I40 



NATURE 



[Dec: 14, 1876 



PRIMAEVAL SWITZERLAND- 



THE veteran Swiss professor, Dr. Oswald Hear, is 

 not more distinguished for his ability and inde- 

 fatig:able industry in original research than he is for his 

 brilliant powers of popular exposition. His admirable 

 work, " The Primaeval World of Switzerland," of which 

 both German and French editions have already appeared, 

 has been so favourably received, alike by the scientific 

 and the general public, that we are happy to be able to 

 announce the publication of it in the form of an English 

 translation, adorned with the whole of those 

 numerous and excellent illustrations which con- 

 tributed so greatly to the value of the book as 

 it was originally issued. A work like the pre- 

 sent, in which accuracy of scientific detail is in 

 no degree sacrificed to its main design — that, 

 namely, of producing a succession of lively 

 descriptions leading up to clearly-enunciated 

 generalisations— must be largely dependent not 

 only on the literary skill of its translator, but on 

 his competence for dealing in an intelligent 

 manner with the various branches of natural 

 history treated of ; and when we state that the 

 interpreter of Prof. Heer's views to English 

 students is so erudite a naturalist as Mr. W. S. 

 Dallas, the Assistant Secretary of the Geological 

 Society, we have said enough to predispose our 

 readers in favour of the present translation. 

 Nor does a careful perusal of the work serve to 

 disappoint the high expectations we have been 

 naturally led to entertain with regard to it, for 

 both editor and translator have evidently per- 

 formed their respective tasks in a most skilful 

 and conscientious manner. Neither in respect 

 of accuracy or of elegance do we notice any 

 very serious failures ; under the former cate- 

 gory, indeed, we only feel called upon to draw 

 attention to a little confusion which exists in 

 some parts of the work with respect to the 

 English and German measures ; and, under the 

 latter, to what appears to us to be the rather 

 awkward adoption of the third person, which, 

 however suitable for abstracts or reviews of the 

 writings of an author, seems somewhat out of 

 place when employed in a full translation of one 

 of his works. 



To that numerous section of our countrymen 

 who regard " the playground of Europe " as a 

 place only for fashionable lounging or purpose- 

 less climbing, Prof. Heer's work may well be 

 commended as opening up new, and to many 

 perhaps, unsuspected sources of enjoyment 

 during their holiday tours. Those who will take 

 the trouble to master the contents of these two 

 pleasantly written volumes — a task demanding 

 no great preparation of preliminary studies — 

 will be in a position to appreciate and follow 

 with ever increasing interest the discussion of 

 those numerous important geological problems, 

 to the solution of which no country in the world 

 affords more important materials than Switzer- 

 land. Aided by the carefully arranged col- 

 lections of rocks and fossils which exist in the 

 museums of all the larger Swiss towns, the 

 tourist would find the means of enabling himself to vividly 

 realise and almost live among the wonders of long past 

 geological periods ; and by personal contact with the 

 actual evidences of geological change, his^scientific know- 

 ledge and convictions would acquire a reality and solidity, 

 which no amount of work in the library could ever com- 



' '' J^<: Primaeval World of Switzerland." With 560 Illustrations. By 

 ^■"i'v ^"' °f 'he University of Zurich. Edited by James Heywood, M.A., 

 t.K.b., President of the Statistical Society. Two vols. 8vo. (London: 

 LiOrgmans, Green, and Co., 1876.) 



municate to them. Those who will adopt this plan will 

 soon find aroused within their minds an interest and en- 

 thusiasm, which will prevent them from ever finding their 

 holiday tour dull ; and will be amply rewarded thereby 

 for the necessary preliminary labour. Phlegmatic, indeed, 

 must be the individual who does not find his pulses 

 stirred as he follows in the work before us the life-like 

 delineation by word-painting of the characteristics of 

 ancient worlds, or who does not find the desire awakened 

 in his mind to witness for himself some of the phenomena 

 here described : for even the most indifferent reader can- 



Rods of fir-wood exhibiting marks of cutting and binding, rom the lignites of Wetzikon. 



not fail to catch a portion of the enthusiasm which every- 

 where glows in Prof. Heer's eloquent pages. But such 

 feelings are only a very feeble echo indeed of the pleasures 

 experienced by the student who has the courage to enter 

 himself within the veil, and to look upon nature and her 

 mysteries face to face. 



We should, however, be doing Prof. Heer an injustice 

 if we referred to his book as being only a popular guide 

 to the geology of Switzerland. To the man of science 



