508 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 19. 



rious contributors. Several of tlie latter are 

 of great thoroiighness and maj' serve as 

 guides in ordering the best recent publica- 

 tions for public and college libraries. The 

 most thorough are by Fischer on Southern 

 Europe, Neumann on Germany and Sieger 

 on Austria-Hungary. That by Schlichter 

 on Great Britain and Ireland unwarrant- 

 ably omits mention of the recent editions 

 of Geikie's Scotland and Eamsay's England. 

 The volume closes with a series of small 

 scale index-maps, giving the state of ad- 

 vance of topographical surveys in Europe, 

 India and the United States up to the au- 

 tumn of 1894. One may thus determine at 

 a glance whether the sheet for a certain lo- 

 cality in any country is yet published or 

 not. The j)ractical use of these indexes 

 would have been increased if the name and 

 address of the official bookseller from whom 

 the maps may be purchased had been given. 



FOESCHUNGEN ZUE DEUTCHEN LANDES- UND 

 VOLKSKUNDB. 



The eighth and latest volume of these val- 

 uable essays, edited bj' Kirchhoff of Halle, 

 and published at Stuttgart by Engelhorn, 

 contains studies by Schreiber on the climate 

 of Saxony, Partsch on the giaciation of the 

 Eiesengebirge, and FoUman on the Eiffel, 

 besides three others on historical and eth- 

 nological subjects. Schreiber's essay gives 

 a full account of the periodic values of vari- 

 ous climatic factors, but it is deficient in 

 omitting all account of the unperiodic or 

 cyclonic changes, which in winter are 

 dominant, and fully deserve recognition as 

 climatic elements. Partsch presents a care- 

 ful study of the moraines and associated 

 terraces of the Eiesengebirge, which rise a 

 few miles south of the extreme limit as- 

 cribed to the northern ice sheet in that re- 

 gion. The height of the snow line during 

 glacial times is placed at about 1200 meters, 

 hy means of ratios between length of gla- 

 ciers and area of snow fields, as determined 



in the Alps. An older and a younger gia- 

 ciation are sei^arated by a considerable in- 

 terval, during which normal vallej- making 

 was in progress. The author dissents froiii 

 Berendt's views concerning a more general 

 giaciation of the Eiesengebirge. Follmau's 

 account of the Eifel is chiefly geological 

 and descriptive, little attention being given 

 to the development of the existing topog- 

 raphy or to the explanation of the present 

 courses of the streams. The volcanoes and 

 the maare, of course, receive special atten- 

 tion. 



penck's moephologie dee erdober- 



FLACHE. 



This is the most important work on physi- 

 ography that has appeared during the past 

 year ; indeed, in many respects it is a 

 unique work, one that will stand long at the 

 head of works of its class. It is a worthy 

 successor of earlier volumes in the series 

 of geographical handbooks (published by 

 Engelhorn, Stuttgart) to which it belongs — 

 Eatzel's Anthropogeographie, Hann's Kli- 

 matologie, Heim's Gletscherkunde, Bogus- 

 lawski and Kriimmel's Oceanographie and 

 others ; and in the matter of citations of 

 authorities it is much superior to anj' of its 

 predecessors. Penck's acquaintance with 

 the literature of his subject is truly remark- 

 able. Each topic is outlined historically, 

 as well as in its present status. A subject 

 relatively so subordinate as the efiect of the 

 earth's rotation on rivers has thirty-five cita- 

 tions ; sand dunes have fifty-one. Pro- 

 cesses of deformation, deposition and denu- 

 dation are all considered elaboratelj', vnth 

 special reference to the forms that thej' pro- 

 duce, and this part of the book might prop- 

 erljr be called Morphocjenie. The forms them- 

 selves are considered afterwards at length. 

 The more general headings in the table of 

 contents are : Form and size of the earth ; 

 area of land and water, mean altitude of 

 lands and depth of seas, volume of lands and 



