Supplement to '''Nature" N^ovember 14, 1901. 



but it is easy to see which side of the controversy he would 

 espouse if he felt himself free to give his opinion. 



His brochure is richly embellished by numerous 

 beautiful |)lates of mountain chains, scenery around the 

 lake districts and along the Andean foothills, taken from 

 the Argentine "case." as presented to the Arbitrator, in 

 five large folio volumes. He also reproduces several 

 Argentine Government maps on a reduced scale. 



M. Gallois sets forth the salient features of the various 

 treaties and protocols which have, during a score of 

 years, resulted from this question, and he justly regrets 

 that "La formule que les diplomates adoptirent fut 

 done tout simplement la formule traditionelle." " S'il y 

 avait un pays au monde ou les vieilles formules 

 dussent etre avec soin dvitees, c'etait la Patagonie." 

 In this opinion he is not alone, for every student of 

 South .American politics and geography must lament the 

 interminable blunders made by diplomatists and lawyers 

 when they rely upon their own language to determine 

 frontier lines instead of submitting their description to 

 scientific experts. 



iM. Gallois especially criticises the ignorance of the 

 framers of the treaties regarding rivers which eat back 

 until they have established their determined vertical 

 curve of equilibrium. Herein is the cru.\ of the whole 

 dispute between the Argentine Republic and Chile. The 

 former claims that the boundary line should be traced 

 along the highest crests and peaks of the main Andean 

 chain ; and the latter claims that the treaties demand the 

 tracing of the line along the continental divortia 

 aquarum. But some of the rivers which flow into the 

 Pacific Ocean have sawed back through the Cordillera 

 and now have their sources upon the Patagonian plateau 

 to the east of the Andean main chain. Thus the rival 

 claims are in direct conflict. Many cases of this tendency 

 of rivers may be found in almost every country in South 

 America, and Colonel Church, in his " Physical Geo- 

 graphy of South America," has given us numerous 

 instances of it, especially in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. 



The brochure has a laconic but excellent description 

 of Patagonia in a few pages, and gives due credit for 

 information to Chilian as well as Argentine explorers. 

 A long line of cliffs borders the Atlantic coast, interrupted 

 at rare intervals by great valleys which open on to the 

 sea. The surface of the immense Patagonian plateau 

 rises gradually towards the west up to the vicinity of the 

 Cordillera. Here and there a depression is filled with 

 saline waters, and, especially towards the south, the 

 country is covered with immense sheets of basaltic lava. 

 Deep valleys, too immense for the existing streams of 

 water, cut the plateau in certain parts and have a 

 labyrinth of affluent caiions. 



" The aspect rapidly changes along the approaches 

 to the Cordillera. ... It is a broken region, often 

 mountainous, rich in prairies ; rich, above all, in sheets 

 of water, the smallest of which equals the area of our 

 great European lakes. A privileged country, where the 

 climate is free from extremes, where moisture is suffi- 

 cient, where forests, easily penelrated, adorn the mountain 

 sides. It is there that Argentine colonisation has been 

 developed, and also there are the disputed territories. 



" More to the west, but without the transition being 

 suddenly established, commences what we call, without 

 prejudging anything, the main chain. ' 

 NO. 1672, VOL. 65] 



"The Cordillera drops suddenly to the sea from 42^ 

 south latitude. Up to 47', it dominates a long submerged 

 depression which visibly continues the interior plain of 

 Chile. . . . Further to the south the outline is less 

 defined." 



He notes the marked resemblance of this Pacific 

 coast to that of Alaska and Norway — scored and pene- 

 trated by fjords and channels cutting the coast-line into 

 islands and presenting numerous glaciers. Many rivers 

 find their way tn the Pacific Ocean through deeply 

 carved valleys in the Cordillera, but so violent and broken 

 in their course that none of them are navigable except 

 for a very short distance from the sea. 



Such is the outline that M. Gallois gives of Patagonia, 

 and it enables the reader to acquire a very fair general 

 knowledge of the orography and topography of the 

 country without studying the voluminous works which 

 have been prepared for the umpires in the boundary-line 

 dispute. It is to the credit of M. Gallois that, however 

 difficult, he has found it possible to preserve an impartial 

 attitude in his instructive and ably-written brochure. 



G. E. C. 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 



Wireless Telegraphy. By G. W. de Tunzelmann. 



Pp. iv -I- 104. (London : Office of Knowledge, 1901.) 



Price \s. bd. 

 Mr. de Tunzelmann, in writing a popular account of 

 wireless telegraphy, has attempted the double task of 

 describing its historical development and nf giving an 

 account, which shall be intelligible to the lay reader, of 

 the fundamental principles of the subject. The descrip- 

 tive parts are based mainly on the papers which have 

 been read by Mr. Marconi, and explain in an interesting 

 manner free from superfluous detail the system which he 

 has worked out. It is to be regretted that the work of 

 other experimenters is hardly adequately recognised ; 

 Prof Slaby, for example, deserves more than the half 

 dozen lines allotted to him. Moreover, such information 

 as is given is easily accessible in Mr. Marconi's published 

 papers, whereas a careful comparison of the systems 

 devised by the various workers would be a valuable 

 addition to the literature of the subject. 



In the theoretical portions of the book the author has 

 largely drawn his inspiration from Prof. Lodge's " Modern 

 Views of Electricity." Without wishing m any way to 

 disparage Mr. de Tunzelmann's explanations, we doubt 

 whether they would be intelligible to readers who, as he 

 says in the preface, " know little or nothing of electrical 

 theory." .A clear comprehension of the constitution of 

 the ether and the mechanism of ether waves is not to be 

 obtained without serving a long and severe apprentice- 

 ship in the study of physical science. Vet it is supposed 

 that the lay mind, because it is attracted by the wonderful 

 results of wireless telegraphy, is capable of appreciating 

 the intricate physical theories with which the subject is 

 bound up. It is as though a man should be expected to 

 be able to weigh the merits of the electrolytic dissociation 

 theory because he admires the electroplate upon his 

 dinner-table. We doubt whether any useful end is served 

 by such "popular' ex[)ositions, which can only lead to 

 the spread of pseudo-scientific ideas based on ill-digested 

 theories. It must be admitted, however, that on the 

 whole Mr. de Tunzelmann has treated the subject 

 broadly and clearly, and his explanations should at 

 any rate be of considerable service to the student. 



M. S. 



