The Illustrated glossary of snow and ice defines 155 terms in alphabetical order, still a minimum list, and gives linguistic equivalents in Danish, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Russian and Spanish. Almost half of the terms are illustrated by photographs which, carefully chosen and well reproduced, clarify less-known terms and ambiguities arising from language differences.
The authors rightly point out the “practical necessity for international agreement on equivalent terms and their definitions” for the “coding of messages and the facsimile radio transmission of ice charts”. It is this practical aspect of the glossary which accounts for the bias towards sea ice over land and atmospheric ice; some 85 terms deal with floating ice. There is, however, an increasing need for transmitting coded information on land ice, seasonal snow cover and atmospheric ice, partly because of their hydrological importance.
The Illustrated glossary appeared at an opportune time with the commencement of the International Hydrological Decade. For a project such as the “World inventory of seasonal and permanent snow and ice masses on and beneath the land surfaces” the inclusion of a few basic terms on sub-surface ice would have been beneficial.
Considering the inherent difficulties of defining the terms of a young science which has some old roots in a variety of languages and disciplines, the reviewer found himself very rarely in disagreement with the authors. Some definitions certainly need reconsideration as, for example, firn line (p. 15), glacier (p. 17), ice cap (p. 22), snow line (p. 37); and the following German linguistic equivalents must be improved or left out: “eisbesetzt” (p. 10), “Eisfächer” (p. 23), “Gletscherstrom” (p. 30), “Tümpel” (p. 32), “Verrottetes Eis” (p. 34.), “Regenschnee” (p. 35). Such a glossary naturally will require frequent revision and refinement. With this in mind the reviewer has forwarded his proposals to the authors and suggests that others do likewise, thus contributing to the further improvement of this excellent booklet which should be in a handy place on the bookshelf of all concerned with snow and ice.
