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World survey of climatology, 10. climates of Africa
BOOK REVIEWS
315
Worm Survey of Climatology, 10. Climates of Africa. J. F. Griffiths (Editor). Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972, xv + 604 pp., Dfl. 225.00.
Climates of Africa, edited by J. F. Griffiths, constitutes volume 10 of the Worm Survey of Climatology being published under the general editorship of H. E. Landsberg. Like other volumes in the series, it is an impressive-looking, well-printed book with large pages. Within the space of 604 pp. (including 18 pp. of indexes) an effort has been made to offer up-to-date climatic information about the world's second-largest continent, and a geographical index of 11 pp. lends colour to the belief that few parts have been left untouched. There is a 35-page introduction, followed by fourteen chapters on different areas of the land mass. The introduction explains that the selection of areas for these fourteen chapters has been based primarily on a division of the continent into basic climatic zones, with political boundaries used as "secondary subdividing criteria" (p.14). In fact, except for Chapter 7, on the "Wet and Dry Tropics", the generic approach has been little followed and many readers may feel that the objective of assisting readers to obtain "an understanding of the climates existing in each region" (p.31) might have been better served by a straightforward grouping of political units into specific regions identified on a map and conforming with the chapter headings. The general contents of each chapter is fundamentally similar. The principal climatic elements are described and explained with the support of numerous maps, diagrams, and tables. There follows a list of references, which, in turn, is succeeded by tables of climatic data. The latter appear to be rather on their own since no reference to them was observed in any part of the writing. Altogether they total 219 pp. and might usefully have been arranged as a convenient appendix of stations listed by country or in alphabetical order. These tables, together with those embedded in the text, make up probably the best collection of general climatic data on Africa at present available under one cover. They will be particularly welcome to those who are satisfied with averages as indicators of climatic conditions. It is a pity, therefore, that, except within the sections written by F. Bultot (The Congo, and Rwanda and Burundi), J. D. Torrance (Malawi, Rhodesia, and Zambia), and B. R. Schulze (South Africa), reference to the periods to which the statistics refer is so often neglected, and that at times even the lengths of record are absent. The sections by Bultot, Torrance, and Schulze in fact offer the most satisfying reading in the book. Each author has had personal research experience of his subject matter and all have presented authoritative accounts of the climatic elements of the regions they are dealing with within a meaningful, causative framework. The remaining sections of the book are rather less well conceived. At times, where the author (either J. F. Griffiths or Griffiths in collaboration with another) has had personal experience of an area or has been able to draw upon the research of others who have had such experience, such as for Madagascar, East Africa, and parts of West Africa, a satisfying insight into climatic conditions is provided. For the most part, however, the writing is rather stereotyped and consists of statements of information under headings which are more or less the same from one chapter to another.
316
BOOK REVIEWS
It is unfortunate that so well-produced a book in a reference series designed to last a long time should give rather frequent evidence of having been somewhat superficially edited. Apart from the point already raised concerning the time-periods of the statistical material, a large number of the maps have no scale, some diagrams are inadequately annotated (e.g., fig.16, p.521, lacks units and a key, and fig.10-13, pp.475-479, purport to show wind speed and direction but the diagrams have no indication of compass direction), map arrangements could be improved in places (e.g., fig.2, pp.136-138, and fig.14, pp.517-519, in which maps of comparisons could be reduced in size and arranged on a single page with profit to the reader and without loss of clarity), and, in a number of places, more conscientious acknowledgement of material not original either to the volume or the writer's research would have been in order. Other irritants include: three different numbers are given for the population of Nigeria (on p.2, in fig.1 on p.3, and on p.167); the reader is referred to maps for information when the relevant information is not, in fact, given on the map (p.167 and p.503); and loose writing (p.26) suggests that the months of maximum rainfall in the Mediterranean zone of South Africa are December-February. Only two misprints were noticed - ompp.259 and 526. Finally, attention should be drawn to the odd claim made for fig.10, p.327, which by means of one continuous line and a dashed line around the words "Two seasons of rainfall" lends credence (according to the text) "to the belief that the Kenya highlands cause a retardation of the normal movement of the I.T.C.Z.".
B. J. GARNIER (Montreal, Que.)
Wetter- und Klimakunde fflr Landwirtschaft, Garten- und Weinbau. Josef van Eimern. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart, 1971,239 pp., DM. 29.00. Dem Autor, Leiter der Agrarmeteorologischen Forschungsstelle Weihenstephan des Deutschen Wetterdienstes und Professor an der Landwirtschaftlichen Fakult/it FreisingWeihenstephan der Technischen Universit/it Miinchen, erm6glichte der Verlag die Ver6ffentlichung seiner Vorlesungen "vor Studenten der Landwirtschaft, des Gartenbaus und der Landschaftspflege" in Form eines ansprechenden, gut ausgestatteten Buches, das sich abet nicht nur, nach den Ausfiihrungen des Autors im Vorwort, an diese Schtiler und Studenten wenden m6chte, sondern an alle, die sich fiir Wetter und Klima in Beziehung zu unserer Umwelt interessieren. Insbesondere ist es auch als Anleitung fiir Lehrer an Landwirtschaftsschulen gedacht, wobei aber der Versuch, die Gesamtheit der Probleme und Ergebnisse der Agrarmeteorologie darzustellen, den Rahmen des Buches gesprengt h~itte. Ein, schon friiher vom gleichen Autor im gleichen Verlag erschienener "Kleiner Leitfaden der Wetterkunde fi~r Landwirtschaft, Obst- und Gartenbau" (1960) hat nun gewissermassen eine Neuauflage in verbesserter, erweiterter, modernerer Form gefunden.
315
Worm Survey of Climatology, 10. Climates of Africa. J. F. Griffiths (Editor). Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972, xv + 604 pp., Dfl. 225.00.
Climates of Africa, edited by J. F. Griffiths, constitutes volume 10 of the Worm Survey of Climatology being published under the general editorship of H. E. Landsberg. Like other volumes in the series, it is an impressive-looking, well-printed book with large pages. Within the space of 604 pp. (including 18 pp. of indexes) an effort has been made to offer up-to-date climatic information about the world's second-largest continent, and a geographical index of 11 pp. lends colour to the belief that few parts have been left untouched. There is a 35-page introduction, followed by fourteen chapters on different areas of the land mass. The introduction explains that the selection of areas for these fourteen chapters has been based primarily on a division of the continent into basic climatic zones, with political boundaries used as "secondary subdividing criteria" (p.14). In fact, except for Chapter 7, on the "Wet and Dry Tropics", the generic approach has been little followed and many readers may feel that the objective of assisting readers to obtain "an understanding of the climates existing in each region" (p.31) might have been better served by a straightforward grouping of political units into specific regions identified on a map and conforming with the chapter headings. The general contents of each chapter is fundamentally similar. The principal climatic elements are described and explained with the support of numerous maps, diagrams, and tables. There follows a list of references, which, in turn, is succeeded by tables of climatic data. The latter appear to be rather on their own since no reference to them was observed in any part of the writing. Altogether they total 219 pp. and might usefully have been arranged as a convenient appendix of stations listed by country or in alphabetical order. These tables, together with those embedded in the text, make up probably the best collection of general climatic data on Africa at present available under one cover. They will be particularly welcome to those who are satisfied with averages as indicators of climatic conditions. It is a pity, therefore, that, except within the sections written by F. Bultot (The Congo, and Rwanda and Burundi), J. D. Torrance (Malawi, Rhodesia, and Zambia), and B. R. Schulze (South Africa), reference to the periods to which the statistics refer is so often neglected, and that at times even the lengths of record are absent. The sections by Bultot, Torrance, and Schulze in fact offer the most satisfying reading in the book. Each author has had personal research experience of his subject matter and all have presented authoritative accounts of the climatic elements of the regions they are dealing with within a meaningful, causative framework. The remaining sections of the book are rather less well conceived. At times, where the author (either J. F. Griffiths or Griffiths in collaboration with another) has had personal experience of an area or has been able to draw upon the research of others who have had such experience, such as for Madagascar, East Africa, and parts of West Africa, a satisfying insight into climatic conditions is provided. For the most part, however, the writing is rather stereotyped and consists of statements of information under headings which are more or less the same from one chapter to another.
316
BOOK REVIEWS
It is unfortunate that so well-produced a book in a reference series designed to last a long time should give rather frequent evidence of having been somewhat superficially edited. Apart from the point already raised concerning the time-periods of the statistical material, a large number of the maps have no scale, some diagrams are inadequately annotated (e.g., fig.16, p.521, lacks units and a key, and fig.10-13, pp.475-479, purport to show wind speed and direction but the diagrams have no indication of compass direction), map arrangements could be improved in places (e.g., fig.2, pp.136-138, and fig.14, pp.517-519, in which maps of comparisons could be reduced in size and arranged on a single page with profit to the reader and without loss of clarity), and, in a number of places, more conscientious acknowledgement of material not original either to the volume or the writer's research would have been in order. Other irritants include: three different numbers are given for the population of Nigeria (on p.2, in fig.1 on p.3, and on p.167); the reader is referred to maps for information when the relevant information is not, in fact, given on the map (p.167 and p.503); and loose writing (p.26) suggests that the months of maximum rainfall in the Mediterranean zone of South Africa are December-February. Only two misprints were noticed - ompp.259 and 526. Finally, attention should be drawn to the odd claim made for fig.10, p.327, which by means of one continuous line and a dashed line around the words "Two seasons of rainfall" lends credence (according to the text) "to the belief that the Kenya highlands cause a retardation of the normal movement of the I.T.C.Z.".
B. J. GARNIER (Montreal, Que.)
Wetter- und Klimakunde fflr Landwirtschaft, Garten- und Weinbau. Josef van Eimern. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart, 1971,239 pp., DM. 29.00. Dem Autor, Leiter der Agrarmeteorologischen Forschungsstelle Weihenstephan des Deutschen Wetterdienstes und Professor an der Landwirtschaftlichen Fakult/it FreisingWeihenstephan der Technischen Universit/it Miinchen, erm6glichte der Verlag die Ver6ffentlichung seiner Vorlesungen "vor Studenten der Landwirtschaft, des Gartenbaus und der Landschaftspflege" in Form eines ansprechenden, gut ausgestatteten Buches, das sich abet nicht nur, nach den Ausfiihrungen des Autors im Vorwort, an diese Schtiler und Studenten wenden m6chte, sondern an alle, die sich fiir Wetter und Klima in Beziehung zu unserer Umwelt interessieren. Insbesondere ist es auch als Anleitung fiir Lehrer an Landwirtschaftsschulen gedacht, wobei aber der Versuch, die Gesamtheit der Probleme und Ergebnisse der Agrarmeteorologie darzustellen, den Rahmen des Buches gesprengt h~itte. Ein, schon friiher vom gleichen Autor im gleichen Verlag erschienener "Kleiner Leitfaden der Wetterkunde fi~r Landwirtschaft, Obst- und Gartenbau" (1960) hat nun gewissermassen eine Neuauflage in verbesserter, erweiterter, modernerer Form gefunden.