Davis — Framework of the Earth. 235 



is the framework of the earth rather than its face that 

 "Das Antlitz der Erde" treats. 



In spite of these various omissions and limitations, 

 the framework of the earth is ably treated in Suess's 

 volumes. No one can look them over, much less read 

 them carefully, without experiencing an enlarging ex- 

 pansion of his previous conception as to the content of 

 geological science. The local items through which ac- 

 quaintance with field geology begins, the areal studies 

 through which it advances, the reports of national sur- 

 veys through which it is matured, are all far transcended 

 by the comprehensive views concerning the structure and 

 development of earth-crust elements, as Suess has sum- 

 marized them. In the measure that they are appre- 

 hended, one gains a grasp of problems never before 

 imagined, an insight into the possibilities of geological 

 investigation never before realized. Here indeed flows a 

 great main stream of thought, toward which all previous 

 studies are related as gathering rivulets and contribu- 

 tory branches. Here is a broad current of investigation 

 directed to an object of extraordinary dimensions, the 

 full attainment of which may be well regarded as the 

 geological duty of the present century. Great honor is 

 due to the master who opened this highway and led us 

 so far along it. How can we best make further advance? 

 That question will be answered most wisely after we 

 examine the French edition of Suess's masterpiece. 



Imagine the courage and patience involved in under- 

 taking the translation of a voluminous work, the com- 

 pletion of which in more than 3,000 pages of large octavo 

 print has occupied over a quarter century! Such were 

 the qualities possessed and such is the task accomplished 

 by de Margerie in bringing out "La Face de la Terre," 

 the French version of "Das Antlitz der Erde." The 

 project was conceived in 1890, and the first volume of 

 the translation, the original of which had been published 

 in two parts in 1883 and 1888, appeared in 1897, with a 

 preface by Bertrand. For the second volume the German 

 and French dates are 1888 and 1900 ; for the third, which 

 like the first was issued in parts, the dates of the original 

 are 1901 and 1909, and of the translation, 1902, 1911, 1913 

 and 1918. It is the completion of this great undertaking 

 by the appearance of the last of these final parts, bearing 

 an admirable portrait of Suess as a frontispiece and 



