REVIEWS 155

hope of a solution. But any solution is as likely to be the
result of economic pressures as a desire by fishery manag-
ers and the wider fish-buying public to put the conserva-
tion of petrels ahead of fish on the dinner plate. I cannot
improve on John Warham's closing sentence: 'The target
animals, tuna, albacore, swordfish, etc. are so valuable
that, as with whales, the stocks may have to be consider-
ably depleted before the fishery becomes uneconomic, by
which time the birds may have been even more depleted.'
(M. de L. Brooke, Department of Zoology, University of
Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ.)

GLACIAL GEOLOGY: ICE SHEETS AND LAND-
FORMS. Matthew R. Bennett and Neil F. Glasser. 1996.
Chichester, New York, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore:
John Wiley. xi + 364 p, illustrated, soft cover. ISBN 0-471 -
96345-3. £19.99.

Those interested in glacial geology and geomorphology
were for a long time served by only one dedicated text,
David Drewry's Glacial geologic processes (1986). Fur-
thermore, the mathematical approach of this text did not
suit all readers. However, two new texts have lately been
published in this field: Glacial environments, by Michael
Hambrey (1994), and, now, Glacial geology: ice sheets
and landforms.

In their preface, the authors state that the text arises
from their enthusiasm for glacial geology and a perceived
need for a student text with which to stimulate this enthu-
siasm in others; their aim is to provide an accessible
account of glacial geology at the undergraduate level. The
authors have indeed produced a text that both undergradu-
ates and their teachers will find a useful learning and
teaching resource. However, it is also likely that this text
will continue to be useful for reference at postgraduate
level and beyond.

Early chapters provide a glacier dynamics context:
'The history of ice on Earth,' 'Mass balance and the
mechanism of ice flow,' and 'Glacial meltwater.' The
main part of the text is concerned with the processes and
products of glacial erosion and deposition: 'The processes
of glacial erosion,' 'Landforms of glacial erosion,' 'Gla-
cial debris transport,' 'Glacial sedimentation on land,'
'Landforms of glacial deposition on land,' 'Glacial sedi-
mentation in water,' and 'Landforms of glacial deposition
in water.' The emphasis is on the interpretation of glacial
landforms and sediments for former ice dynamics. The
final chapter, 'Interpreting glacial landscapes,' synthe-
sises information on the processes and products of glacial
erosion and deposition from previous chapters to deal with
the pattern of landform-sediment distribution produced at
the ice-sheet scale.

The text is attractively presented and, as might be
expected, profusely illustrated with diagrams and black-
and-white photographs. The examples given partly reflect
the authors' field experience in Argentina, Great Britain,
Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard, although examples from
other parts of the world are also cited. The writing style is
clear and non-mathematical. A novel and useful feature is

the use of discrete information 'boxes' providing concise
stand-alone information on key topics, such as glacial
history and the oxygen isotope record, the structure of
glaciers, grain-size distributions and transport distances,
eskers and sub-glacial deformation, and the measurement
and analysis of till fabric.

A feature of this text is the presentation of material in
summary form, which enhances the value of the text for
reference at all levels. Concise tables at the ends of
chapters on 'Landforms of glacial erosion,' 'Landforms of
glacial deposition on land,' and 'Landforms of glacial
deposition in water' summarise the morphology of the
principal erosive, direct depositional, glaciofluvial,
glaciolacustrine, and glaciomarine landforms and their
significance for glacier reconstructions. For instance, p-
forms are described as smooth-walled, 'sculpted' depres-
sions and channels cut into bedrock, indicative of warm-
based ice, abundant meltwater, and low effective normal
pressures, and typical of thin ice; flutes are described as
low, linear sediment ridges formed in the lee of boulders or
bedrock obstacles, indicative of local ice-flow directions,
thin ice, and the presence of warm-based ice; and plough
marks are described as linear furrows or depressions on the
seabed, indicative of iceberg grounding. Another good
example from the chapter 'Glacial sedimentation on land'
is a table summarising diagnostic criteria for the recogni-
tion of common diamicton lithofacies in the field, which is
followed with examples of facies models with typical
vertical logs for different glacier thermal regimes. The
same chapter also provides a great deal of detail on the
various till types, and additional material on fluvial sedi-
mentation, and includes a table summarising the principal
sedimentary characteristics of the main types of till (de-
scribed as lodgement, sub/supraglacial melt-out, deforma-
tion, flow, and sublimation) in terms of particle shape, size,
fabric, packing, lithology, and structure.

It is difficult to identify significant shortcomings in this
text. Neither of the chapters on 'Glacial meltwater' nor on
'Glacial debris transport' consider fluvial sediment trans-
port, such as suspended sediment or bedload: readers
seeking up-to-date material on this subject could refer to
the Annals of Glaciology proceedings of the Reykjavik
symposium on glacial erosion and sedimentation (volume
22). Given the unavoidable profusion of terminology, a
glossary might have been helpful, but several summary
tables to some extent serve this purpose and the index is
comprehensive. There are a small number of typographic
errors, the most obvious of which is the substitution of the
prefix 'austra' for 'Austre' in Norwegian glacier names.

Inevitably, comparisons will be made between this text
and Hambrey's. At 364 pages, Bennett and Glasser's text
is longer than Hambrey's (296 pages), but both provide
useful and stimulating treatments of glacial geology, and
neither is clearly better nor worse than the other. There are
some differences in emphasis: Bennett and Glasser tend to
emphasise landforms and the results of ice-sheet model-
ling, whereas Hambrey tends to emphasise the description
of sedimentary facies and marine environments, although



156 REVIEWS

there is naturally much common ground. The two texts are
probably best viewed as complementary, each providing
comprehensive views of a field in which the necessarily
meticulous description, classification, and interpretation
of field evidence benefit from the widest appreciation of
the variety of glacial environments. In this respect, the use
of numerous Alaskan examples in Hambrey's book is a
useful complement to the largely Scandinavian examples
of Bennett and Glasser.

In summary, the authors have achieved their aim of
producing a concise, accessible text that conveys their own
enthusiasm for the subject, and it should be recommended
to all who have an interest in learning about, teaching, or
researching in glacial geology. (Richard Hodgkins, De-
partment of Geography, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8
1SS.)

I MAY BE SOME TIME: ICE AND THE ENGLISH
IMAGINATION. Francis Spufford. 1996. London: Faber
& Faber. 372 p, illustrated, hard cover. ISBN 0-571-
14487-X. £15.99.

The English polar explorers of the first part of the present
century had a supreme capacity for understatement and
unintentional irony. Robert Falcon Scott recorded that the
Antarctic continent was a place that: 'comes nearer to
satisfying my ideal of perfection than any condition I have
ever experienced....No words of mine can convey the
impressiveness of this wonderful panorama displayed to
my eye.' Yet, the stated attitudes of the members of the
Scott expedition towards the Antarctic interior were often
quite ambivalent. The Antarctic was not only a desolate
and foreboding space, it was also intensely poetic and
beautiful. Positive images of nature could be combined
with an appreciation of the harsh charms of the polar
world: the long polar nights, the changing rhythms of light
and darkness, and the dangerous polar blizzard.

The cultural and ideological significance of polar ex-
ploration is the subject matter of Francis Spufford's I may
be some time. The poles did undoubtedly fire the imagina-
tions of English polar explorers and administrators. As
with their European and Soviet counterparts, the poles, as
the literal and figurative ends of the Earth, were often
considered remote, inaccessible, unattainable, and, there-
fore, as worthy adversaries. Within English public culture,
the subsequent conquest of the poles was considered
indicative of industrial progress and modernity, techno-
logical prowess, masculine endeavour, scientific curios-
ity, national prestige, and humankind's mastery over the
natural world. However, the English record on polar
exploration was undoubtedly mixed, as explorers either
implanted the British flag on the polar wastes and claimed
everything they could see for Great Britain or died some-
where en route. The members of the former group were
often uncertain of their geographical position, whilst those
of the latter group later became immortalised. Thus, the
failure of the Scott expedition was to be of lasting cultural
significance within England, judging by the stream of

newspaper stories, works of fiction, state-sponsored me-
morials, and postage stamps generated in the aftermath.

However, Spufford's account of polar exploration is
far more wide-ranging than just Scott's expeditions. It
stretches from a discussion of the eighteenth century and
the Burkean sublime to nineteenth-century popular Eng-
lish literature. Spufford's account, through the employ-
ment of generous quotations and extracts, touches upon
the varied geographical imaginations of nineteenth-cen-
tury polar writings. This does produce a paradoxical
consequence, however. On the one hand, his account is
rich and varied in terms of sources and contextual back-
ground, especially as it relates to the writings of Charles
Dickens, Sir John Franklin, and Jane Austen. It is a potent
mixture of historical scholarship and a form of literary
criticism. There are many rich insights, such as noting the
growing popularity of polar images and references within
the urban landscape and the production of commemorative
commodities such as pottery and cigarette cards. On the
other hand, the writing style is long-winded and often
tedious in relating key points. A more concise version of
this book might have been more effective, had some of the
details pertaining to the descriptions of the polar landscape
or polar personalities been compressed. The descriptions
of Clements Markham are classic in this respect, as the
reader is bombarded with anecdotes and asides that ulti-
mately detract from some interesting observations about
either Markham's relationship with Scott or his dreams of
imperial conquest and territorial aggrandisement.

The final pages of Spufford's account return to the ill-
fated Terra Nova expedition and the last moments of
Scott's party, in a tent somewhere on the polar ice. The
poorplanning of Scott, the arrogance of ClementsMarkham,
and Oates' spirit of self-sacrifice are joined together for
one last moment. The British Empire had acquired another
dead hero. Visual technologies associated with the cinema
and photographic journalism played their part in reproduc-
ing the thrills and perils of polar exploration for English
audiences. The tragic failure of Scott was later to be used
for another form of imperial incitement: this time for the
troops fighting for king and country in the muddy fields of
Flanders.

In spite of some reservations over the turgid writing
style, this is an important book, and it one that is likely to
have enduring significance. Within polar studies, there
has been a tendency to be remarkably uncritical of polar
exploration in terms of thinking about its importance in
shaping public culture, ideas about nature, and national
identity. A dominant, and largely whiggish, approach to
the history of exploration has also prevented more critical
appraisals of those expeditions and their ideological sig-
nificance. Spufford has produced a book of considerable
scholarship, which draws together many relevant sources.
It is a pity, however, that the referencing is not more
thorough, given the extensive quotations and inferences.

There are a number of key themes that Spufford could
and probably should have addressed within this book.
Whilst Spufford may not be aware of the growing aca-