22 JANUARY 1876, Page 22

Wonders of the Physical World, the Glacier, the Iceberg, the

Icefield, and the Avalanche. (T. Nelson and Sons.)—Physical geography is now a universally recognised subject in the curriculum of our schools. The object of the present work is to supplement in an interesting manner the details of the ice-world. The writer has succeeded in collecting and presenting in a scientific form a vast number of observations on these phenomena, with an account of Dr. Tyndall's discoveries and experiments on the nature and formation of ice. Our only objection to the book is that it is too scientific. Many terms are used which imply a knowledge of physics and geology not likely to bo possessed by "the youthful reader," and although there is a good deal of attractive writing, especially on exploration, there is also much that is uninviting, with a constant tendency to be didactic. The accounts of Alpine travellers and explorers are given generally in their own language, and must have taken considerable pains to collect. The glacial period is described and discussed. It would be a great improvement if the Centigrade scale were adopted throughout the book, as the mixture of Fahrenheit and Centigrade may lead to confusion in the readers.