Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)

Dr. János Kubassek: Mosaics from the natural heritage of the Carpathian Basin

logical mapping of the Carpathian Basin. His preliminary surveys and questions set exciting tasks for the new generation of scientists. Most of the photographs in the present volume were taken during his field trips. He visited almost every part of the Carpathian Basin. For instance, he gave geomorphological descriptions about the blow outs in the region of Kiskunhalas, the grasslands of the Great Hungarian Plain, the picturesque gorges of Transylvania, the glacier valleys of the Carpathian Mountains, about the little lakes hidden in the cirques. Lóczy and his students toured several beautiful glacial ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. His case study on the landforms and lakes of Retyezát (Retezat) can be set as an example even today. Lóczy and his students prepared the isobathic map of Lake Bucura and Lake Zenaga. Among his students, first of all Jenő Cholnoky has to be especially noted. He ardently followed his master to study the Carpathian Basin. Jenő Cholnoky (1870-1950) had a leading role in exploring the regions of Transylvania. His second wife, Ida Fink was the daughter of a middle-class Saxonian family in Brassó (Brasov), so the family relations also linked him to the Transylvanian region. In his works he grasped the beauty and spirit of the land: he made beautiful drawings to express the interaction of inner and outer forces. His book, From the Carpathian Mountains to the Adriatic Sea, published in 1934 gave a comprehensive picture of the Carpathian Basin. A great number of the pictures in the book were taken by Lajos Lóczy and Jenő Cholnoky. Those taken more than a hundred years ago during the Lake Balaton research project are the most valuable pictures. The photographs survived two world wars, and we are just lucky that they were not scattered away or - even worse - lost. There were always unselfish scientists who respected values and did everything in the last seconds to save the several decade old photographs from destruction. Unfortunately, a large part (several thousand copies) of the pictures of historic importance taken by Lóczy and Cholnoky has not yet been found. The selection of photos published in the present book come from the Department of Historical Photographs of the Hungarian National Museum (thanks to the Department of Physical Geography of Eötvös Loránd University, an inheritor of the Institute of Geography) and from the Department of History of Sciences of the Hungarian Geological Institute.