Geschichte der Moränenkunde

Abstract

AS to the history of moraines, the author might fairly say “What there is to know, I know it.” By patient research in libraries he has collected a great mass of information, of which the present volume is a summary. It also contains, besides the main subject, a full account of drums or drumlins, which in some way or other are closely related to moraines, the proceedings of the Glacier Conference held at Gletsch in August, 1899, a section on the distinctions and nomenclature of moraines, a glossary and list of synonyms, and indices of authors and subjects. After answering, by quotations from writers, beginning with Sebastian Miinster in 1544, the question, What is meant by a glacier? he passes on to moraines, which are at first mentioned casually, without any definite name. This does not appear till rather late in the eighteenth century, about the time of De Saussure. The word, no doubt of patois origin, was not admitted to dictionaries or encyclopedias till well on in the following century. According to Littré its origin is unknown, though it evidently is related to the Low Latin morena—bank of stones—which also appears in Italian under the older form, mora, and in Piedmontese murena designates earth piled in a bank by the side of a field. We also learn that in the German Alps the names Ganda, Gandecken, Mârenes and Murren are used, the last perhaps restricted to the Œtzthal district. Then follows a long series of abstracts or extracts chronologically arranged from the works of travellers by whom moraines have been noticed or described.

Geschichte der Moränenkunde.

Von Dr. August Böhm Edlen von Bömersheim (Abhandlungen der K. K. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien, iii. Band, No. 4). Pp. viii + 334; 4 plates, 2 figures in text. (Wien: R. Lechner, 1901.)