578 



NA rURE 



[April 20, 1905 



Our author is at his best when he comes to deal 

 with the genius of Burns, to whom the hills and 

 woods were not merely enjoyable scenes to be visited 

 and described, but became part of his very beinsj ; 

 who found in their changeful aspects the counterpart 

 of his own variable moods, an(f whose feelings found 

 vent in an exuberance of appreciation which had 

 never before been heard in verse. 



He touches lightly the descriptive passages in Scott 

 and Wordsworth, and the ballad singers of the border, 

 who, though mostly inspired by war-like achieve- 

 ments, often wove into their tales a thread of tender 

 affection and romance. In the poems attributed to 

 Ossian, although Highland scenery is not specially 

 described, it forms a visible and changing back- 

 ground. 



Our author turns from the consideration of the 

 influence exerted by the geographical features of a 

 country upon the development and habits of thought 

 of its inhabitants to the discussion of the origin of 

 those features themselves. This is a subject which 

 has of recent years received much attention both in 

 this country and in America. Our author describes 

 the scenic features under several heads. Mountains 

 and vallej's may be considered as correlatives, the 

 mountains being there because the valleys have been 

 scooped out between them. Under lakes, we turn 

 with interest to his views on the glacial erosion of 

 rock basins, which he holds could be effected by land 

 ice only. He makes, however, the qualifying remark 

 that a terrestrial surface of crystalline rock, long ex- 

 posed to the atmosphere or covered with vegetation 

 and humus, may be so deeply corroded as for two 

 or three hundred feet downward to be converted into 

 loose detritus, and the ice may thus have had much 

 of its work done for it, and would be mainly employed 

 in clearing out the corroded debris. Whether, how- 

 ever, this will explain many of the rock basins of the 

 British Isles is not very clear. 



In another essay he shows what Hutton did by his 

 theory of the earth to pave the way for the accurate 

 scientific treatment of all those questions of the 

 changes which the earth has undergone in attaining 

 its present configuration. Playfair, Hall, and 

 others helped on the work. Tlie obvious question 

 arising out of such speculations is, how long must it 

 have taken to bring about such great results? and 

 thus we are taken through the controversies as to 

 whether uniform change, which we observe, or local 

 and intermittent catastrophic action, of which we see 

 proofs everywhere, have done most to bring about 

 the results in every individual case. The physicists tell 

 us that from a consideration of the rate at which the 

 earth parts with its heat, of the limitation of the age 

 of the sun, of the retardation of the earth's angular 

 velocity by tidal friction, they are not prepared to 

 allow such a vast age as geologists have claimed for 

 the earth. The geologists, on the other hand, having 

 regard to the rate at which changes on its surface 

 are observed to be brought about by existing agents, 

 and the time demanded for the evolution of living 

 things, insist upon a much larger estimate of time 

 than the physicists are prepared to allow. The con- 

 NO. I 85 I, VOL. 71] 



erences« 



fidence reposed in the accuracy of such inferences! 

 must depend upon the probability or improbability 

 that the observer has seen enough to justify his 

 generalisations, and that no contradictory evidence 

 can be forthcoming. 



The geologist and physicist will probably arrive at 

 a compromise when the one admits that his calcula- 

 tions, based on the rate of waste, may be entirely 

 vitiated by earth movements, which will either hurry 

 on or retard such wa^te, and that life will change 

 more rapidly with the changes of environment pro- 

 duced by earth movements, and when, on the other 

 hand, the physicist has corrected his estimate of the 

 rate at which the earth is cooling by taking more 

 careful account of the variety of conducting material 

 of which the earth is composed, has estimated the 

 planetar\- fuel for ever being thrown into the sun 

 from space, to say nothing of the new views of radio- 

 activity, and has re-considered his inferences from 

 tidal friction, which some of our highest mathe- 

 maticians admit is still open to doubt. 



Such speculations suggest the name of the great 

 apostle of evolution, and an essay on the life and 

 work of Charles Darwin follows, while a biographical 

 sketch of Hugh Miller is fitly introduced among 

 essays which so largely deal with the influence of a 

 man's environment upon his imagination and 

 writings. 



In an age like this, when the relative place and 

 value of technical and literary training are so strongly 

 forced upon the attention of the country, an essay 

 on science in education by one whose experience and 

 outlook are so wide will be welcomed. Then, to 

 bring us back to the main subject with which he 

 commenced, he gives an interesting sketch of the 

 building up and moulding of the Campagna and the 

 surrounding country, fitting it for the site of many 

 an ancient city, and at last for the eternal city so 

 long the centre of the world. 



A. MAGNETIC SURVEY OF JAPAN. 

 A Magnetic Survey of Japan reduced to the Epoch 

 18950 and the Sea Level. Carried out by order of 

 the Earthquake Investigation Committee, reported 

 by A. Tanakadate. Pp. xii + 347 and plates. (Pub- 

 lished by the University, Tokyo, Japan, 1904.) 

 THE completion of the detailed magnetic survey 

 of a country is a task requiring great skill and 

 industry. We congratulate Prof. A. Tanakadate and 

 his colleagues on the successful accomplishment of a 

 heavy piece of work, which will be welcomed by all 

 who are interested in the science of terrestrial mag- 

 netism. The work is the result of the voluntary 

 cooperation of sixteen observers, of whom seven are 

 professors or assistant professors of the Imperial 

 University, Tokyo, the others also occupying re- 

 sponsible ]X)sitions. Prof. Tanakadate modestly only 

 claims for himself the position of a " reporter " who 

 has collected the work of the different parties, but we 

 imagine that we owe to him also the detailed dis- 

 cussion of the results which forms an essential por- 

 tion of the volume before us. 



