234 

can without great cost be from time to time re- 
edited, would serve the more useful purpose of 
bringing the subject up to date, and of reaching, 
by reason of their cheapness, a larger number of 
readers than this more costly form of advanced 
literature, excellent though it may be. J. B. C. 


THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF GEOGRAPHY. 
Physical Geography. By P. Lake. Pp. xx+ 324. 
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1915.) 
Prices 7SsOd.s Tek. 
HYSICAL geography is already represented 
by numerous elementary text-books, and by 
other more ambitious works, most of which deal 
with particular branches of the subject. Mr. Lake’s 
book occupies an intermediate position, being 
suitable for the needs of teachers and university 
students. The result is admirable, and the author 
is to be congratulated, not only on the accuracy 
of the subject matter, but also on the lucidity and 
attractiveness of his treatment. 
The book is divided into three sections, dealing 
in turn with the atmosphere, the oceans, and the 
lands. The first of these is perhaps the most 
valuable, or at least calls for most praise, for 
climate and weather, being still imperfectly under- 
stood even by their special students, have afforded 
many a pitfall for the unwary writers of general 
text-books. Any attempt at undue simplicity is 
to be deprecated in the interests of accuracy, and 
Mr. Lake has steered a happy course between the 
temptation to describe ideal cases, on the one 
hand, and the danger of citing confusing masses 
of actual meteorological data, on the other. The 
author points out the desirability of planning a 
teaching-course so that the study of the atmo- 
sphere occupies the winter session, leaving the 
land to the summer months when field excursions 
can be taken. 
In the section dealing with the oceans, the 
chapter on waves and tides should be particularly 
useful to the student, for these subjects are 
effectively handled with enviable ease. A chapter 
is devoted to coral reefs and islands, and the 
views of Darwin and Murray are presented, but 
no mention is made of Daly’s recent contribution 
to the controversy, in which he correlates the 
formation of atolls and barrier reefs with the lower- 
ing of sea-level that accompanied the Pleistocene 
glaciation, and its subsequent rise as the ice 
melted (Amer. Journ. Sci., 1910, p. 297). The 
chapters which treat of the land are uniformly 
good. They constitute a delightful exposition of 
dynamical geology, and one feels that they are 
all too short. The temptation to have written 
NAT ORE 

[Jury rs, vo9TS5 
glaciers, and volcanoes have a way of leading one 
further and further afield in the realm of earth-lore. 
Mr. Lake has written just enough in this, and in 
the other sections, to fire the student with interest, 
and no text-book can hope to achieve more. 
The book is well illustrated with twenty plates, 
162 figures in the text, and a series of maps 
illustrating isobars, isotherms and rainfall, those 
of the latter being coloured. Altogether it is a 
very refreshing text-book, and it has the advan- 
tage of satisfying a real need in the teaching of 
physical geography. ARTHUR HOLMES. 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
Smithsonian Physical Tables. Sixth revised 
edition. Prepared by F. E. Fowle. Pp. xxxvi 
+355. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 
1914.) 
THESE physical tables, originally compiled by 
Prof. Thomas Gray in 1896, have been revised 
by Mr. F. E. Fowle, of the Smithsonian Astro- 
physical Observatory. The number of tables has 
been increased from 335 in the fifth to more than 
4oo in the sixth edition. The new matter in- 
cludes a new set of wire tables from advance 
sheets supplied by the Bureau of Standards, 
mathematical tables compiled by Mr. C. E. Van 
Orstrand, and data relating to Réntgen rays and 
radio-activity. Thus we find a table giving 
Moseley’s atomic numbers and the wave-lengths 
of lines in the X-ray spectra of the elements. We 
miss, however, determinations of the ratio of the 
charge to the mass of an electron. The mass 
of an electron is very nearly 9 x 10-75 grams, not 
6x 10-28 grams (Table 406). Sadler, on p. 336, 
no doubt through association with Barkla, be- 
comes Sadla! It would be useful to have the 
value of the electro-chemical equivalent given for 
some elements other than silver. These, however, 
are minor blemishes, and actual use of the tables 
during two months has proved their great value. 
It is not too much praise to say that a copy should 
be in every scientific library and advanced physi- 
eal laboratory. It may be of service to state 
that the volume may be obtained in Great Britain, 
where it should be more widely known, through 
Messrs. Wm. Wesley and Son, Essex Street, 
Strand, W.C., at 8s. 6d. net. 
The Design of Steam Boilers and Pressure Vessels. 
By Prof. G. B. Haven and Prof. G. W. Swett. 
Pp. vii+416. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, 
Inc. ; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) 
Prices. -6d. net. 
Tuts book is a comprehensive treatise on the 
design of steam boilers and other vessels sub- 
jected to internal fluid pressure. The subject 
naturally divides itself into questions of strength, 
of providing dimensions suitable for the thermal 
operations involved, and the production of working 
drawings embodying the results of the calculations. 
The authors have endeavoured to harmonise the 
more must have been strong, for rivers, and | rational methods of both theory and practice ; 
NO. 2385, VOL. 95] 


