CHAPTER II 



PHYSIOGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY. 



THE subject of physiographical geology coincides in essential 

 features with that of geophysics (or physical geography). The 

 only distinction that may be drawn is that while physical 

 geography deals more with the description and exact determina- 

 tion of the physical properties of the earth's body, physio 

 graphical geology concerns itself more with the causes and 

 effects of these relations. It is, however, impossible to define 

 a strict line of division between the studies of geograph) 

 and geology. 



Certain questions about the physiography of the earth hac 

 been discussed by the Greek philosophers, and the knowledge 

 of the ancients in this domain had in all probability beer 

 comprised in a book of Theophrastus. Unfortunately the bool 

 has been lost, and is known to us only through excerpts fron: 

 it that appeared in the works of later geographers. 



The first work that merits the name of a physical descriptior 

 of the earth is the famous Geographia Generalis of Bernharc 

 Varenius (Amsterdam, 1672). In 1661 the comprehensive 

 work of Riccioli, and in 1664 that of Kircher, appeared 

 nearly a hundred years later followed the important geographical 

 and physiographical text-books of the Dutchman Lulofs (1750} 

 and the Swede Tobern Bergman (1769). Bergman's work was 

 taken as a model by the famous Werner in his teaching oi 

 geognosy, and thus its style and general treatment came to be 

 handed down in the later text-books published by pupils oi 

 Werner. All the text-books of the Wernerian school, especial!) 

 those of Fr. Ambros Reuss, F. R. Richter (Freiberg, 1812)5 

 and K. A. Kiihn (Freiberg, 1833), contain a full account ol 

 physiographical geology. 



In France, Buache had in 1756 kept physical geograph) 



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