[Book Reviews]

Abstract

THE zoologist does not need the aid of a poetic imagination to appreciate the wonderful panorama of marine life with its hosts of interesting phenomena and many absorbing problems. Yet it is not surprising that these things should have stirred the imagination of a man of letters and moved him to weave this delightful phantasy, with a sturgeon as the central figure, and the world of marine zoology as the setting. M. Custot has read widely and well, and has supplemented his extensive reading by constant observation of marine animals in the aquaria at Monaco. Sturly, the hero of this fairy tale, is a young sturgeon, born in the waters of the Rhone, whose life, from the time of his enthusiastic and unsophisticated youth to the crowning act of reproduction, is charmingly told.

Sturly.

By Pierre Custot. Translated from the French by Richard Aldington. Pp. 127. (London: Jonathan Cape, Ltd., 1924.) 5s. net.