POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



831 



(strait of Gibraltar). Parmenides (bom 513 

 B. c.) is said by Diogenes Laertius to have 

 been the first to assert the sphericity of the 

 earth, and that it is situate in the center 

 of the universe. Strabo credits Parmenides 

 also with having been the first to divide the 

 globe into five zones, or climates as they were 

 called. Passing lightly over the twelve cen- 

 turies between Ptolemy and the awakening 

 of maritime enterprise which led to the dis- 

 covery of America, Judge Daly spoke of the 

 large map of the world constructed in Ven- 

 ice in HSY by Fra Mauro. This map was 

 painted on the wall of a convent in Venice, 

 and it is remarkable not only for the extent 

 of the geographical information it embodies, 

 but for the artistic skill with which it is ex- 

 ecuted. But even the maps constructed af- 

 ter the time of Columbus and Magelhaens in 

 their delineation of the outline of countries 

 were very defective, and especially in respect 

 to the American Continent. The accessories 

 to geographical knowledge had become so 

 vast, that the work of giving the whole sur- 

 face of the earth as far as known, in all its 

 details, with any approximation to correct- 

 ness, was not accomplished till Mercator 

 produced his great map of the world in 

 1569. In this map he introduced what has 

 ever since been known as Mercator's pro- 

 jection, which not only gives the world in 

 one view, but by a very curious and simple 

 contrivance showed the most effectual way 

 for a vessel to sail on a straight line over a 

 curved surface, and thereby solved what was 

 before one of the most difficult problems in 

 navigation. 



Fiords of Glacial Origin on Long Island. 



— In a paper by Mr. E. Lewis, Jr., read be- 

 fore the Natural History Section of the 

 Long Island Historical Society, some ac- 

 count is given of the fiords which occur on 

 the north side of Long Island, bordering 

 Long Island Sound. In a distance of fifty 

 miles eight of large size occur, penetrating 

 the island to near its center. There are 

 several small ones, remains evidently of 

 large valleys that have been shortened by 

 wearing away of the banks at the sound- 

 shore. The waters of the sound extend 

 into the large valleys from two to six miles, 

 forming safe and beautiful harbors. Fiords, 

 common on rocky coasts, like those of 



Maine or Greenland, are not frequent in the 

 drift, but those described are singularly 

 perfect in form. They are simply long, 

 deep valleys, from half a mile to a mile 

 broad, their source being in the hill region 

 of the central part of the island. The 

 depth of water in the deep portions of the 

 fiords is from ten to thirty feet, but in a few 

 places where the tidal currents are rapid 

 depths of forty and even fifty feet are 

 found. It is quite certain that sediment is 

 slowly accumulating in the harbors, and is 

 already of considerable thickness. Piles 

 have been driven in one instance through 

 forty feet of soft ooze, and meadows now 

 occupy the upper portions of the valleys. 

 The banks vary in elevation. The general 

 elevation of the country throughout the re- 

 gion may be 150 feet above tide, but it is 

 very undulating, being traversed by a great 

 number of small lateral valleys, which open 

 into the great fiords, chiefly on their east- 

 erly side. On the west side of Hempstead 

 Harbor (Roslyn) the bank is 250 feet high, 

 and at one point known as " Beacon Hill " 

 attains an elevation of 307 feet. If to this 

 height we add the depth of water and of 

 sediment in the harbor, it will show that the 

 extreme depth of the valley was not less 

 than 350 feet when its bottom was swept 

 by a glacial stream. There is reason to be- 

 lieve that in several instances these fiord 

 valleys were once continuous southward to 

 the ocean, and the site of glacial rivers flow- 

 ing in that direction. They probably became 

 filled with debris from the melting glacier, 

 as it finally yielded to a change of climate. 

 From that time the discharge of glacial wa- 

 ter was northward through what is now 

 Long Island Sound. The conclusion is, that 

 nearly all the fiords in question are not eroded 

 valleys, but are what remains of river val- 

 leys, maintained as such, while the deposit 

 of drift went on. The lateral, or small val- 

 leys, referred to were mainly produced by 

 erosion, but why they occur so largely on 

 the easterly side of the great fiords is not 

 explained. 



Rainfall and Snn-spots. — The relation 

 between rainfall and sun-spots is a subject 

 which has been discussed with no little heat 

 for a few years past. Of speculation and 

 theory there is more than enough, and it is 



