34 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Proceedings of the Biological Society of 

 Wisconsin. With the Addresses read at the 

 Darwin Memorial Meeting. Vol. I. November 

 19, 18S0, to May 26, 1883. Washington. Pp. 

 110. 



Easy Star Lessons. By Richard A. Proctor. 

 New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1882. Pp. 

 219. $2.50. Illustrated. 



The Peak of Darieu. An Octave of Essays. 

 By Frances Power Cobbe. Boston : George H. 

 Ellis & Co. 1882. Pp. 303. $1.50. 



Constitutional History and Political Develop- 

 ment of the United States. By Simon Sterne. 

 New York, London, and Paris: Cassell, Petter 

 & Galpin. 1882. Pp. 383. $1.25. 



The Solution of the Pyramid Problem. By 

 Robert Ballard. New York: John Wiley & 

 Sons. 1882. Pp.109. 



Manual of Blowpipe Analysis. By H. B- 

 Cornwall. New York : D. Van Nostrand. 1882- 

 Pp. 308. 



Essentials of Vaccination. By W. A. Harda- 

 way, M. D. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co. 

 1882. Pp. 14G. $1. 



Practical Life and the Study of Man. By J. 

 Wilson, Ph. D. New York : J. Wilson & Sons, 

 Publishers. 1882. Pp. 390. $1.50. 



United States Commission of Fish and Fish- 

 eries. Report for 1879. A, Inquiry into the 

 Decrease of Food-Fishes. B, The Propagation 

 of Food -Fishes in the Waters of the United 

 States. Washington : Government Printing- 

 office. 1882. Pp.846. 



Report of the Commissioner of Education for 

 1880. Washington: Government Priuting-Office. 

 1882. Pp.914. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



The Glacial Moraine in Pennsylvania. 



Professor H. C. Lewis read a paper before 

 the American Association concerning the 

 results of his efforts to trace the great 

 terminal moraine marking the southern 

 limit of the North American ice-sheet across 

 Pennsylvania. The moraine had already 

 been traced from Cape Cod across the Eliza- 

 beth Islands, Rhode Island, Long Island, and 

 New Jersey, and across Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 

 nois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Dakota, 

 into the Saskatchewan region of the Do- 

 minion, but had not been remarked in Penn- 

 sylvania. Professor Lewis had found it en- 

 tering the State near Easton, whence he 

 traced it up and down to Potter County, 

 and thence into New York State. Then it 

 shortly turns to the southwest, enters Penn- 

 sylvania again, and passes into Ohio. It 

 was thus traced for four hundred miles. It 

 begins at a height of 240 feet above the 

 sea, reaches 2,480 feet in Potter County> 

 at the great divide between the waters that 

 flow into the Atlantic and those that flow 

 into the Gulf of Mexico ; is 2,000 feet high 



at the extreme north point near Olean, New 

 York, and is 800 feet high in Eastern Ohio, 

 at the end of the portion examined. At 

 the Delaware Water-Gap the ice did not 

 pass down the valley, but across it. The 

 Pocono Mountain was a promontory project- 

 ing northwardly into the ice-sheet. The 

 glacial covering does not seem to have 

 formed tongues pushing down in river-val- 

 leys, as is the case with modern glacier sys- 

 tems. Bowlders of labradorite and other 

 crystalline rocks from the Adirondack and 

 Ontario highlands were found all along Uie 

 moraine line. In the discussion that fol- 

 lowed the reading of his paper, Mr. Lewis 

 asked Principal Dawson, as a leading oppo- 

 nent of the glacial theory, to explain certain 

 facts according to his hypothesis of floating 

 ice-fields. Principal Dawson replied, assert- 

 ing that a continental ice-field in Northern 

 America large enough to supply food for 

 the alleged glacier was a physical impossi- 

 bility, because, on account of the distance 

 of this territory from open seas, the climate 

 would be too dry for any such accumulation 

 of snows. It was possible, however, that 

 there might have been a river or a glacier 

 which produced the moraine in that part of 

 the country particularly referred to ; but he 

 could account for moraines in another way. 

 Whenever a cold current infringes upon a 

 warm current, it forms a moraine ; and this 

 is taking place in the region of the Gulf 

 Stream. He himself owned a piece of land 

 on the coast of the lower St. Lawrence, on 

 which a very good moraine was now in 

 course of formation. 



The Gnlf Stream. The work of deep- 

 sea soundings and determination of tempera- 

 tures has been carried on continuously in the 

 steamer Blake in the Gulf Stream for sev- 

 eral years. The paper on the subject read 

 by Commander Bartlett, at the recent meet- 

 ing of the American Association, describes 

 what was done in 1881 and 1882 under the 

 direction of Professor Hilgard. The Gulf 

 Stream does not run in a basin, nor is it 

 divided into cold and warm alternate layers. 

 The deepest bottom between Florida and 

 the Bahama Banks is 459 fathoms below 

 the surface, and the current runs from three 

 to eight knots an hour, with a temperature 

 of from 80 to 83 Fahr. A wide plateau 



