JANUARY 25, 1901.] 
that is found acceptable in an important volume 
of a new series of geographical handbooks. 
Deecke’s work on Italy * treats in its first 
chapter the limits and area of the country ; in 
the second, the surrounding seas ; in the third, 
the history of exploration ; relief in the fourth, 
geological structure in the fifth, and climate 
and hydrography in the sixth and seventh. 
Then after 250 pages devoted to population, 
history, products and commerce, government 
and religion, the remaining}125 are given to 
the description of provinces (‘ Chorography’). 
In comment on this order, it may be said that 
it is not satisfactory from a physiographic 
standpoint to give a leading place to relief and 
a following place to geological structure; in 
such an order, relief must be treated empirically 
and to that extent imperfectly. Under hydrog- 
raphy many interesting details are given con- 
cerning certain rivers which have changed their 
courses in historical time—the Adige, the lower 
Po, and the Chiana between Tiber and Arno— 
but the development of rivers is hardly con- 
sidered. The provincial descriptions include 
much material of value, yet they omit many 
facts that would shed useful light on local to- 
pography. Taken all together, the book is 
certainly good, but it does not contribute much 
to the development of the new scheme of geo- 
graphical treatment that it is to be hoped may 
characterize similar works in the new century. 
NORWAY. 
A HANDSOME volume entitled ‘Norway, offi- 
cial publication for the Paris exhibition, 1900’ 
(Kristiana, 1900, 626 + xxxiy p., many plates, 
figures and maps) contains valuable chapters 
on topography, by Hansen; geology, by Reusch; 
and climate, by Steen, occupying 50 pages ; the 
rest of the volume being given to history, social 
conditions, commerce, etc. Hansen gives a just 
emphasis to normal and glacial erosion in his 
account of surface features. The highland is 
described as an immense mountain plateau, 
whose ‘even summits clearly indicate that it 
was originally a plain of denudation that has 
afterwards been forced up into an arch.’ The 
* ‘Bibliothek der Landerkunde’ herausgegeben von 
Dr. A. Kirchoff und Dr. R. Fitzner. Berlin, Schall. 
“Ttalien ’ von Professor Dr. W. Deecke, 1898. 
SCIENCE. 
153 
summits that tower above it, being of harder 
rocks, may be supposed to have withstood the 
destructive forces which leveled the remainder. 
‘Actual connected mountain chains rising 
above lowlands at both sides do not exist.’ 
Canyon like valleys, cut in the uplifted high- 
land, were modified by strong glacial erosion, 
producing fiords. The mountains that rise 
above the highland frequently have sharp alpine 
forms with corries (botner) which are described 
as having been developed in névé fields above 
level of the glacial sheet. The glaciated area 
exposes bare rock over so much of its surface 
as stands above the old shore line that marks 
post-glacial submergence ; but below this line 
there are abundant sands and clays, affording 
arable land. The population is largely found 
below this level. 
The relation of Norway to Sweden is inter- 
estingly presented. Although the two coun- 
tries border each other along a boundary 
line that measures a thousand miles in length, 
by far the greatest part of this line lies on the 
uninhabited mountainous highland. The two 
countries are therefore separated rather than 
joined. Only three railroads and about a 
dozen highways cross the boundary. In 1898, 
only five per cent. of Norway’s goods-exchange 
crossed the land frontier by railway and only 
one third of one per cent. by other means, while 
ninety-five per cent. went by sea. 
Wm. Davis. 
UNITED STATES BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC 
NAMES. é 
TuIs Board, to which is referred questions of 
disputed geographic nomenclature arising in 
the Executive Departments of the Government, 
held its monthly meeting January 9th. Philip- 
pine Island names were considered at some 
length. The Coast and Geodetic Survey is 
about to issue an atlas of the Philippine Islands. 
This atlas will contain about thirty maps made 
by Jesuit missionaries in the islands. It is 
preceded by an introduction, which, among 
other things, has three lists, comprising in all 
about 6,000 geographic names. These names 
are now in the final proof stage. The list was 
prepared and the proof corrected by Rev. 
Father Algue, 8.J., of Manila, but who has been 
