R. Brezinščak

English

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BOOK REVIEW / OSVRT NA KNJIGU: Sige SpeleothemsCroatian Natural History Museum, Zagreb (2004)The book Sige, or Speleothems, has been published by the Croatian Natural His-tory Museum, with a catalogue of the museum’s collection, and the subtitle »Whatare they and how are they created?« This is first of all a popular but also a profes-sionally complete and rounded depiction of the phenomenon of the stalactite andsimilar forms, a theme that is not very familiar to the general public in this country.The actual catalogue of the collection of characteristic forms of speleothems stored inthe Mineralogical and Petrological Department of the Croatian Natural History Mu-seum makes up the second and less voluminous part of the book. The author ofthis work that is interesting in many ways is Damir Lackovi}, senior curator of thecollection concerned, and today one of the most well-known Croatian speleologists.The book as some 90 pages, is produced in a de luxe edition with soft plastic--covered covers, on glossy paper, in full colour, dimensions 25 x 25 cm. It is dividedinto four chapters: Introduction, The Opulence of Speleotheme Forms, Other Formationsof Cavernicolous Sediments and the Speleotheme Collection. It has altogether 79 photosand it is accompanied with a concise text and 16 graphic displays explaining thenatural processes and the course of events in which these natural phenomena arecreated. At the end is a bibliography featuring 22 titles. The book’s referees were L.Babi}, F. Gabrov{ek and H. Malinar.The first three large chapters constitute a review and popular text which furnishesthe base for the acquisition of knowledge about limestone landscape phenomena,the conditions for the formation of dripstones, and other formations of the caver-nicolous sediments, and their diversity. This part closes somewhat unconvention-ally – with poems devoted to the world of stalactites and stalagmites (V. Majer,1934; M. ^epelak, 1999).The second, thoroughly professional, part of the book consists of the Catalogueof the Collection of Speleothems owned by the Museum’s Mineralogical and Petro-logical Collection. Here, then, is a schedule of all the samples, together with the basicinformation about the finding site, the size of the sample, the mineral composition,and the inventory number of the sample in the collection. Thirteen samples areshown in a photograph. The whole collection consists of 232 inventorised samples,of which very little is to be seen in the permanent display. This kind of reader--friendly and comprehensive list of all the specimens is very important to numer-ous experts – geologists and speleologists, but is also very welcome to all thosewho are interested in nature and its works.The book is produced to a high standard and thus can manage to be very faith-ful in its depiction of the richness and exuberance of forms that grow through thedevelopment of water in the dark and silence of the underground world. For thisreason, then, the most immediately impressive part of the book and the catalogueCroatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1, Zagreb, Croatiaconsists of the many photographs of dripstones that are on the whole shot in thekarstic underground throughout Croatia and occasionally abroad. As well as thebook’s author, who shot 59 of the pictures, there are another eight photographersrepresented, who show the reader something of the beauty of this feature, but alsohint at the dangers that lurk in wait for these bold explorers and lovers of the un-derground. Most of the photographs are large-format, which allows the full beautyof the natural features to come out. The book Sige has been printed in 1000 copies.It can be purchased from the Croatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1,Zagreb (tel. ++385 1 4851 700) for the very reasonable price of 60 kuna. This is abook that will be an addition to every library, private and public, large and small.Renata Brezin{~akCroatian Natural History Museum160Cover of the book and catalogue Sige – stalactite, Mate{i}a pe}, Kordun;photographed by Damir Lackovi}, 2002.

BOOK REVIEW / OSVRT NA KNJIGU: Sige [Speleothems]

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