N.^1 TURE 



271 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 



ALL ABOUT WATER. 

 Wilier: Its Origin ami Use. By William Coles-Finch. 

 Pp. xxi+483; with illustrations. (London: .Mston 

 Riv(r>, Ltd., 1908.) Price 2JS. net. 



THERE is little about water on which Mr. Coles- 

 Finch does not touch in this volume, for he 

 even takes his readers back to the day when the world 

 was but a glowing- mist and oxygen would not have 

 combined with hydrogen. The method has its dis- 

 advantages, though useful to anyone in want of an 

 encvckip»dic treatise, because the author has often to 

 fall back on second-hand information, not even ex- 

 cluding the " science notes " o'f a daily journal. His 

 manner of reference also is slipshod, for he is generally 

 content with simply naming the author. But readers 

 are not always trustful, and like to be enabled 

 to consult the original passage — especially after coming 

 across one or two rather puzzling misprints, such as 

 Gretroz for Gietroz, Maindetta for Maladetta, Dema- 

 vena for Demavend, Dun, perhaps for Dust, and 

 Brunz (the name of a Swiss Lake), we presume for 

 Brienz. Small inaccuracies — such motes as might 

 so easily have been removed by inducing a friend more 

 familiar with the scientific side of the subject to read 

 the proof sheets — are rather too numerous. Here are 

 a few samples. The difference between hard and soft 

 water is said on p. 127 to consist in the relative quan- 

 tities of carbonate of lime in it, yet just below come the 

 words, " there are two kinds of hardness, permanent 

 and temporary," the one due to the presence of calcium 

 sulphate, the other to its carbonate. The amount of 

 chalk in the world is probably over-estimated by for- 

 getting that it means one, not every kind of limestone. 

 Ice-fields are said, on p. 195, to form every winter on 

 polar seas, but the author directly afterwards speaks 

 of them as occurring on Iceland, and makes an extra- 

 ordinarv statement about those of Greenland. " The 

 ice-fields of Greenland are beyond our comprehension ; 

 how high the plateau rises we cannot say. . . . No man 

 has yet penetrated more than 130 miles from the west 

 coast, where the ice is nearer the sea. It is related 

 that explorers, after travelling 130 miles, saw a solid 

 wall of ice 6000 feet high, and rising towards the east " 

 (p. 195). Has he forgotten Nansen and the " First 

 Crossing of Greenland," not to mention later explora- 

 tions? 



The statement about the " parallel roads " in Glenroy 

 is confused. Also, the author is hardly justified in 

 taking it for granted that the erratics near Wolverhamp- 

 ton mark the terminal moraine of a glacier, or that the 

 Scandinavian ice-sheet successfully crossed the deep 

 channel bordering the Norway coast, to deposit 

 boulders at Cromer, and, as he might have added, at 

 least as far inland as Bedford. The Lofoden Islands 

 are hardly " a typical instance of the manner in which 

 the sea has swallowed up the solid land " (p. 330), un- 

 less this is by submergence, which he clearly does not 

 mean. They afford no parallel with Reculver Church. 

 " The Lake of Campania in Italy " near Baise is 

 NO. 2045, VOL. 79] 



ii^u.-illv called Avcnius or .\verno, and " Lake Chala 

 on Mount Kilimanjaro " does not lie 400 to 800 feet 

 below the summit, for, according to Meyer, Lake 

 Jala, discovered by New, is " at the foot of Kiliman- 

 jaro on its south-eastern side." The Lago d'Alleghe 

 in the Italian Tyrol was not formed by the terminal 

 moraine of a vanished glacier, but by a berg fall .n 

 1772. The height of the Lake of Geneva above sea- 

 level is understated by about 70 feet. The maximum 

 depths of the Lake of Constance and of the Lago 

 Maggiore are incorrectly given. The Dead Sea can 

 hardly be said to be " deeply embedded in lofty cliffs 

 of limestone," and we have no reason to suppose that 

 volcanic activity had much to do with forming the 

 Lake of Tiberias. There is no eruption of Vesuvius 

 on record until a.d. 79; it was an earthquake which 

 damaged Pompeii in .a.d. 63. The hippopotamus 

 neither has a horn nor had one in the days of 

 PalcEolithic man (p. 240). 



But, apart from these slips, and notwithstanding 

 some defects of arrangement and a little too much 

 sermonising, Mr. Coles-Finch's book contains a large 

 amount of interesting information. We are told among 

 the obiter dicta that Manchester soot comprises 50 per 

 cent, of substances which are not carbon. .\mong 

 these are " snow-white samples of ammonium chloride, 

 ammonium sulphate, calcium sulphate, and a beau- 

 tifully crystallised paraffin hydrocarbon." In fact, the 

 heavy hydrocarbon oils in household soot amounted to 

 1-!, per cent., and Prof. E. Knecht, who analysed the 

 material, manufactured from these components " a 

 dye stuff which was capable of producing absolutely 

 fast shades of brown on cotton " ! We heartily sym- 

 pathise with the author in his denunciation of the 

 domestic fireplace, so much beloved in this country, for 

 it often contributes about one-half the soot which fouls 

 the atmosphere of London, and produces the minimum 

 of effect at the maximum of cost. We would also 

 gladlv commit to his mercies the hooligans who wreck 

 trees planted to adorn towns, and wilful wasters of 

 water such as those who leave a tap running while 

 they are away for a holiday in order to secure that 

 their drains are scoured. 



Perhaps the most valuable part of the volume is 

 that dealing with practical matters, where Mr. Coles- 

 Finch speaks from experience, such, for instance, as 

 his description of a water-bearing fissure in the chalk, 

 discovered at a depth of 120 feet while making a well 

 at Strood for the supply of Rochester. Such fissures 

 are, of course, well known as important sources of 

 water supply in the Thames basin, but we do not 

 remember to have seen in any book generally acces- 

 sible plans, sections and illustrations of them. 



The volume is abundantly illustrated by reproduced 

 photographs, the majority of which have been taken 

 in the High .Mps and other mountain districts by Mrs. 

 Aubrey Le Blond. Some of these, perhaps, are not 

 very closely connected with the text, and Mr. Coles- 

 Finch has'too often failed to indicate by a reference 

 the subject which a picture is meant to illustrate ; but 

 they are often so pretty as to add materially to the 

 attractiveness of the volume; though in some, as will 



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