470 



NATURE 



[December 26, 1912 



The zoological expedition to the Altai Mountains, 

 Siberia, and Mongolia, organised and carried out by 

 ihe cooperation of the United States National Museum 

 with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Har- 

 vard, has recently returned to the United States after 

 an especially successful trip of about four months' 

 duration. The expedition was under the direction of 

 Dr. Theodore Lyman, of Cambridge, Mass., and the 

 National Museum was represented by Mr. N. Hol- 

 lister, of the division of mammals. It was the object 

 of the expedition to collect the mammals and birds 

 of the Altai Mountains, especially the very large wild 

 sheep of this region, and in this respect the expedition 

 succeeded far beyond expectations. Among the small 

 mammals there have been found several new species, 

 diagnoses of which are given in a pamphlet entitled, 

 " New Mammals from the Highlands of Siberia, "written 

 bv Mr. Hollister, and just published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution, forming publication No. 2157 of the Smith- 

 sonian Miscellaneous Collections. The whole collec- 

 tion includes about 750 mammals and birds, among 

 them a fine series of the wild sheep of the Altai region, 

 which .is the largest known species of sheep, together 

 with ibexes, gazelles, and other large game. The 

 specimens will be divided between the two institutions 

 interested. 



The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued 

 (Forestrv Service, Bulletin 85) a description of the 

 chaparral, or dwarf forest vegetation of Southern Cali- 

 fornia, bv F. G. Plummer. The chaparral, or "elfin 

 wood," is one of the types of stunted forest — a plant 

 formation found in several widely separated parts of 

 the world — and is one of the intermediate forms be- 

 tween a flourishing forest and a desert, representing a 

 condition of balance between certain environmental 

 extremes, a balance at which the growth is dwarfed 

 and the full-grown trees attain only the dimensions of 

 brush, being rarely more than TO ft. high. It is sharply 

 distinguished in composition from the dwarf forest 

 formations of high latitudes and altitudes on one 

 hand, and from the tropical and subtropical dwarf 

 forests on the other ; its dominant species belong to the 

 genera Adenostoma, Arctostaphylos, Ceanothus, and 

 Quercus, though the dominant forms often vary on 

 adjacent watersheds. The memoir includes a discus- 

 sion of the ecological relations of the chaparral species, 

 the importance of the tree-cover in conserving mois- 

 ture, the methods of controlling the destructive fires 

 which rapidly sweep the more or less arid vegetation, 

 and the possibility of introducing large tree species; 

 hence it is of interest to the forester and geographer, 

 as well as to the botanist. 



.\nother text-book, modestly styled a " Guide to the 

 Collection of Gcmstones ip the Museum of Practical 

 Geology," has been issued by that museum 

 (obtainable through any bookseller from T. 

 Fisher Unwin, London, price gd.). Mr. W. F. P. 

 McLintock here describes the properties of gems, with 

 • in excellent account of the influence of refractive index 

 and internal reflection, and of the mysterious nature 

 of colour. Eight pages are devoted to artificial gems. 

 In the descriptive portion, euclase, benitoite, and 

 variscite take their place as gemstones. 

 NO. 2252, VOL. 90] 



Oberlehrer L. Wunder, of Sendelbach bei Lohr, 

 has published separately, through Teubner of Leipzig 

 (price 1.50 marks), his observations on the Kerlingar- 

 fjoll and other highlands in Iceland. He has deter- 

 mined barometrically, with due precautions, a number 

 of heights for the first time, and is able to correct 

 some features of the current geological map of the 

 country. His observations on the rapid variations 

 of glacier-streams as the comparatively feeble sunlight 

 waxes or wanes are of considerable interest. In the 

 Hofsjokull a true ice-dome of the Norwegian type is 

 encountered, with marginal glacier-tongues. 



The continued interest taken by geologists in the 

 origin of the British Triassic strata has been more 

 than once noticed in these columns. Mr. T. O. 

 Bosworth has now published, though the Leicester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, his researches on 

 "The Keuper Marls around Charnwood " (Leicester: 

 Thornley and Son). Particular attention is paid in 

 this excellently illustrated volume to the rock-surfaces 

 exposed by quarrying beneath the Trias, and to the 

 blocks from these surfaces carried into the marls by 

 weathering' agents in Triassic times. More than 40 

 per cent, of calcium and magnesium carbonate has 

 been found in some of the marls. The author 

 believes that the red marls accumulated in compara- 

 tively deep standing pools, the alternating grey bands 

 representing coarser matter swept in from the desert 

 areas during rains. 



Prof. S. P.ass.^rge has written, as a part in the 

 Mitteilungcn of the Geographical Society of Hamburg 

 (Hamburg, L. Friederichsen and Co., 1912), an elabo- 

 rate survev of morphological geography, which he 

 endeavours to classify with the same precision as a 

 department in zoology. His method can be indicated 

 by quoting an example. In systematic morphology 

 the two " tvpes " are land-forms and coast-forms. In 

 the first of these, volcanic-forms make the second order 

 in the class of endogenous forms, and this order is 

 divided into the family of intrusions and eruption- 

 forms, the latter being separated into one genus 

 (Gattung) of explosive discharges and another 

 of effusive discharges, the second consisting of the 

 following specific forms : dome-vok anoes, shield- 

 volcanoes, and flows. This has a very orderly aspect, 

 and examples may be found which can be easily fitted 

 into the several pigeon-holes, but mo^t volcanoes of 

 any size are composite in character, built up of dis- 

 charges of scoria and flows of lava, and traversed by 

 dykes and other intrusions. To draw hard and fast 

 lines is more difficult in geography than most other 

 branches of science, and, although some technical 

 terms are necessary, it is doubtful whether they can 

 be very precisely defined. Prof. Passarge's work is 

 an example of German thoroughness, with perhaps a 

 corresponding tendency to over-classification, and it 

 will be found, we think, more useful to teachers than 

 to students, for the latter may find that minute atten- 

 tion to the trees rather hinders them from seeing the 

 wood. 



Dr. Philip Eredia sends us a useful discussion, 

 entitled " The Diurnal Variation of Temperature in 

 Italv" (excerpt from the .\nnals of the Central 



