Book reviews: Atlas of Sweden

H. Waldbaur provisionally reviews Atlas över Sverige, issued from 1953 by the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, on the basis of fifteen plates in five instalments. He credits collaboration among state funding, foundations, public and scientific institutions, and scholars. The planned atlas comprises 75 plates in 14 groups, chiefly at 1:2 million, with Swedish and English titles and legends and illustrated explanatory texts. Relatively stable phenomena are to appear first so that rapidly changing subjects can remain current at completion. The published plates cover geology, climate, population, and agriculture; methods include dots for dispersed population, area-proportional squares for population centres, and area and dot mapping for agriculture. Topographic bases are adapted to each theme and scale. Waldbaur praises the thematic richness, depiction of relationships, detailed drawing, colours, and printing, and expects the explanatory text to develop into a regional geographical handbook.