July 22, 1909] 



NA TURE 



lOI 



they are on the more open plains of the Continent ; 

 nor is feeding so necessary in our usually more open 

 winters; but the chapter on bird-boxes will be sure to 

 interest those who have been in the habit of hanging 

 up boxes in their gardens and woods. Baron Berlepsch 

 came to the conclusion that the nesting-boxes in use 

 in his boyhood served no purpose, and that the only 

 chance of success lay in the boxes being made to 

 imitate nature. He has now succeeded in getting 

 proper boxes made, most of which are exact imitations 

 of woodpeckers' holes. They are here figured and 

 fully described, and the manner of fixing and hanging 

 them. They are now to be bought in England. Other 

 illustrations show sections of woodpeckers' holes, cor- 

 rect and worthless boxes, plans of shelter woods for 

 birds, the woods before and after cutting, pruned 

 bushes, &c. A useful calendar of operations concludes 

 this very practical little volume. 



'I'he first volume of the " Book of Nature-study " ' 

 covers animal life from mammals to insects, spiders 

 and worms, &c., and is educational in character, 

 written chiefly for the education of those who have 

 to teach natural history to the young. The editor 



Ringed Plover going to nest ; the breast feathers are beine drawn over the eggs. From "The Book 



of Nature-study." 



points out that one of the causes of teachers failing 

 with their students of natural history is their ignor- 

 ance of the subject ; and one of the main objects of 

 this book has been to place the necessary information 

 in such a form as to be accessible to the teacher. It 

 is also most truly pointed out that in teaching natural 

 history a principal object which should never be lost 

 sight of is the stimulation of the powers of independent 

 inquiry and observation on the part of the children 

 themselves. The introductory chapter expounds cer- 

 tain general themes which must form part of the 

 intellectual background of successful nature-study in 

 the field of animal life, and the subsequent sections 

 contain an excellent and clearly written introduction 

 to the various forms thereof, their structure and life- 

 history. A useful bibliography of works dealing with 

 the subject, and in which it can be followed up, is 

 appended to each section. The matter dealt with is 

 so extensive that space cannot here be found to indi- 

 cate more than the general character of the work, and 

 it must suffice to say that it serves its purpose admir- 



1 " The Book of Nature-study." Edited by Prof. J. Bretland Farmer, 

 F.R.S., assisted by a staff of specialists. Vol. i. Pp. xii-^2I2 ; illustrated. 

 (London : Caxton Publishing Company, n.d-) Price js. fid. net. 



ably. The illustrations are exceedingly fit and suit- 

 able for the purpose in view. The book is well printed 

 on good paper, and the six coloured plates are simply 

 delightful, as well as most instructive, and are some 

 of the best and most successful efforts at colour print- 

 ing we have seen. 



THE ADAMELLO GROUP.' 



THE Adamello group is a conspicuous though dis- 

 tant feature in the panoramic view of snow-clad 

 giants which greets us on reaching some lofty peak 

 of the Pennine Alps in the neighbourhood of Zermatt. 

 It rises like an island above a sea of lower mountains, 

 almost untouched by snow — a vast tabular mass covered 

 with glaciers, " a huge block," to quote Mr. Douglas 

 Freshfield's graphic description, " large enough to 

 supplv materials for half-a-dozen fine mountains. But 

 it is, in fact, only one. For a length and breadth of 

 many miles, the ground never falls below 9500 feet. 

 The highest peaks (about 11,600 feet) . . . are merely 

 slight elevations of the rim of this unlifted plain. . . . 

 Imagine an enormous white cloth 

 unevenly laid upon a table and its 

 shining skirts hanging over here 

 and there between the dark mas- 

 sive supports" ("The Italian 

 Alps," p. 202). 



One huge mass of intrusive 

 igneous rock, now laid bare by 

 denudation, practically forms the 

 .'\damello. On the east it is de- 

 fined by the great Judicaria fault ; 

 on the west by the Val Camonica ; 

 on the north the narrow neck 

 crossed by the Tonale Pass alone 

 separates the waters running to 

 the Lago d'Iseo from those which 

 flow either to the Lago di Garda 

 or to the Adige. Thus it seems 

 indicated by nature as a subject 

 for a monograph, and Dr. W. 

 Salomon accepted her challenge 

 nearly twenty years ago. From 

 time to time he has published 

 papers on important details, and 

 now gives us the fruits of his 

 studies in one of those massive 

 memoirs which only a national in- 

 stitution can afford to publish. 

 \\"e have but to glance at his route-map, in parts of 

 which the red lines showing his track cross and re- 

 cross like a mass of wriggling worms, to see that he 

 has done his work with Teutonic thoroughness, leav- 

 ing hardly any accessible place unvisited, while in 

 order to ascertain how the rocks are related to those 

 of neighbouring regions he has extended his investi- 

 gations to the" Val Tellina and to the lakes of Iseo 

 and Idro. 



Selection from so great a mass of details is impos- 

 sible, and criticism of them demands a knowledge of 

 the district comparable with that of the author, so 

 that we can only indicate his main conclusions and 

 comment on one or two which have a more general 

 character. The igneous holocrystalline rock, to which 

 Von Rath, about half-a-century ago, gave the name 

 tonalite (from the Tonale Pass) consists of quartz, 

 plagioclase felspar (probably andesine), biotite, and 

 hornblende. It varies a little in coarseness and in 

 composition, especially in the relative abundance of 



1 "Die Adamcllogruppe, ein alpines Zentralmassiv, und seine Bedeutung 

 fur die Gebirgsbitdung und unsere Kenntniss von dem Mechanismus dcr 

 Intrusionen." Von Wilhelm Salomon, i. Teil : Lokale Beschreibung, ktis- 

 talline Schiefer, Perm, Trias. Pp. xiii -1-433. {Wien : Abbandlung^n der 

 k.k. Geologischen Reichsansta't, 190S.) Price 30 kr. 



NO. 2073, VOL. 81] 



