Evening star., 1925-03-08
Reviews of New Books
THE STORY OF THE FISHES.
Edited by John oliver La Gorce
Washington: The National Geo
graphic Society

THE STORY OF THE FISHES.
Edited by John oliver La Gorce.
Washington: The National Geo
graphic Society.
" you may think you have no
~ interest IN the under world.
But i promise you that after
II no more than a half dozen
pages OF this book-looking
pictures, poring over the print-your
mind viii turn completely away from
this mistaken notion of indifference.
For this is. truly. wonder book
whose facts have been fished out of
the sea and spread here in a thou
sand forms of marine animal life. A
world in itself, this, Its people sepa-
rated into races and tribes and fam
lilies, just as we are. All bent, too,
just as we are, upon the tremen-
dous preoccupation of food and pro-
creation and self-preservation. An
iridescent world colored from the
rainbow and all the bright hues of
flowers, and from fiery-hearted jew
els. Your interest caught as II is
sure almost Immediately to be caught,
YOU are at once offered the chance to
look into this newly discovered world
from the standpoint of your own bent
and choice. Are you keen to this
subject from the angle of our own
1000 supply! mere, lncH, Is sloig
of the food fishes telling where these
are to be found, telling of the great
industries that have grown up around
these fishing fields, of the wealth ac-
cruing from them and of the wide
relations established by the distribu-
,tion of this particular kind of food.
Indeed, in a word, you will find that
this humble denizen of the under
world has stirred up international
quarrels and set the bounds of GER
tain international policies. Do you
have a turn toward processes to-
ward the ways by which raw mate
rial is converted to common human
uses? That story is here, too. Again,
are YOU stirred over the amazing
workmanship of nature-shaping
adapting, conforming, cooperating
encoura ging the willto-live through
q thousand accommodations that sum,
finally. to the triumph of that viii on
the one hand, to its defeat on the
other To many this last story will
prove to be the greatest one. Nature
is, after all, the surpa ssing story
teller of the world. The Story or
the Fishes" is the work of different
men. This one out of his special
knowledge has given one. Another
out of his particular equipment has
offered another. Certain Citizens ~of
of the Gulf Stream Devil Fishing
in the Gulf Stream" Salmon: Amer
teas Most Valuable Fish" are titles
pointing upon the character and quail
ity of these stories as whole.
word for the simplicity of these dis
cussions The scientist is no longer
a cryptic abstraction. He is now a
mantle best of him is-telling
with directness and drama and en-
thusiasm the discoveries that he Is
making. He is at his best here. A
hundred pictures support and illumt-
nate the text of these stories. Many
of them are color plates by Hashime
Murayama made from life itself.
genuine wonder book. / should
think a boy would eat this book up
He will if he has chance.
JOHN WILLIAM STRUT, Third
Baron RayIeigh. o. NJ. F. n. :.
BY his son, Robert John Strut,
Fourth Baron Rayleigh, F. r. 5.
Illustrated. New York: Longman's,
Green & Co.
Lord Rayleigh, the distinguished
scientist, has received homage from
fellow scientists and high honors
from those whose privilege IL is to
reward intellectual achievement. The
purpose of this volume on the part
of Lord Rayleigh's son is, therefore.
to tell the story of the man, his
father. in the midst of his family,
among his friends, and in collective
life around him. In so far as this is
possible the design is to leave the
record of science to its own proper
channel of publication. 1t is not pos
sible, however, to dissociate wholly
man from his life work. So, happily,
throughout this absorbing record
la h a
blend of private life and public serv-
Ice. An easy and communicable book
from beginning to end. One whose
manner gathers in the
home and the family and the interests
And when the story
goez further afleld for encounters
with this and that one of distinction
in some scientific research, both in
Europe and America, there is still the
same simplicity of movement, the
same freedom from an oppressive
learning, the same direct contact.
A most impressive fgure-one was
going to say, in spite of his great
accomplishments. Rather let us say
a strikingly picturesque figure be-
cause of the fundamental gifts of
the man turned to the service of
ecience in a specially dramatic man
ner. A book packed with information
of a general sort but save from any
diffusion of effect through the unity
ing and harmonizing influence of the
personal story of the man himself.
THE SHALLOW END. BY Ian Hay
author of The First Hundred
Thousand etc. illustrations by
Lewis Banner Boston: Houghton,
Miff1in Company.
OF happy mood, as they set out to
he ok a
off the top Of things by Ian Hay. The
top of things, nowadays, is a foamy,
irid escent, floaty mess. Laughter and
song and dance Strapped feet and