402 



NATURE 



[January 26, 191 1 



acquainted with reproduction processes, but it should 

 be consulted by those who wish to gain an idea of the 

 many methods available. As a picture book alone 

 the volume is cheap at the price of 5s. 



(2) This very serviceable publication celebrates its 

 jubilee in the present year. This series of almanacs 

 commenced its life as a wall or sheet calendar, and 

 appeared as a supplement to the British Journal of 

 Photography in the year i860. The current volume 

 is decidedly bulky, and weighs 275 lb. Appropri- 

 ately, it passes in review its past history, and con- 

 tains a number of portraits of editors and publishers, 

 past and present. 



Our photographic readers are all familiar with the 

 g-eneral nature of the contents of recent issues, so 

 that it is not necessary to recapitulate these. The 

 epitome of progress, contributed by the editor, is a 

 conspicuous feature as usual, and gives a verv use- 

 ful set of classified abstracts of papers, communica- 

 tions, and articles describing the progress made in 

 technical photography, which have appeared in the 

 British and foreign Press during the twelve months 

 ending October 20, igio. This alone occupies about 

 140 pages. Another subject treated, most helpful to 

 those who cannot make themselves acquainted with it 

 first hand, is that which deals with recent novel in- 

 troductions in photographic apparatus ; the eightv-six 

 pages devoted to this are deserving of close attention. 

 The formulae for photographic processes, covering 

 sixty-seven pages, and the instructions for the use 

 of commercial photographic materials, occupying 

 sixty-five pages, are valuable features to have brought 

 together under one cover. The various tables — 

 chemical, exposure, optical, &c. — and the directory of 

 photographic bodies and societies, all of which are 

 brought well up-to-date, seem to show the mass of 

 useful material embodied in this almanac. 



No mention has yet been made of the useful and 

 well-indexed advertisements, which take up nearly 

 two-thirds of the 1348 pages, that compose the 

 volume. These in themselves are very handy for 

 reference. The jubilee number is thus a fitting 

 volume for the occasion, and should, as usual, be in 

 every photographic studio or laboratory. 



GEOLOGY AND LANDSCAPE.^ 

 Geologische Charakterbilder . Edited by Prof. Dr. H. 

 Stille. Heft ii., Grosse erratische Blocke im nord- 

 deutschen Flachlande. By F. Wahnschaffe. Pp. 

 v + 6 plates. Price 3.60 marks. Heft iii., Das 

 Karstphanomen. By A. Grund. Pp. iii 4- 6 plates. 

 (Berlin : Gebriider Borntraeger, 1910.) Price 4.80 

 marks. 



* I "HE object of these " Charakterbilder " is to provide 



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geologists with a series of illustrations of natural 



phenomena, which shall be accurate and typical. The 

 authors are selected for special knowledge, and supply 

 several pages of text, printed on sheets of the same 

 size as the plates. The plates, however, are loose, 

 and can be used in the work of small classes, or can 

 be framed for laboratories. 



Herr A. Grund deals with the features of the 

 karstlands, and surely a grey instead of a brown tint 

 NO. 2152, VOT.. 85] 



would have done more justice to the pictures that he 

 has brought together. Except for welcome patches of 

 terra rossa round the dolinas, sometimes perhaps turned 

 up newly by the plough, the impression of the karst 

 is eminently white or grey. A few dark trees, them- 

 selves almost colourless, break or serve to emphasise 

 the monotony of the slopes. The author aptly com- 

 pares the dolinas to the valleys of normal areas; they 

 are the channels that lead off the water in a pernn 

 able land. The character of a plateau is, moreovn 

 preserved without marked local dissection, in a district 

 where there can be no considerable surface-streams. 

 A peneplane, once established, long remains a pent- 

 plane. An interesting discussion is given in con- 

 nection with plate ii., as to why the limestone or karst 

 areas of higher latitudes, as in Moravia or Cham- 

 pagne, are covered with vegetation, in opposition to 

 those of the Mediterranean region. The chief factor 

 is held to be weathering by frost, which soon cumbeiv 

 the surface with blocks that promote a soil. Signs 

 of mechanical weathering are almost absent in the 

 barren karstlands. A typical polje is shown from 

 Herzegovina in plate vi., with its alluvial floor con- 

 trasting sharply with the desolate limestone hills. In 

 this case the form of the basin is attributed, as in 

 many Bosnian examples, to the deformation of a 

 valley-floor by earth-movements. 



Herr Wahnschaffe had a simpler task in describini, 

 in the previous part, a number of large erratics found 

 on the North German plain. The greatest of these, 

 a mass of garnet-mica-gneiss, occurs in a churchyard 

 at Gross-Tj'chow in Hinterpommern, and measures, 

 above ground, 374 m. in height, iS'go m. in lengtl 

 and ii'25 m. in breadth. The thick-set fir-woods thai 

 surround most of these wanderers from Scandinavia | 

 form " Charakterbilder " in themselves. The author 1 

 provides a clear, brief essay on the history of the { 

 theorv of glacial transport, beginning with Playfair 

 in 1802. G. A. J. C. 



FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN. 

 Der Stand unserer Kenntnisse vom fossilen Menscheti. 

 By Prof. W. Branca. Pp. viii4-ii2. (Leipzig: 

 Veit and Co., 1910.) Price 2.50 marks. 



WITHIN the last few years there has been a 

 marked recrudescence of interest in the stud\ 

 of the fossil remains of man, and the stream of litera- 

 ture relating to the subject has suddenly becom e s. 

 voluminous that the torrent threatens to overwheli 

 those readers who cannot devote their whole time t 

 its perusal. In these circumstances any attempt i' 

 summarise and criticise this recent work is likely t. 

 meet with a hearty welcome, even though, as tli 

 author of this work frankly admits, it is far froni 

 complete. 



Like the compiler of an analogous report on the 

 same subject in this country (SoUas, presidential 

 address to the Geological Society, 1910), the author of 1 

 the book under review is a geologist, and as such h^ 

 deals in a critical spirit with the determination of th 

 age of the remains of diluvial man, insisting upon thi 

 need for placing chief reliance upon stratigraphic 

 evidence, secondarily on that afforded by associated 



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