© SEPTEMBER 18, 1913] 
NATURE 
65 
i 
a For the purpose of a title there is comparatively 
little objection to this use of the word, but when 
Mr. Rickmers goes on to coin the adjective 
: duabic ” for the type of scenery developed in this 
region, a protest must be entered against the 
needless introduction of a term that conveys no 
: impression of the thing which it represents. The 
region dealt with presents the results of con- 
ditions which are widely spread, and repeated 
_wherever mountains rise high enough, out of what 
would otherwise be a desert plain, to catch and 
condense rain from the upper layers of the atmos- 
phere. In such a region the effects of erosion and 
deposition caused by running water are much more 
conspicuous than in a moister climate, for the 
simple reason that they are uncomplicated by the 
action of other agencies of denudation, with the 
r 
fFic. 2.—Turrets and Bastions of Conglomerate (Yakhsu). 
exception of wind and rapid changes of tempera- 
ture. 
Something, also, must be said in protest against 
the extremes to which Mr. Rickmers carries the 
use of metaphor and illustration, too commonly 
adopted by geographical writers. The use of an 
illustration by analogy is often illuminating, and 
may serve to render the result of a complicated 
Series of observations and deductions intelligible 
to those who have neither need nor leisure to 
follow the whole course of the research, but quite 
as often it may merely produce a misleading 
‘appearance of understanding where no true ex- 
planation is forthcoming, and it is especially 
dangerous when used, as Mr. Rickmers appears 
‘to use it, as a method of research. The descrip- 
tion of a range of hills as a “squashed and warty 
reptile” may recall its appearance to the writer, 
NO. 2290, VOL. 92] 
but does not help the reader; and to talk of the 
“solid octopus of the Mustagh Pamirs sending 
out its long, spare tentacles towards the east, 
gripping the expanses of Tibet, Lop, and Mon- 
golia,” is likely to mislead the uninitiated. 
Having said this, we must acknowledge the 
interest of the work as a description of a type of 
scenery, race, and civilisation absolutely different 
from anything which the dweller in western Europe 
or North America will meet with, and would especi- 
ally commend the description of what the author 
terms the pamirian type of scenery, which charac- 
terises the mountains of central Asia, and his study 
of the features which distinguish it from the alpine 
type, met with in the mountains of Europe and 
western Asia. Something, too, must be said in 
praise not merely of the number and excellence 
From ‘*The Duab of Turkestan. 
of the illustrations, but, what is unfortunately more 
rare, of the judgment with which they have been 
selected to serve as real illustrations and elucida- 
| tions of the text. 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION BIRMINGHAM 
MEETING. 
Ne anticipated, this year’s meeting of the 
d British Association has been the largest 
since 1904. In that year, Cambridge mustered 
2789 members, and the Birmingham figure of 
2635 does not fall far short of that. 
Besides the amplitude of Birmingham’s resources 
in the matter of public institutions, hotel accom- 
modation, and private hospitality, the glorious 
weather which illumined the proceedings must he 
given its due share of credit for the success of 
