Outlines of the Earth's History; a Popular Study in Physiography

Abstract

IN these outlines Prof. Shaler has felt the necessity of selecting certain features of the history of the earth for comparatively full treatment in order to supply a more helpful aid to a true knowledge of the earth than is afforded by the “ordinary text-books.” At first sight the selection appears inadequate and arbitrarily proportioned. The seven chapters devoted to the concrete subject (after thirty pages of introductory matter) are entitled “The Stellar Realm, “The Earth,” “The Atmosphere,” “Glaciers,” “The Work of Underground Water,” “The Soil,” and “The Rocks and their Order.” Closer examination, however, shows that these headings pare texts for exposition rather than descriptive titles, and I a great variety of unexpected information is brought out I in the course of the discussions, which are not cramped by an undue effort after conciseness of expression. Thus the Stellar Realm includes a description of the solar system, in which, incidentally, the fact that a planet always keeps the same face turned towards the body around which it revolves, is implied to prove that it does not rotate on its axis. The chapter on the Atmosphere embraces almost as much as the atmosphere itself: not only a little on climate and a great deal on storms, but all that is said about the oceans, tides, lakes and rivers is included inder this head; yet glaciers have a chapter to themselves. The greater part of the “Work of Underground Water” is devoted to the phenomena of volcanoes, while earthquakes are dealt with apart under “The Rocks and their Order,” a chapter which also includes a section on the moon.

Outlines of the Earth's History; a Popular Study in Physiography.

By Nathaniel Southgate Shaler. Pp. viii + 418. (London: William Heinemann, 1898.)