NATURE 



[December 22. 1904 



The "Companion to the Observatory." — The 1905 

 edition of the well known " Companion to the Observatory," 

 published at \s. 6d. by Messrs. Taylor and Francis, contains 

 its usual complement' of useful data for all kinds of astro- 

 nomical observations. Ephemerides for the planets and their 

 satellites, the Greenwich magnetic elements, the times of 

 maxima and minima and the periods of numerous variable 

 stars and data relating to a number of double stars are 

 given amongst the mass of information contained. 



As in previous years, Mr. Denning gives the dates and 

 radiant points of the principal meteor showers and Mr. 

 Maw has supplied the double-star tables, whilst the 

 ephemerides of an ever-increasing number of variable stars 

 ■ have been taken from advance proofs generously contributed 

 by M. Leeway. 



T 



GLACIATION IN NORTH AMERICAA 

 HIS volume, which has only recently reached us, is by 

 no means of merely local interest. The first 226 pages 

 form a treatise on glacial geology in general, and represent 

 the author's views after some twelve years of study of drift 

 deposits in the field. No one who examines plates i. to vi. 

 can mistake the character of these deposits ; these excellent 

 photographic pictures would meet, indeed, with international 

 acceptance. On p. 30 we have some suggestive figures 

 given as to the area of existing glaciers, from which it 

 appears that the whole drift-covered country in North 

 America is only ten times as large as that still covered by 

 ice in Greenland. The Antarctic ice-sheet, moreover, is as 

 extensive as that postulated for North America in " Glacial " 

 times, a fact that effectually " removes the element of in- 

 credibility which, at first thought, attaches to so striking 

 a theory'as that of the glacial origin of the drift." The 

 northern ice, however, as Mr. Salisbury immediately points 

 out, extended into temperate latitudes, and special explan- 

 ations must thus be sought. New Jersey, we may observe, 

 lies on the latitude of Lisbon and Sicily in the northern hemi- 

 sphere, and corresponds with Cape Town and Melbourne 

 in the' southern and more glacial hemisphere. Mr. Salis- 

 bury at present seeks the cause of older widespread glaci- 

 atio'ns (p. 192) in Chamberlin's hypothesis of variations in 

 the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Elevation 

 accelerates rock-decay, and this process promotes re- 

 frigeration bv withdrawing carbon dioxide from the air. 

 The possibilitv of variation in the constitution of the atmo- 



»5^. 



ice-cap of Greenland and the protrusion of peaks through 

 a dwindling ice-area in the familiar scenes of Switzerland. 

 Other interesting photographs from Greenland occur on 

 plates .\xv. and xxvi., and one of them is here reproduced 

 (Fig. !)■ 



The general propositions stated by the author are illus- 

 trated by e.\amples of moraine-material, striated surfaces, 

 &c., from New Jersey, so that dwellers in that State may 

 now acquire a new insight into the topographic features 

 round them. Mr. Salisbury restricts the word kame to 

 material washed out from and left against the irregular 



sphere, owing to the emanations of volcanoes, is also touched 

 on as one of many other causes controlling the supply of 

 carbon dioxide. 



Plates xviii. and xix. are valuable for the comparison 

 they afford between the landscapes formed by the uniform 



1 -'The Glacial Geology 01 New Jersey." By Rollio D. Salisbury. 

 Vol. V. of the Final Report of the State Gcoloeisi. Pp. x.\viii-H8o2 ; platen 

 and folding maps. (Trenton, N.J. : MacCrellish and Quigley, 1902.) 



NO. 1834, VOL. 71] 



rface of " trap ' at \V< 



margin of a glacier (p. lib), while eski'rs represent the 

 channels of subglacial streams. Seeing how these two terms 

 have been interchanged, as the author's references show 

 (p. 13b), it might have been well to invent a new word for 

 the special type of water-formed terminal moraine which 

 the author describes here as a kame. Chapter v., on 

 changes in drainage resulting from glaciation, contains a 

 very suggestive study of the former glacial lakes in the flat 

 basin west of Newark. The concluding 550 pages are con- 

 cerned with " local details," the meaning of which be- 

 comes clear after so excellent an introduction. One of 

 the most striking illustrations is that facing p. 537 (Fig. 2|, 

 where the " plucking " away of blocks along the joint- 

 planes of a glaciated surface is clearly shown Iv the step- 

 like structure and abrupt details of the lee side :J a roche 

 mouionnee. This term, by the by, does not st-em to be 

 defined in the earlier portion of the book. 



In conclusion, we could wish that some " State Survey " 

 would give us a similarly comprehensive memoir for the 

 glacial provinces of the British Isles. G. A. J. C. 



THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH-EAST OF 

 SCOTLAND.' 



T T is to the credit of the Anatomical and Anthropological 

 -'■ Society of the University of Aberdeen that it can issue 

 Proceedings in a form far superior to those of the .Anatomical 

 Society of Great Britain and Ireland — the only other 

 anatomical society in this country. Even in the contents 

 of its Proceedings the younger society, founded and fostered 

 by the professor of anatomy in the university, compares not 

 unfavourably with the older society. 



Naturallv one turns first to those papers which deal with 

 the people in the north-east of Scotland. By common repute 

 they are a shrewd, " hard-headed " race. In a well written 

 paper on the contents of short cists found in Aberdeenshire 

 and neighbouring counties, Dr. Alexander Low tells all 

 that can at present be known of their ancestors, the pre- 

 historic inhabitants of this part. The picture drawn by D;-. 

 Low is founded on the broken skeletons of eight men iMd 



I Proceedings of the Anatomical and AnthropolrRical Society of Abtrdeen 

 University, 1902-04. Pp. 155, 28 plates, 22 figs, in text, (.\bcrdeen: 

 University Press, 1904.) 



