EVen though this book was written in 1956, I found it quite engrossing to pore through the line-drawn maps that are in every page of this volume. The author, Armin Lobeck, a distinguished geologer (but a geographer at heart) from Columbia University posits a "problem" on the left hand page, and sets out an explanation on right hand page.

Example 27 shows a drawing of Long Island stretching from Brookly to Montauk Point, and then he gives an explanation of the features of the terrain. For humor, he shows Long Island redrawn as a fish, labeled ISLANDUS piscoides var. bicaudalis (the fish-like island with the two tails). On the explanation page he has a map of the island from the greatest advance of the glacier. This created the Ronkonkoma moraine. Then a second map shows the glacier having retreated, which then moved back a bit south again, creating the Harbor Hill moraine. At the east end of the island, the first moraine created the South Fork, and the second the North Fork. These moraines give a the northern portion of Long Island a hilly aspect. At the western end these two moraines come together and flatten, and end at the Verrazano Narrows.

The book is filled with examples like these from all over the world and one can get charmed just ging back and forth and reading them. ( )

FASCINATING. IF YOU WONDER WHY THE EARTH AND ITS FEATURES LOOK THE WAT THEY DO THIS BOOK WILL TELL YOU. ( )

Popular geography and geology, from just before plate tectonics.