JCNK 1, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



121 



Founded by RICHARD A. PROCTOR. 



LONDON: JUNE 1, 1900. 



CONTENTS. 



Contrasts in Bavaria. By Ghexviilk A. J. Con:, 



M.R.I.A.. F.0.3 



Modern Pisciculture: Being a Description of the 

 Solway Fishery. Bv T. A. Geeai.d Stbicsl.^nb. 

 (Hlu-Hra/ed) " 



The Evolution of Simple Societies. — III. The Pastoral 



Societies. B\ Pivf. Aljekd C. HABroN, m.a., sc.D.,r.R.s. 



The Royal Academy Exhibition 



Artificial " Reseau Photospherique. By the Rev. 



Arthtr East. (Itliisfrafed) 

 Photographs of the Nebulae M. 8 Saglttarii and of 



H VI. Ceti. Br Isaac Kohekts, d.sc., f.h.s 



Nebulae M. 8 Saglttarii and i:i VI. Ceti. (Plate) 



Astronomy without a Telescope. — V. Observations 

 of the Sun. Bv K. Waltee Maundee. k.e.a.s. 



Letters : 



Search foe an IntraMeecubial Planet. Bj V,'. F. 

 Denning 



S. U. Cygni. By David Fla^eey 



WiEET.ESsTElEQBAPn RECEIVER. By K. ChILD BaTI.ET 



Notices of Books 



Books Becbitbd 



The First Musk-Oxen in England since the Glacial 

 Epoch. By R. Ltdeekee. UUustmled) 



Chemical Evolution : A Chapter of History. By 

 G. Cecil Frv 



Microscopy. By John H. Cooke, f.l.s., e.o.s. 



Notes on Comets and Meteors. By W. F. Denning, 



P.B-A.S 



The Face of the Sky for June. By A. Fowlbb, p.b.a.s. 

 Chess Column. By C. D. Locock, b.a. 



121 



123 



126 



128 



12i) 

 132 



132 



134 

 1.34 

 13.5 

 13.5 

 137 



137 



139 

 141 



142 

 143 

 143 



CONTRASTS IN BAVARIA. 



By Geenville A. J. Cole, m.r.i.a., f.g.s., Professor of 

 Geology in the Royal College of Science for Ireland. 



Certain cities, such as Munich and Nuremberg, certain 

 highland resorts in the south, commonly associated in 

 the tourist mind with Tyrol — these are all that the name 

 Bavaria conveys to us in ordinary conversation. Lovers 

 of the arts may add Bayrcuth, far away in the north, 

 planted against the granite knot of the Fichtelgebirge ; 

 while travellers to Vienna may remember something of 

 the Danube plain, and of the banks of willows between 

 Regensburg and Vilshofen. Bavaria, however, with its 

 plateaux and its devious by-ways, offers a variety of geo- 

 logical features, and is rich in scenic contrasts. 



The country, on the other hand, has its drawbacks, 

 which mainly arise from the stolid nature of a prolific 

 and inebriate peasantry; but greater life and lightness 

 are introduced into the community in proportion as one 



ncars the Austrian bortkr. Doublloss the chief charm 

 of the country lies in tiio quaint iicss of it»s towns; but 

 tiie sites of these, and much of their cliaracter, depend 

 upon their geological surroundings. 



Tiio great feature of nortiicrn Bavaria is t.lio sei-ics of 

 plateaux which rise from the left bank of tbo Danube 

 above Keliieim, and which stretch, under the names of 

 the Rauhe Alb and tlio Swabian ,Tura, south-west 

 through Wiirttcniberg to the Rliine. After a step down 

 to the north-west, a still broader plateau-country spi-eads 

 away northward to the Main. As in our own chalk 

 districts, the gentle dip of the strata is accountable for 

 the prevalence of ono type of country over so broad an 

 area. The upland of the Swabian and Franconian .Tura 

 is formed of Jurassic strata, which run north-east from 

 Stuttgart to near Nuremberg, and then swing round to 

 the north ; Nuremberg itself, and many other busy 

 towns, stand on the next plateau, that of the Keuper, 

 which rises with the gently inclined beds to some 1,500 

 feet above the sea. Viewed broadly, then, we encounter 

 here two systems of sti-ata, the more northern dipping 

 under tli.at which lies to the south and east. Tha 

 Keuper, with its other Triassic associates, does not re- 

 appear until we find its marine representatives upturned 

 and contorted on the flanks of tho Alpine chain. The 

 Jurassic beds similarly vanish, as they dip down towards 

 the Danube, to come up again in the Alpine foothills; 

 and the wide basin fonned on their backs is filled by 

 Cainozoic deposits, many of them marine, and mostly of 

 Miocene age. Into this lowland, the growing Alps 

 sent down their detritus, and the Miocene beds have 

 been covered in turn by va.st glacial and alluvial accu- 

 mulations. 



The northern plateaus form a somewhat irregular 

 watershed. The rivers rise mostly on the surface of 

 the Keuper, in which they have cut deep grooves ; but 

 it is difficult to judge, when we cross any ono of them, 

 to which system of drainage it belongs. The Kocher, 

 for example, draws much of its water from the higher 

 step, the .Jurassic plateau, but escapes down the escarp- 

 ment and i-uns across the Keuper to the Neckar, and 

 thence into the Rhine. The Wornitz, a little further 

 east, rises on the Keuper plateau, cuts south across 

 the Jurassic beds, and joins the Danube at Donauworth. 

 The Altmiihl, its next neighbour on the east, takes .. 

 similarly determined course ; but the Rednitz, starting 

 in the same direction, swings entirely round below 

 Ansbach, runs due north, and joins the Main at Bam- 

 berg. All this jioints to the lack of conspicuous guiding 

 lines in this region of almost horizontal plateaux. 



Though we travel here all day at a height of some 

 1200 feet above the sea, there is little to suggest the 

 elevation. As we rise from the valley of the Neckar, 

 we wind this way and that, for purely agricultural 

 convenience, across a country of great unfenced fields ; 

 here and there a scarp, the next step on the plateau, 

 stands more seriously against us, with some fortress-town, 

 like Waldenburg, planted on its level crest. The purple 

 crocus flourishes in the meadows, a reminder of the Alps 

 in this expanse; only at length, the growth of the blue 

 distance, the slow fall of the land on cither hand, shows 

 that wc have reached the watershed, and stand on the 

 Hohenlohe Plain. Tho true highland landscapes are 

 here in reality below us, the rivers have force enough 

 to cut ravines, though the atmospheric weathering 

 merely flakes away the level strata, and forms no salient 

 feature on the highland. This is, in consequence, a 

 country of sui-prises, like the canon-region of Arizona. 

 Suddenly we may find ourselves dropped into one of the 



