348 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 56, NO. I, 1995 level) in nearly any body of water.-w. 1. Richards and S. K. Bolden, NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, 75 Vir- ginia Beach Drive, Miami, Florida 33158.

BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, 56(1): 348-349. 1995

REVIEW OF "JOHANNES WALTHER ON REEFS: PIONEERING CONCEPTS OF BIOGEOLOGY 1885-1910" Robert Ginsburg. Eberhard Gischler and Wolfgang Schlager (eds.) Geological Milestones-Vol. II. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. 141 pp. $28,75. This is volume no. II in the Geological Milestones series published by the Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory, University of Miami. The book, in its 141 pages, 48 figures, 4 color plates and a geological map, contains translations of four major works by Johannes Walther plus brief commentaries by Zankl, Ginsburg, Pillai and Lowenstam, an introduction by Stoddart and a biography by Gischler. The four works translated are: i) "The rock-forming calcareous algae of the Gulf of Naples and the origin of structureless limestone (1885). ii) The coral reefs of the Sinai Peninsula (1888). iii) The Adam's Bridge and the coral reefs of the Palk Strait (1891). iv) The sediments of the Dove Bank (Taubenbank) in the Gulf of Naples (1910). As Bob Ginsburg points out in the preface it is appropriate to present transla- tions of Walther's works on reefs at this time when there is such an expansion in reef research, especially on the subjects emphasized by Walther: tectonic setting of reefs, reef foundations, reef internal structure, organism/sediment relationships, preservation potential of skeletons, and diagenesis of carbonates. Although the geological community may well be aware of the 'rule of facies successions' as proposed by Walther, few know the details of his reef work, the main reasons being the difficulty of obtaining century-old texts and understanding the German language. These translations are an important addition to further our understanding of not just the history of reef studies but to follow the arguments on the origin and structure of reefs and reef sediments based on careful comparisons of living and neighboring fossil reefs. He used what was known about coral growth rates and the effects of waves and destructive biological agencies on skeletons to ex- plain the successions he observed in fossil reefs. One more appreciates his achievement of accurate interpretations when one realizes that this 'actualistic' approach was without the aid of scuba observations or any sub-seabed excava- tions, Not only did he apply the principle of uniformitartianism to explain fossil occurrences but he used the fossil sedimentological facies to predict the charac- teristics of the environments of deposition in the inaccessible parts of modern reefs. He also pre-empts modern concepts of taphofacies in using the state of preservation of skeletal grains as an environmental indicator. Some of his early deductions on the alterations of algal limestones may now be considered too speculative but most of his interpretations of reef growth and reef sedimentary and fossilization processes are based strictly on careful obser- vations (in the case of the Sinai fossil reefs aided by the absence of masking soils and vegetation), whi.ch have lasted the test of time. In his famous study of the Reefs of the Western Sinai Peninsula he states "only by considering a coral reef REVIEWS 349 in the tectonic setting of the neighboring coastal mountain system can a judgement of the causes of its origin be made." He poses 5 questions which may equally form the focus of a modem study: i) How thick are the reefs? ii) What is the nature of the basement? iii) What role does the detrital filling material play in the living reef? iv) What changes have the reef sediments undergone when they finally were exposed above sea level? v) What changes have form and distribution of the reefs undergone through geological time? These questions were no doubt inspired by the contemporaneous concern with the structure and distribution of coral reefs as expressed in publications by Dar- win. Semper, Murray and Guppy, but, as Stoddart points out in the introduction, though Walther satisfactorily interprets the structure of the Sinai reefs in their tectonic setting, the fact that they were only a few meters in thickness made little impact on the wider issues of the day, namely the origin of atolls and barrier reefs in which coral limestones were thicker than the depths to which reef corals could grow. As a consequence his reef work was neglected for many years. Though his observations on reefs were incorporated into the new concepts of taphonomy (as it later became known) developed by German speaking natural historians earlier this century, the crucial relevance of his work was not appreciated by the majority of the scientific community until much later. These translations help us appreciate the methods of study and style of writing a century ago. His papers allow us to imagine his lectures, describing journeys to exotic lands, presenting an array of field evidence from living and fossil reefs and finally drawing it all together in forceful conclusions. Not all readers will mourn the fact that modern scientific literature no longer uses similes like "coral reef like parks with coral flowers and bushes separated by sinuous sandy paths and crustaceans as the street cleaners of the reef" or the down-to-earth asides, such as, ••At the beginning of April I rented new dromedaries in order to examine the southern half of the Sinai Peninsula" and again "unfortunately I could not inspect part of the northernmost coast ... due to a severe inflammation of my ankles" but many may feel, like I do, that such writing makes the study more immediate, transporting us there, with the aid only of maps, zinc engravings or color lithographic impressions. The translations have permitted the sense of the writing to be clearly under- stood. The editors (Ginsburg, Gischler and Schlager) have added a few explan- atory notes, such as equating 'metamorphism' of limestone to dolomite with 'dia- genesis' in modern usage, and 'negative beach displacement' with a 'relative drop of sea level'. The one-to-two page commentaries by Zankl, Ginsburg, Pillai, and Lowenstam, following each of the translations, place the articles in a modern context, point out any misconceptions realized now by the benefit of hindsight, and emphasize the principal advances made by the works. Though the translated articles speak largely for themselves, I would have appreciated longer commen- taries, as I found myself becoming more intrigued, wanting to know more of the background and consequences of these studies. In conclusion I feel the editors have to be complimented for making these seminal works more readily available to a wider community of reef scientists.-Terry Scoffin, Department of Geology and Geophysics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland EH9 3JW, u.K.