Glacial Geology and the Pleistocene Epoch

Abstract

PROF. R. F. FLINT'S distinguished work in the broad field of glacial geology has been prominent for a generation, and his book is important for that and for other reasons. It deals with the Pleistocene period from the points of view of a geologist and of glaciologist. Characteristically, perhaps, the author used stream-terrace data as little as possible, and indeed much of the field work in North America lends itself to the successful pursuit of other methods. Correlation, perennially a difficult subject, is treated so far as possible on geological evidence, not on archæology. The author strives to avoid deduction from any theory of climatic fluctuation which sets up a fixed chronology ; he incorporates with his own wide knowledge and experience a considered opinion of an enormous amount of literature, of which a formidable list occupies some forty pages. Significant is the author's introductory statement that "a continuous effort has been made to discriminate between reasoning by induction from field evidence and reasoning by deduction from assumed general conditions" ; and there, in a sentence, lies the duty of every scientific worker in the field, laboratory and library.

Glacial Geology and the Pleistocene Epoch

By Prof. Richard Foster Flint. Pp. xviii + 589 + 6 plates. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1947.) 36s. net.