Untitled

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21826, 4 July 1936, Page 17

A GENTLE SCIENCE Life of the Shore and Shallow Sea. By Douglas P. Wilson. Ivor Nicholson and Watson. 150 pp. With 150 Photographs. Through Whitcombe and Tombs. This book of marine natural history is one more proof that Englishmen who write about birds and beasts and plants find it difficult to be dull, and that they catch the simplicity and directness of the natural world. Most of them, like Mr Wilson, have a sense of humour, great compassion, and a slightly ironical attitude to the ordinary superior man who does not see what flowers are at his feet. One specimen of his style may be quoted, unpretentious and kind like all his writing. He is describing a fish in an observation tank, the angler, noted for the natural rod which grows on its head. For three months, it was fed by hand, and, like its predecessor, soon learned to open its mouth in readiness to receive a fish handed to it. During this time, while it grew two inches, it was not observed to use its fishing rod, although small living wrasses shared its tank. One day some baby whiting, , three or four inches long, were brought straight in from the sea and happened to be put with it; immediately the angler took notice, and in obvious excitement jerked its tagged fishing rod to and fro, bql the whiting were in no mood for feeding and took no notice. The angler, seemingly perplexed, after a time ceased all efforts with the rod and caught them one by one as they unwittingly wandered just above or in front of the mouth. Mr Wilson’s book is intended for those who have little knowledge of the ways of life in the sea; technical terms are few and those that are used are fully explained when they first occur. The book can be read with ease, and knowledge is so delicately insinuated that at the end the reader may be surprised by being able to consider himself a small authority on sea plants and animals. Every chapter is full of facts and incidents, nearly all drawn from Mr Wilson’s own observation. After describing various types of sea life, he turns to the influence of waves and the nature of the sea bottom, then to light, temperature, salinity, pressure and their effects. There are chapters on feeding and breeding, on movements, on relationships, and on the struggle for life on the shore. There is a final chapter, brilliantly informative, on the cycle of life* in the sea. An appendix is full of practical instructions for the amateur marine biologist. Such knowledge as Mr Wilson’s has not been easy, though it has been delightful, to acquire. He has examined shore species in normal surroundings, but only at low water “when many are merely awaiting quietly the return of the tide.” Further out he has relied upon trawls and dredges and upon the co-operation of fishermen. It is surprising to read that on much frequented fishing grounds there are very few square yards not disturbed at least once a year. Nature does her best, and starfish, mutilated by the trawl or caught up and battered on a hard deck, are learning to regenerate one or more arms, and even show signs of having grown some of the arms more than once. The illustrative photographs are, in many cases, more than interesting; some are beautiful, others have an individual distinction. Thus there are two charming pictures of the butterfly blenny guarding its eggs in a Bovril bottle, and protruding its head from the bottle’s neck in a manner both stern and coy. Another picture represents a dagonet, a fish j SUSChifiyOUS ftl ' r i

DEFENDER OF RIGHT Albert of Belgium. The Defence of Right By Emile Cammaerts. Ivor Nicholson and Watson. 477 pp. (21/- net) Through Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. It has long been an established principle of English Law that the King can do no wrong, and M. Cammaerts would have his readers believe—that this was so in fact with Albert 1, King of the Belgians, Not once in all these pages does - M. Cammaerts find a fault in either the acts or the words of King Albert; and he insists to the point of boredom in extolling the King’s many virtues. Indeed, from the first page to the last, through his early life, through the war period, and through the long years of recovery .from its effects and from the effects of the slump which followed. King Albert is shown as a man whose every act was inspired and who, on innumerable occasions, rescued the country from the verge of disaster to which it had been brought by the acts of her less gifted politicians. Yet M. Cammaerts does this so skilfully, and at times in such a concealed way, that the continual harping on the subject is not at all noticeable for the first half of the book. He was so closely conected with the King and with Parliament during the years of which he writes that he is infected with the general enthusiasm which surrounded the king, and cannot help passing this on to his readers. He has the added advantage-of having access to many documents and letters which have not been made public before. These are grouped in appendices at the end of the book. The general tone of the book can be judged from the following quotation, taken from near the end: The epic of King Albert’s career is the story of a simple and. honest man, conscious of his responsibilities, faithful to his engagements, sincere in his convictions, and acting according to his principles, who was determined not to abate one jot’ of this honesty and sincerity when dealing with diplomacy and politics. To the cynic this may sound like a fairy-tale. It needed a great man to make it history. And again in the closing paragraphs of the book; When all is said, it is neither through his wisdom, his courage, his sense of duty, his self-sacrifice, his broadmindedness, nor - even his sense of goodness, that he will be remembered. In other times one or other of these features of his character might have overshadowed the others, but Albert of Belgium arose at a crucial period of the history of mankind ... As a faithful servant of the Constitution and of international treaties, King Albert gave his answer and, by giving it, nearly lost his crown and ruined his land. He was no doubt better, braver, and wiser than many princes who were called good, brave, and wise, but his loyalty outshone his other virtues . . . He deserves the finest title which can be bestowed on any leader at a time when justice and individual freedom are so sorely tried; Defender of Right Yet this emphasis of King Albert’s many great qualities is the only fault to be found with the book. It is admirably written, and much new material about the origin of the war and the subsequent years of toil in Belgium has been brought to the light of day. Many illustrations are also published for the first time, and altogether an excellent account of King Albert’s life is given.