ises] GEOGBAPHICAL EVOLUTION 119 



j)lan. As he tells us at the outset, he repudiates preconceived 

 Hotions ; and the first two volumes of his work tries to state the 

 problem, rather than to solve it. In the spirit of the founders of 

 the Geological Society, he holds that synthesis must precede analysis. 

 " Das Antlitz der Erde " was therefore planned to consist of four 

 parts, of which only three have yet been published. The first 

 A'olume was issued in Vienna in 1885, and contained the first two 

 parts ; the third part, forming the second volume, followed three 

 years later. A French translation is now issued for the first two 

 parts. The work has been admirably done by M. de Margerie and 

 a group of collaborators, who add many references and footnotes, 

 and sometimes important interpolations in the text, in order to 

 bring the work up to date. One very valuable addition to the 

 French edition is an increased number of sketch-maps. Many of 

 the new figures are well chosen, and are very clear. The paucity 

 of maps in the original issue was its one fault. 



We owe M. de Margerie and his colleagues so much gratitude 

 for the great labour of this translation that it is ungracious to 

 criticise. But there is one improvement that might perhaps be 

 made. The first volume left Suess's hands more than thirteen years 

 ago. Many statements in the, text he would now, no doubt, wish 

 to qualify or withdraw. There is no word in the volume from its 

 author to suggest what corrections he would wish to make, and how 

 far it represents his present views. It might have saved much 

 future misunderstanding if we had been told whether the re-issue of 

 some of the suggestions is to be taken as a proof that they are still 

 regarded as probable by Professor Suess, 



The volume, of which the French translation has just been 

 issued, consists of a short introduction followed by the seventeen 

 chapters of the first two parts. Each chapter forms a masterly 

 geological essay, and may be read separately with profit by specialists 

 on the subjects discussed. Professor Suess's knowledge of geologi- 

 cal literature is colossal, and he illuminates every subject he treats 

 with the light of his poetical imagination. Each chapter is a gem ; 

 but the thread by which they are to be strung into a connected 

 chain has not yet been completely spun. It is not very easy, 

 therefore, to summarise the work into a connected argument, which 

 may, however, be stated somewhat as follows. 



It is known that in many areas as, e.g., on the eastern coast 

 of the Tyrhenian Sea, there are detached fragments of ancient 

 shore lines which rest in one place on the face of an abrupt spur 

 from the Apennines, in another traverse a cliff of limestone round 

 an old bay, and elsewhere lie on the old Archean rocks of Calabria 

 or on the late Cainozoic tuffs of Etna. The old shore-line, however, 

 maintains its absolutely horizontality. Suess contends that it would 



