Ovis ammon. On the mountain slopes near Gurla Mandhata the ground "seemed to be the breeding-place of all the Larks in India. Their nests were so numerous that one ran the chance of treading on them frequently. Indeed, all the birds and (other) animals except the Yaks were quite tame in this strange country. The mother Larks would sit within a yard of your feet, and almost let you put your hand on them, and the ​white Hares, which abounded in some places, would sit up and stare at you not five yards off."
Although the principal zoological observations refer to the larger mammals, the ornithologist will find much very interesting matter. In the forests of the Bhabar, where the sal-tree (Shorea robusta) is probably the most dominant, or one-tree occupier of any forest in the world, many birds are noticed, and on open uncultivated flats the Spur-winged Plover (Hoplopterus ventralis) is found. Mr. Webber one day had an opportunity of seeing how useful this spur can be to the bird. " I saw one of these birds engaged in mortal combat with a snake which was trying to rob her nest, a perfectly bare spot on the bare ground. The bird got the best of the battle, inflicting some sharp spur blows on the serpent, which retired discomfited."
In practice there is probably no sport more exciting than the tracking and killing of large mammals; it is possible, however, that there is nothing more depressing than a long perusal of the operation. We sicken by our fireside, when without the excitement of the hunt we read of the crash of the bullet, and we visualize the efforts of the maimed quarry to escape. It is pleasant to learn from Mr. Webber that the inhabitants of the jungle do not regard man in India as an enemy, as shown by their extraordinary tameness, which "is a silent testimony from nature to the high humanity of the Buddhist and Hindu religions, which look on animal life as, alike with man's, divine."
There are two conditions attached to all natural history collecting operations—one that the collector has his heart in the work, the other that he knows how to do it. This little work has been prepared to instruct any traveller, or colonist, who is anxious to learn how to assist the cause of natural history, and his great National Museum in London. There are simple rules for skinning and preserving vertebrates, and others for collecting and conserving invertebrates. The collection and preservation of plants and fossils are also described. This little book should be as necessary an item in the traveller's scanty baggage as is the proverbial tooth-brush.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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