90 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



appears to be an unmistakable relation between changes in the solar 

 and terrestrial atmospheres. The probability of this conclusion is 

 increased by the fact that when the terrestrial area includes not 

 merely the United States, but also the Atlantic Ocean and Europe, the 

 evidence of a relationship becomes much stronger. 



Inasmuch as the terrestrial response follows the solar phenomena 

 with a delay of no more than a day or two, the actuating cause can 

 scarcely be heat. It would require far more than a day for a change 

 in solar heat to warm the earth's surface and thereby wami the 

 atmosphere enough to cause pronounced barometric rearrangements. 

 Accordingly there seems ground for believing that Veeder's hitherto 

 neglected hypothesis may be correct. According to that hypothesis 

 cyclonic storms and other periodic barometric variations of the earth's 

 atmosphere are not due to heat alone, but are the coordinate effects 

 of solar heat plus solar electricity. Whether electricity or some other 

 form of energy is the dominating cause is not yet evident, but it seems 

 highly probable that some great factor has thus far escaped attention. 

 If this view is correct it will demand an important reorganization of 

 our theories of meteorology and of chmatic changes throughout his- 

 torical and geological times. The matter is so complex that it requires 

 investigation on a scale far larger than has thus far been possible. 



An Ancient Lake Basin on the Mohave River, hij E. E. Free. 



The Mohave River rises in the San Bernardino Mountain Range, on 

 the southern border of the Mohave Desert, and flows northeastward 

 across this desert to the "sink" of Soda Lake, where its waters now 

 suffer final evaporation. In an earlier period the river was more vig- 

 orous and flowed through Soda Lake northward to a junction with the 

 Amargosa River and thence to Death Valley.^ A recent examination 

 of Soda Lake and of the divide which marks its northern limit has con- 

 firmed these conclusions, but indicates that the amount of the overflow 

 discharged by the river into Death Valley was surprisingly small. 



The Soda Lake basin is really double, containing not only Soda Lake 

 proper, but also Silver Lake, 10 miles to the north. Both of these 

 "lakes " are playas of usual character. The drainage line beween them 

 is still open and at times of extreme flood Silver Lake is still reached by 

 the waters of the Mohave. Just north of the Silver Lake playa is the 

 divide which now truncates the river. It is a narrow ridge of rock in 

 place and is apparently quite ancient geologically, being far earlier 

 than the period of greater river activity which we are considering. 

 The lowest point of this divide is 32 feet above the present surface of 

 the Silver Lake playa, and that this lowest point determined the 

 overflow of a lake which formerly covered both Soda Lake and Silver 

 Lake is proved by a well-marked beach terrace surrounding the basin 

 at this same elevation. There is also one lower terrace which is 



^See Huntington, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Year Book for 1915, p. 26. 



