Three issues of this Journal have appeared since the review in these pages of the first number of the new series. The issue now under review is the final number of Band 2 and is of far greater size than any of the preceding issues, consisting as it does of 305 pages.
The contents are, as always, of broad interest both to glaciologists and glacial geologists, dealing with such widely differing subjects as the preparation of snow crystal replicas (A. Fuchs) and the development of the fauna of the Pleistocene (M. Mottl).
No less than 42 pages are devoted to glacier measurements which, with the exception of one article on the Kilimanjaro Glacier (F. Jaeger), are confined to the central European glaciers.
In addition, R. Finsterwalder devotes some 50 pages to the regimes of glaciers in the Eastern Alps—an elaboration of the excellent lecture he delivered at Cambridge in 1952 and which, together with the discussion which followed it, was briefly reported in the last issue of this Journal.
Of the other articles which are of particular interest for their more glaciological content H. Hoinkes writes on Dirt Bands, and G. J. Heinsheimer describes in a very interesting article the dirt content of the ice in a shaded, as opposed to a sun-lit, part of Glaciar Derecho in Argentina. It is naturally to be expected that problems of glacier physics do not figure so prominently, and that geological aspects of glaciology are more completely dealt with here than in the Journal of Glaciology.
An important new departure in the issue under review, and one which we welcome unrestrainedly, is the inclusion of summaries, mostly bilingual (usually in German and English), at the beginning or end of each of the more important papers. In these days of high pressure much time is thus saved. Readers can ascertain at a glance the main points of each article and can devote their ever decreasing leisure for reading those affecting their particular interests.
One could wish that all scientific journals would follow this excellent course.
One of the most important features of the present issue is the section of bibliographical references which occupies no less than 92 pages and which must contain considerably over a thousand references, some of them fully annotated. They are grouped into subject, personal and regional headings, and there is in addition an index to each author, thus making search easy. Some of the references date well back in time but this in no way lessens the value of, nor makes less compelling one’s admiration for, the really enormous amount of work entailed.
