462 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 615. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Geology. By T. C. Chambeelin and K. D. 

 Salisbury. 3 vols. 8vo, illustrated. New 

 York, Henry Holt & Co. Vol. I. Geologic 

 Processes and their Results. Pp. xix + 654. 

 1904. Vol. II. Earth History (Genesis- 

 Paleozoic). Pp. xxvii + 692. 1906. Vol. 

 III. Earth History {Mesozoic, Cenozoic). 

 Pp. xi + 624. 1906. 



The appearance of this monumental work is 

 an event of more than ordinary importance in 

 the history of geologic book-making. The 

 authors are men of great and varied experi- 

 ence in field geology in different parts of the 

 world, and they are thoroughly skilled in 

 handling the more abstruse problems of specu- 

 lative geology. They are also too serious- 

 minded and too actively engaged in geologic 

 research to give their time to the preparation 

 of a text-book or manual of geology of the 

 ordinary type. The geologists of the country 

 and of the world, therefore, feel that they have 

 a right to expect in these three volumes to 

 find geology not only brought well up to date 

 in all its branches, but new fields pointed out 

 for future activity, research and philosophic 

 deduction. 



But if such a work should fully meet all of 

 the hopes and expectations of all geologists 

 it would have to be more than human. No 

 man and no two men can publish a text-book 

 of 2,027 pages on geology without omitting 

 many things that some of us think ought to 

 have gone in, and without putting in much 

 that some of us think ought to have been left 

 out. In these days of specialization, too, the 

 help of many specialists must be had in the 

 preparation of such a book, and even the spe- 

 cialist is often a little behind one or another 

 colleague regarding details of some impor- 

 tance in his own specialty. Aside from the 

 matter of scientific import, the mere mechan- 

 ical preparation and editing of such a book is 

 a task of no small responsibility. But none 

 the less authors of books that are to be taken 

 seriously must expect to have their work scru- 

 tinized with a closeness and minuteness pro- 

 portionate to the seriousness of their under- 

 taking. 



One of the most useful features of a good 

 manual for advanced students, such as this 

 work claims to be, is its reference to geologic 

 literature. Two of the best manuals in the 

 English language stand in strong contrast to 

 each other in this respect: Dana's manual, 

 hitherto our best American work, is notably 

 lacking in foot-note references, while Geikie's 

 text-book has abundant and discriminating 

 references to the literature of every subject 

 treated. The first two volumes of Chamberlin 

 and Salisbury have entirely too few references 

 to the literature of geology, and of these, too 

 many are to text -books instead of the original 

 sources, and where original sources are men- 

 tioned the references are sometimes not up 

 to date. This sort of thing is allowable in 

 elementary works, but hardly so in one of 

 these dimensions. 



The geographic part of the first volume is 

 beautifully illustrated with colored topographic 

 plates, a happy and thoroughly effective meth- 

 od of showing certain geographic features, 

 but these plates are not accompanied by ex- 

 planations, nor do they contain references to 

 places in the text where they are explained. 

 The text itself refers here and there to the 

 plates, but one gets tired of hunting for plates 

 and counting them and looking for their num- 

 bers in an effort to follow the text intelli- 

 gently. Some of these plates might have been 

 much improved by striking out certain lines 

 from the originals. On plate XVI. (opposite 

 p. 179, Vol. I.), for example, the heavy broken 

 black line down the middle of the Missouri 

 River might better have been omitted. There 

 are but few of these otherwise beautiful illus- 

 trations that are not marred by these heavy 

 black political boundary lines. 



The language is sometimes obscure. We are 

 no sticklers for making everything easy for 

 the student, but we do believe in making it 

 simple when it may as well be simple as com- 

 plex and difficult to follow. Students need to 

 give their time to thinking about the subject 

 on hand instead of wondering what a writer 

 is driving at. Por example, at p. 265 of Vol. 

 I., it is said that 'this dynamic source of 

 heat may modify the theoretical deductions 



