574 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



for the valley of the Tiber, and how the deep clefts of the streams are a hindrance 

 to it at Civita Castellana and at Narni. It is a different matter in the Gold del 

 Furlo, where, on the far side of the Apennines, there seems only one possible 

 descent. Continuing the very interesting account of Italy, we fail to see how 

 " decaying vegetation " (p. 90) affects the distribution of malaria; and Mr. Lyde 

 must have observed that the frequency of umbrellas (p. 91) is just as much a sign 

 of a hot climate as of rain. It is a pleasure to go through this volume critically, 

 because one learns so much upon the way. It is not meant as a compendium 

 of elementary truisms, but as an encouragement to geographic thought. As 

 a sharp contrast in physical conditions, Scandinavia follows upon Italy. Then, 

 in " The Balkan Peninsula," we have a crisp little sketch of Montenegro, land 

 and people. The "dominant note" of the book unfortunately separates it by 

 more than two hundred pages from an equally effective sketch of Carniola and 

 Dalmatia. 



It is not likely that any one person has seen all that is here described. 

 Mr. Lyde has gathered his material so skilfully that it is impossible to say how 

 much has depended on personal observation. The description of the Portuguese 

 on p. 166 is out of place in a book that should be used in the impressionable 

 higher forms of schools, and contact with other iraces than our own usually 

 smooths away a host of prejudices. The book as a whole, however, is an 

 incentive to intelligent and thoughtful travel, and the coloured physical maps 

 at once suggest attractive fields. 



G. A. J. C. 



The Nature and Origin of Fiords. By J. W. Gregory, F.R.S., D.Sc. 

 [Pp. xvi + 542. With 8 plates, and 84 figures in the text.] (London : 

 John Murray, 1913. Price 16s.) 



The title and dimensions of this handsome book are a proof of the considerable 

 interest aroused in recent years by questions of physical geography. We are 

 still a long way from the time when the author of a first-class work of travel 

 will be required to show some knowledge of the origins of topographic 

 forms ; but Prof. Gregory's own writings, and a general acquaintance with 

 the methods of Prof. W. M. Davis, must surely have helped many in this 

 desirable direction. All visitors to Norway hear something about fjords or 

 fiords, and they will now be able to realise the extent and interest of the 

 literature that has connected these long sea-inlets with the movements of 

 continental margins. 



Prof. Gregory dismisses at an early stage the theory that glaciers have been 

 responsible for fjords. The Shetland Islands, for example, record a direction of 

 ice-movement at right angles to the trend of the sea-filled valleys. " In all the 

 fiord districts," the author urges, " of which we have adequate evidence, the fiord- 

 valleys were excavated during the Pliocene period, so that the later ice of the 

 Pleistocene period used the fiords and did not originate them" (p. 15). Even 

 the thresholds where shallow water occurs in the mouths of so many fjords are 

 not relied on as an essential character, although it is admitted that they are 

 often due to the form of the rock-floor. Those who believe more strongly than 

 Prof. Gregory in the potency of glacial erosion have of course found an important 

 argument in the existence of rock-thresholds in glaciated ravines below the 

 sea-level. Such features have been compared with much justice to the rock- 



