\ bEl'TEMBER O, 1 9 1 o] 



NATURE 



!99 



LAKE BALATON.' 



LAKE BALATON, or Flatten See, is the largest 

 lake in Austro-Hungary, and, in fact, in south- 

 eastern Europe. It is fifty miles long-, and is shallow 

 in proportion to its size. It lies in a depression on 

 the Hunfjarian plain at the foot of the hills of the 

 Bakony Wald. The Hungarian Geographical Societv 

 organised a cominission, under the presidency of 

 Prof. Ludwig von Loczy, to subject this lake to a 

 thorough investigation. The results are being pub- 

 lished in three volumes, of which the first is devoted 

 to geography, geology, palasontology, hydrography, 

 physics, and chemistry ; the second to biology ; the 

 third to the social and ethnographical geography, in- 

 cluding accounts of the watering-places and hot 

 springs, and a bibliography. Four further sections 

 of this work have now been received, and one of 

 them completes the second volume. .\s the parts are 

 issued in the order of their completion, it is not easy 

 to form from 

 these discon- 

 n e c t e d frag- 

 inents a clear 

 impression of 

 the work as a 

 whole. Thus 

 the only contri- 

 bution yet 

 issued to the 

 in troduction, 

 which is to be 

 a geographical 

 memoir on the 

 lake and i t s 

 district, is a 

 geo - physical 

 appendix, deal- 

 ing with the 

 determination 

 of gravity by 

 R. von Ster- 

 neck, with the 

 influence of 

 variations in 

 gravity on tlv 

 level of til. 

 lake surface In 

 Baron Lorand 

 Eotvils, and -i 

 report on thi 

 magnetic olj- 



SerVationS b\ li- < - Hummnrk form 



Dr. L. Steiner. 



Dr. von .Sterneck's results show that gravity is normal 



i)ver part of the middle of the lake, while it is above 



normal along a belt of the hills to the north, and 



it is below normal in a band still further to the 



north. 



Baron Eotvos has determined the relations of the 



variations in gravity to the level of the lake surface 

 by measurements made on the ice during the winter. 

 His observations were interrupted by the mild winter 

 of 1902, when the lake was inadequately frozen. His 

 results show that Lake Balaton occurs along a tec- 

 tonic line, and he recognises variations in level due to 

 gravitv, similar to those in India, but on a smaller 

 scale. Dr. Steiner has determined the various mag- 

 netic elements for the area of the lake, and has inves- 

 tigated the magnetic properties of the rocks. 



No other locality in Europe is so convenient for the 

 studv of the formation of wide ice-sheets on an inland 

 sea as Lake Balaton, for, in spite of the comparative 

 saltness of the water, its surface is more completely 

 frozen than the Swiss lakes, which being much 

 deeper, therefore cool more slowly. In ordinary 

 winters the whole of Lake Balaton is covered over 

 with a firm ice-sheet. Dr. von Cholnoky has made a- 

 detailed studv of the ice in all stages of its formation 

 and decav, illustrated bv numerous excellent photo- 



" Re^uUate der Wissenscha'tlichen Ui 

 I. i., Phy>iische Geographic de= Bal; 

 rt i., Die C.eomorphologie des Balatons 

 . r,e jphysikatischer Anhana i. (I.) R. ' 



S:hwerkra(t, pp. 31, i map; (II.) " 



uchungen deb Balaton." 



und seiner Umgebung : 



s und seiner Umgebung, Section 



Sterneck, Untersuchungen iiber 



•1 L. Eotvos, Die Miveaufl.iche 



, pp. 61, 



i und die Veranderunsen der Schwerkraft auf 

 ^ ti;s. ; (III.) L. Steiner, Erdmagnetische Messungen in So 

 . 6 figs. Prioe 6 kroner. Part v., Die Physikafischen Verhaltnisse des 

 \^ assers des Balatonsees ; Section iv. , E. v. Cholnoky, Das Eis Balatonsees, 

 r->. 114, xxi. plates, 122 figs. Price i-> kroner. Vol. ii.. Die Biologic des 

 Hilatonsees tind seiner Umgebung: Part ii.. Die Flora, Section ii.. Die 

 Pflanzengeograpbischen Verhaltnisse der Balatonsec-eegend, appendi.x ; A. 

 I ovassy, Die Tropischen Nymphaeen des H^vizsees bei Kcszthely, pp. too, iv. 

 V ates, 25 figs. Price 10 kroner. Vol. iii.. Soziologische und Anthropologische 

 < .eocraphie der Umgebung des Balaton : Part i., Geschichte der (jnigehnng 

 ■ \^i Balaton, Division iii , R. Be'kefi, Kirchen utid Burgcn in der Umgebung 

 ,1-s Balaton im Mittelalter, pp. 36^. i map, 142 illustrations. Price 20 

 ■) Vienna: Ed. Hiilzel, 1907-9.) 



NO. 2132, VOL. 84] 



graphs. The' ice-sheet is broken into separate floes 

 separated by narrow leads, which are locally known 

 as rianas, and the wind, driving the ice-fields together 

 or against the shore, piles it into ics-hummocks, which 

 on Lake Balaton are known as turolas. Many of the 

 features of the .Arctic ice-sheets are found repeated in 

 southern Europe. Dr. Cholnoky, following BuckW 

 and van Hise. draws an interesting comparison be- 

 tween the movements of the ice-sheet and the earth's 

 crust. Blocks of the ice founder, forming areas of 

 subsidence, and long strips sink between parallel 

 faults forming rift vallevs separated by horsts, w-hile 

 various overthrust faults are found in the pressure 

 ridges. ^ 



The volume on the biology of Lake Balaton is now 

 completed by a memoir on the attempts to acclimatise 

 various tropical water-lilies in the H^vizsee, a well- 

 known bathing resort near Keszthely, to the north 

 of the western end of Lake Balaton. This lake is 

 about three hundred yards across, and is fed by hot 



