February 9, 191 1] 



NATURE 



469 



out their technical applications. Let us appeal rather 

 to the country round the pupil's home. We want, 

 says Prof. Walther, a wider opening of doors and 

 windows. He would play, like the famous piper of 

 Hameln, a tune full of the magic of the world. The 

 school must follow him, when the sun reveals the 

 peaks of far-off ranges, and when the wind swirls 

 the dust in clouds across the slopes. It must follow, 

 when the rain furrows the farmlands, and the roar- 

 ing stream undercuts its trembling banks. Nature is 

 ready to reveal its beauties, small and great, and com- 

 parison with other lands will yet increase a love of 

 home. 



With such stirring words this vigorous work sets 

 out. The illustrations are almost all from places 

 that the author knows. They have been drawn 

 with brush or pencil by Herr Weszner from 

 photographs and other trivial sources, with an art 

 that seems coarse at first sight, but which grovv's 

 very quickly on the reader. The painter has under- 

 stood his author — note the simple desolation of the 

 • Baumfriedhof " among the dunes (p. 5), the ceme- 

 tery of trees ; the renowned quarry of Solenhofen 

 (p. 94), on a plateau above the village, where the 

 level strata appeal so temptingly beyond the woods ; 

 or the vivid little sketch (p. 256) of Karlsbad crowded 

 in its ravine ; and compare this last with the glimpse 

 of Regensburg (p. 293), seated like an island in the 

 alluvium, as one sees it for the first time in descend- 

 ing from the hills. The essentials are all there, just 

 as in the text, which is pure literature. The geological 

 map, however, is far too severe and uncommunicative. 

 Even the German sclioolboy might hesitate before a 

 group of towns named Mii., La., Er., and Rud., in the 

 countn,- east of Eis., which we conclude is Eisenach. 

 The Porta Westfalica is figured, and might well be 

 named; we seek it on the Weser between Ha., the 

 city of the piper, and Mi., probably the place of the 

 ;"men who fought." W'e have some acquaintance 

 with the Vistula, and can look with interest on Th., 

 Mbg. (recalling a Watergate on the Nogat), and even 

 Di., a railway junction ; but we cannot recover Cu. 

 We are writing far away from atlases, and there is 

 no need for so many puzzles in a work that connects 

 geography and geology. But this shall be our only 

 grumble, though we believe that another map on 

 p. 125, full of attractive river courses, is on only one- 

 tenth of the scale ascribed to it. Theoretical ques- 

 tions are not overlooked by the author, when once he 

 has aroused interest in the origins of things. We are 

 brought to contemplate the yielding but sustaining 

 Untergrund on p. 28 ; we gaze on a ncrth pole in the 

 middle of Greenland during the Ice age (p. 113); and 

 we picture intelligent apes using eoliths in the Miocene 

 period (p. 128). Throughout its first two sections 

 the book stands successfully apart from most of our 

 attempts at " nature-study." While we are apt to 

 insist on the beaut\- of things, Prof. Walther makes us 

 know that they are beautiful by his telling of them. 

 In the third section, he leads us to a closely written 

 description of the origins of German landscape ; but 

 we still come across vivid touches that enable us to 

 realise the past. We should like to quote the descrip- 

 tion (p. 171) of the volcanic cloud caught bv westerlv 

 NO. 2154, VOL. 85] 



winds above the crater of the Laacher See, or the 

 passages that trace the history of the granite tors 

 which rise on the Fichtelgebirge through the woods 

 (pp. 242-3). Teachers will select and enlarge the de- 

 scriptions of their special areas; but they will learn 

 to adopt a comprehensive view of natural phenomena 

 that will fit them, in Walther 's opinion, to live upon 

 this living world. 



(2) Prof. Lepsius has carried his great work on the 

 geology of Germany to the end of its second volume, 

 and it remains a storehouse of well-chosen references 

 to original research. Some of these must have found 

 their way into the book almost during its passage 

 through the press. The author was never a mere 

 compiler, and in the present part he adds greatly to 

 the interest of his subject by a full discussion of 

 recent views on the deposits of the north German 

 plain. He holds that there is no doubt as to the 

 advance of ice from Scandinavia over this vast area ; 

 but he will not countenance the suggestion of inter- 

 glacial epochs. The evidence for these he regards as 

 local, and as supporting his belief in prolonged Scan- 

 dinavian glaciers, rather than in a continuous ice- 

 sheet (p. 477, et seq.). He does not accept Greenland 

 as an existing parallel for what occurred in northern 

 Europe, and quotes Schwarz with approval as to the 

 maximum thickness of an ice-flow (p. 475). He sees 

 the cause of the Ice age in geographical conditions, 

 and attributes the Dwyka Conglomerate of South 

 Africa (p. 514) merely to the elevation of a mountain 

 chain. He allows of great movement of blocks of 

 chalk by advancing ice, but does not accept the 

 evidence for plucking action. All this shows that the 

 author's spirit aims far beyond mere description, and 

 that he is quite prepared to champion views which 

 others have set aside. We have dwelt on this part of 

 the book rather than on the fine and detailed descrip- 

 tion of the Harz area (pp. 286-410), where Prof. 

 Lepsius critically reviews the work of Lossen, on 

 the basis of personal obser\ations. His readiness to 

 adopt new views where he holds them to be justified 

 is never left in doubt, a good example being his treat- 

 ment of the mingled t\pes of igneous rocks on the 

 margin of the granite of the Harz (p. 350)- Nor does 

 he shrink from controversy, when he. claims to have 

 converted an eminent colleague (p. 443) to his un- 

 doubtedly sound opinions on the famous Saxon granu- 

 lites. Prof. Lepsius has now furnished us with one 

 of the most serviceable reference books on the geology 

 of Central Europe. 



(3) Truly the geologist is happy anywhere. Prof. 

 Tornquist writes on the geology of Ostpreussen with 

 enthusiasm. This remote province, as he justly re- 

 marks, is known to few besides those that dwell in 

 it, but to them its ver\- expanse is beautiful. In his 

 handsome volume we learn much stratigraphy from 

 the fossiliferous pebbles that are embedded in the 

 covering of glacial drift. \\'e hear of interesting 

 formations that are reached by borings, and the mantle 

 of clays and sands seems to the student to cover 

 fascinating mysteries. The derived fossils are beau- 

 tifully illustrated, and the amber, with its included 

 insects, is ascribed mainly to the Lower Oligocene 

 of Samland (p. 98). The discussion of the drift leads 



