January 1, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



21 



meanders. A brief and elementary presen- 

 tation of the problems here discussed elabor- 

 ately would be very serviceable to the 

 schools of Missouri. 



THE GLACIERS OF NORWAY. 



Two previous notes on Norwegian essays 

 by Eichter, of Graz, have been given in these 

 columns. His latest article concerns the 

 Norwegian glaciers (Hettner's Geogr. Zeit- 

 schr. II., 1896, 305-319), a subject on which 

 he is particularly well qualified to write 

 after his minute studies of the glaciers of 

 the eastern Alps. The Folgefond highlands 

 have about a sixth of their area ice-covered ; 

 this part being comparatively smooth, while 

 the rest is much more dissected. Hence it 

 is argued that the inactive ice sheet has 

 been protective of the highland surface. 

 Eichter places the snow line here at 1,450 

 met., dissenting from the estimate of 1,025 

 by Sexe. The descending glacial branches 

 from the highland ice sheet vary in shape 

 according as they form broad ice paws in 

 the high-level, shallow, upland valleys, or 

 long, steep, slender ice tongues in the deep 

 fiord valleys. The Folgefond has only two 

 or three glaciers of the second class, and 

 twenty or thirty of the first. These two 

 classes should not be paralleled with glaciers 

 of the first and second order in the Alps. 

 The highland from which the Jostedals 

 glacier descends, for which Eichter suggests 

 the name Jostefjeld, possesses a number of 

 round and peaked summits (1,900 met.) 

 that rise above its general level (1,600). 

 "While the latter is ice-covered, the former 

 are bare ; and this difference is ascribed to 

 wind action. The snow line here stands at 

 1,600-1,650 met. Langefjeldand Jotunf jeld 

 are also described. 



LANDSLIPS IN SWITZERLAND. 



One of the frequent landslips and torrent 

 washes of the Alps occurred lasb May on 

 the south slope of the Eothorn ridge, near 

 the east end of Lake Brienz. It is de- 



scribed by H. V. Steiger (Mitth. Naturf. 

 Gesellsch., Bern, 1896, with illustrations). 

 The Lammbach has here built a large 

 alluvial fan between the villages of Kien- 

 holz and Hofstetten, on which it from time 

 to time spreads floods of stone and gravel, 

 fed by landslips in its headwater ravines, 

 where rifts in the upper ground show that a 

 repetition of such disasters may be expected 

 for years to come. The length of the recent 

 stony torrent from its source to the lake is 

 3|- k.; its breadth where widest near the 

 lake, 120 m.; its thickness at the same 

 place, 2^3 m., increasing up stream to 4 m. 

 The advance of the wash was at a variable 

 rate, sometimes so slow that the grass in 

 front of it was saved by mowing. On es- 

 caping from the incised upper valley, the 

 torrent turned sharply to the right on the 

 lateral slope of the fan . Its spreading lower 

 course is well shown in a large photo-print. 

 Although even these small slips are of 

 economic importance in a closely occupied 

 country like Switzerland, they are insignifi- 

 cant compared to the colossal Topinish and 

 Simcoe landslides in Washington, described 

 by Eussell (Bull. 108. U. S. G. S.). 



heilprin's earth and its story. 

 ' The Earth and its Story,' by Prof. Heil- 

 prin, of the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, is a ' first book of geology ' 

 (Silver, Burdett and Co., Boston, 1896, 266 

 pp.), in which there is a decided physio- 

 graphic flavor, thus giving much support to 

 the contention of the report of the ' Com- 

 mittee of Ten ' that geology proper— the 

 study of the Earth in relation to time — may 

 be well left over to collegiate years, while 

 physiography supplies the natural prelimi- 

 nary training in the high school. The book 

 is simply written, and its chapters follow a 

 well-chosen order. The illustrations are as 

 a rule good, but in some cases there is here, 

 as in many recent books, an example of the 

 too great confidence in ' process ' reproduc- 



