Die Naturkräfte in der Alpen, oder physikalische Geographie des Alpengebirges

Abstract

THIS is a thoroughly unsatisfactory book. The title is attractive, and in spite of all that has been written about the Alps of late years, a treatise such as is here promised is very much wanted. Such a work if taken in hand by a master of physical science capable of grasping together the varied phenomena and exhibiting vividly their mutual bearings and relations, would be of engrossing interest, and could scarcely fail to throw new light upon many obscure questions of science. Failing this, there is room for a work in which the results of recent exploration and scientific observation should be carefully collected, intelligently arranged, and clearly set forth. Such a book might not attract many of these who have no personal experience of the Alps, but would be welcomed by thousands who have keen recollections of enjoyment among the great mountains, and would fain learn something of the nature and laws of the giant forces within whose sphere they have moved. Along with the primary, though no way common, qualifications of accuracy and clearness, the writer of such a work should have such a firm hold of physical principles as should enable him to mark distinctly the limits of the territory conquered by modern science, and distinguish the conclusions which are definitely established from those that are more or less imperfectly proved, or merely to be ranked as conjectural explanations.

Die Naturkräfte in der Alpen, oder physikalische Geographie des Alpengebirges,

von Dr. Friedrich Pfaff O. Professor in der Universität, Erlangen. (München: Oldenbourg, 1877.)