Fan. 13, 1870] 
NATURE 
283 
where they had become scarce. M. Fatio mentions an 
old hunter who boasted of having killed as many as 3,000 
chamois. 
The Alpine marmot, which is so common and so well 
known to Alpine tourists, is not the mammal which 
attains the highest elevation of habitat in Switzerland ; 
another little rodent, the Arvicola nivalis, has that dis- 
tinguished honour, living at a greater altitude than any 
other European mammal. 
Both this species and the marmot live among the oases 
of rock and herbage which stand out amidst the vast 
masses of mountain ice. The Bobac marmot does not 
occur in Switzerland, being confined to the north-eastern 
districts of Europe. The Alpine marmot inhabits 
the Carpathians and the Pyrenees, as well as the Alps. 
M. Fatio’s book is illustrated by eight plates, giving 
figures of new or rare forms. Synoptical tables of the 
families and genera are also given, so as to enable the 
least experienced naturalist to determine with facility the 
species which may come before him. A second volume, 
to include the reptiles, batrachia, and fishes, and a third, 
treating of the birds, are soon to be brought out by the 
same careful and enthusiastic observer. 
E. Ray LANKESTER 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Mining Geology.—Dve Lagerstatten der nutzbaren Minera- 
Zien. Von Johann Grimm. (Prague: J. G. Calve). 
THE author of this volume is an Oberbergrath, and also 
Director of the Imperial Mining Academy at Pribram. 
During the last seventeen years he has from time to time 
published notices of the mineral veins and other mining 
features of Transylvania, Hungary, and Bohemia ; and he 
now presents to the public a general treatise or handbook 
of the useful minerals. His experience has not been wide 
enough to enable him to write a book that fully justifies 
the title he has chosen for it, and his acquaintance with 
the literature of his subject appears to be limited to the | 
German language. But the book is the work of a prac- 
tical man, is well arranged, and contains much useful 
information. Fresh illustrations even of well-known facts 
are always interesting, more especially when they carry 
with them some little features that are novel. In this 
respect, mining geologists in this country will find it worth 
their while to hear what Herr Grimm has to say of the 
minerals, veins, beds, faults, and other mining features of 
various parts of the Austrian Empire. Iss (Ep 
Practical Astronomy and Geodesy.—Geogvaphische Orts- 
bestimmungen mit Hiilfstafeln. 4to. pp. 88. By W. 
Valentiner. (Leipzig: 1869. London: Williams and 
Norgate.) 
THE purpose of the author was to afford the astronomers 
engaged in the great European Triangulation tables for 
facilitating the reduction of the observations made for 
finding azimuths and the altitude of the pole. The work 
is, however, of more than a transient merit, for it will 
probably be of much assistance to our Indian officers 
engaged in the great trigonometrical survey of the Penin- 
sula, and some of the tabular matter might henceforth in 
a modified form be well included in works on higher 
geodetic operations generally. 
The author, by differentiating some of the fundamental 
equations which connect the latitude of a place with the 
altitude of a heavenly body above the horizon, its decli- 
nation, azimuth, hour-angle, and parallactic angle, shows 
the influence which the errors in the observed quantities 
exert upon those that are dependent upon them, and comes 
to the conclusion that circumpolar stars are best adapted 
for azimuth determinations. He especially recommends 
to the observers engaged in the arc measurement the star 
Urse minoris, which is seen at all hours with telescopes 
of about 1} to 2 inches aperture, and the succeeding 
formula have been calculated with special reference to 
that star. Thus, taking the fundamental equations, in 
which z, a, 6, 1, @, are the well-known symbols for zenith 
distance, azimuth, declination, hour-angle, and latitude 
respectively, the author obtains by division, transforma- 
tion, and expansion, and substituting p for go°—8, the 
following elegant expression for the azimuth :— 
a =psintsee fd + M sin 2t + N 
The values of M and N being essentially dependent on 
t and ¢ alone, admit of tabulation with t and ¢ as argu- 
ments, and are given by the author for all latitudes 
between 36° north and 64°, this being the extent of the 
arc to be measured ; t is given from ten to ten minutes. 
The formule for the altitude of the pole are discussed 
very carefully on the same principles. The whole is the 
result of much labour, and M. Valentiner well deserves 
the sincere gratitude of the numerous computers whose 
work he has facilitated. . 
Manual of Physics.—Lehrbuch der Physik, etnschliesslich 
der Physik der Luft (Meteorologie), des Himmels 
(Himmelkunde), und der Erde (Physikalische Geo- 
graphie). Von Dr, Paul Reis. Erste Halfte, pp. 
256. (Leipzig: Quandt und Handel. 1870.) 
THIS is the first half of a treatise on Elementary Physics 
from a highly scientific point of view. Dr. Reis considers 
that the principle of the conservation of force—as he 
puts it, “ Die energie des Weltalls ist constant ” (the energy 
of the universe is constant)—is at the root of all science, 
and that it is possible to deduce a large part of physics as a 
mathematical consequence of this principle. We confess 
to a little doubt whether it is advisable to introduce it in 
this form in the first instance in an elementary text-book. 
The attempt is one, however, that must be made no doubt 
at an early date, in some form or other. 
The first instalment of the work contains an introduc- 
tion of considerable length on the elementary ideas at 
the root of physics—such as space, time, matter, rest and 
motion, matter and force—the forces which appear in all 
phenomena, molecular, chemical, cohesion, adhesion, 
gravitation—and the fundamental axioms of physics, 
which he gives us in six statements not materially differ- 
ing from Newton’s three laws. After 80 pages out of 
500 have been occupied in this way, we confess that we 
doubt whether sufficient room is left for the adequate 
treatment of the enormous range of subjects which is to 
follow. The mechanics of solids, fluids,and gases occupy 
the author for the next 100 pages, and the last 70 of this 
first part are given to wave-motions and acoustics. 
The book is carefully worked, and full of examples for 
the student. The new form in which familiar things are 
presented makes it interesting to those who are acquainted 
with the subjects it treats of. It appears to be con- 
scientiously brought up to the science of the present day, 
but we must reserve our opinion as to the question 
whether it accomplishes the task it proposes to itself, or 
whether, in its present form, it will be valuable as a text- 
book till the appearance of the second half, which com- 
pletes the work. It claims to possess a plan of its own, 
and it must be estimated according to that claim. 
Werle 
Meteorology.—Die Theorie und Das allgemeine geogra- 
phische System der Winde. (Géttingen, 1869. Lon- 
don; Williams and Norgate.) 
THE author is an opponent of Dove’s school of meteorolo- 
gists. The facts discussed by him are well known, and 
far more concisely stated in any recent work on meteor- 
ology. The theories founded by the author on those facts 
are too fanciful, and of his speculations—founded on no 
facts at all—the least said about them the better, 
