This is an amplification and revision of the previous glossary with the same title (H.O. Study 103, 1948) dealing with Arctic sea ice. It is not wholly different in aim from Antarctica, reviewed above, although the chief distinction is that here the main emphasis lies upon definition rather than upon recognition in the field. Its avowed purposes are (1) to standardize terminology, (2) to provide means of classifying and describing ice forms and (3) to develop a better understanding of ice properties in general.
It deals with ice wherever ice is found. Snow and snow surfaces arc not included and reference is made to the reviewer’s book Snow Structures and Ski Fields for this purpose. This book, however, is out of print and some of its concepts, set down some twenty years ago, need revision, so that some more modem record of terminology seems desirable. This is to some extent covered in the International Snow Classification of the International Commission on Snow and Ice.
Foreign terminology has been reduced to a minimum and is only used where there is no equivalent in English. “In case English (or British) usage differs from the American-Canadian, the latter is preferred.” This is, of course, natural in an American publication. It is rather unfortunate that in some cases, luckily few, British and Western Hemisphere terms have drifted apart, as, for instance, “sleet” and the unfortunate new use of “tongue”. It seems that the reviewer has himself transgressed in this direction. In adopting the term “ice apron” for the snow and ice above the bergschrund he had overlooked the fact that Wright and Priestley in their classic Glaciology had used the word for a somewhat different phenomenon. This slip has been brought to light by the work under review, but the reviewer believes that Wright and Priestley’s meaning of the word has fallen into disuse, and it is not evident whether the compilers of the glossary had good reasons for reviving it. There seem to be a few other redundancies.
The 110 illustrations are excellent, although in the reviewer’s copy some are rather faint and do scant justice to the excellent photographs. Some with due acknowledgement have been borrowed from Wright and Priestley’s book, and much of the land ice definitions, added in this edition, have followed their lead.
The key to the glossary is divided into sections: I. Sea Ice, II. Land Ice, III. Lake Ice, IV. River Ice. Most of these are subdivided and subdivided again so that in all there are 57 different headings with references to the photographs at the end of the book. In the glossary itself well over 400 items are listed and defined, and after each there is a reference back to the particular section under which the item comes.
In so comprehensive a work it is not difficult to be critical. It is probable that if ten specialists in ten different branches of glaciology were to review it each would have criticisms and suggestions to make. Yet a very valuable piece of work has been accomplished.
