958 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 209. 



Basins. 



Coast lines. 



Classification of land forms. 



These subjects ave necessarily treated briefly 

 owing to the limitations imposed by the size of 

 the book, but they are all treated ably, and as 

 the reader leaves each topic behind he feels 

 that the author has not pumped his reservoir of 

 knowledge dry. 



If one wishes to find fault with a topographic 

 map he need only go into greater detail or 

 use a larger scale than was used by the maker 

 of the map; if one would find fault with a book 

 of this kind he needs only go a little further 

 into the details of the processes and results 

 under discussion. On this principle one may 

 venture the following criticisms : 



On page 46 the author says that the three 

 main factors determining land forms are : (1) 

 original slope ; (2) geological structure ; (3) 

 character of the rocks. If he had cared to go 

 into greater detail and finer subdivision of these 

 factors he might have added to this list : (4) 

 climatic conditions ; (5) interruptions during 

 development ; (6) duration of exposure ; (7) 

 nature of denuding agency ; (8) slope during 

 development. Such subdivisions, however, are 

 mere matters of convenience in discussion ; the 

 sulijects themselves have not been overlooked. 



It would have been well for American readers 

 if the author had noted that the 'swallow- 

 holes,' dolinas, ' kettle- valleys,' etc., spoken of 

 on page 271 are known in this country as 'sink- 

 holes.' 



On pages 267-8 the author expresses the 

 opinion that earthquakes may sometimes be 

 caused by the falliug-in of the roofs of caverns. 

 To a person living in an earthquake region this 

 seems to be an inadequate, or rather a highly 

 exceptional, cause of earthquakes. Limestone 

 regions are not generally looked upon as earth- 

 quake regions. 



On page 284 aeolian basins are mentioned 'as 

 occurring in Arkansas.' These basins are not 

 in Arkansas, but in the valley of the Arkansas 

 River. In common with many other writers, 

 he gets the name of Eio de Janeiro wrong (330, 

 332). To call it 'Rio Janeiro' is equivalent to 

 calling a man Kinley when his name is McKin- 

 ley. The editor may be warranted from analogy 



in spelling pulverise so (pp. 30, 32), but neither 

 Webster nor the Century gives such a spelling. 



The illustrations are, on the whole, not up to 

 the standard of the text. Most of them are 

 smudged as if reproduced on the scale on which 

 they were hastily drawn. 



But these are all very small matters, and have 

 little to do with the general merit of the book. 

 It ought to be remembered, too, that Dr. Geikie 

 is no mere maker of books. He is a busy scien- 

 tific worker, who can find time only with great 

 difficulty for writing a work of this character, 

 and whatever one finds to criticise in this book 

 is not to be attributed to any unfitness or un- 

 familiarity on his part with the subject he is 

 dealing with. 



Several references in the work to the relations 

 of geology and earth-sculpture afford an occa- 

 sion for referring to a doctrine being promul- 

 gated in this country of late years by enthusiasts 

 en the subject of physiography, physical geog- 

 raphy, earth-sculpture or whatever one may 

 choose to name it, in the grammar and high 

 schools, and even in the primary grades them- 

 selves. 



Dr. Geikie says, on page 45 : " So dominant, 

 indeed, has been the influence of geological 

 structure in determining the results worked out 

 by erosion that without a knowledge of the 

 structure of a country we can form no reliable 

 opinion as to the origin of its surface features." 

 At the end of the book he returns to this sub- 

 ject. On page 364 he concludes " that these 

 (surface features) cannot be accounted for with- 

 out some knowledge of geological structure." 

 On page 367 he says: "It is almost impossible, 

 indeed, to consider the formation of surface fea- 

 tures without at the same time inquiring into 

 their geological history. And not infrequently 

 we fiud that the configuration of a land is the 

 outcome of a highly involved series of changes. 

 To understand the distribution of its hills and 

 valleys, its plains and plateaux, and the whole 

 adjustment of its hydrographic system, we may 

 have to work our way back to a most remote 

 geological period." 



The book is made up of facts, almost every 

 one of which is a silent witness to the correct- 

 ness of this conclusion. Physiography is a study 

 for mature minds, and it cannot successfully be 



