100 



NATURE 



{May 29, 1879 



to west tisually begins five hours sooner at the base than at the 

 summit. 



Prof. Joseph Le Conte's paper on the extinct volcanoes about 

 Lake Mono, and their relation to the glacial drift, was of 

 much interest. The general form of the Sierra is that of a 

 great wave, ready to break on its eastern side. It rises from the 

 San Joaquin Plains by a gentle slope of fifty to sixty miles, 

 reaches a crest 13,000 feet high, and then, in a space of five or 

 six miles, plunges downward steeply to the plains of Mono, 

 which are at an altitude of only 6,000 feet. In former periods, 

 long, complicated glaciers, with many tributaries, occupied the 

 western slope; on the east, comparatively short and simple 

 glaciers came down in parallel streams, and stretched far out on 

 the plain and into Lake Mono, which was then 700 feet above 

 its present level, and of far greater extent than now, so that it 

 washed the base of the Sierra. Icebergs from the glaciers 

 floated on this inland sea and dropped HSrh on its bottom. 

 Around the present lake is a nearly level desert plain, covered 

 with volcanic sand, interspersed with fragments of pumice and 

 obsidian, and overgrown with sage-brush {Artemisia tridentatd). 

 This plane is an old lake bottom ; the volcanic ashes are a later 

 deposit upon it. The desert is relieved by the Sierra walb, with 

 deep canons ; by long parallel moraine ridges, stretching like 

 arms from the mouth of each caiion, and bounding the pathw-ays 

 of ancient glaciers ; by a cluster of recently extinct volcanic 

 cones, fifteen or twenty in number ; and, finally, by the bright 

 waters and picturesque islands of the lake. The moraines aver- 

 age 300 to 406 feet in height, and five or six miles in length. 

 Lake Mono is ten by fourteen miles in extent. Having no outlet, 

 its waters are saline — essentially a strong solution of sodium 

 carbonate, with smaller proportions of calcic carbonate, com- 

 mon salt, and borax. Four to six terraces are very distinct 

 about Lake Mono. Some of these are traceable all the way 

 around it ; the highest is, according to Whitney, 680 feet. 

 They are undoubtedly the remains of former lake-levels. The 

 highest level would reach the moraines at the foot of the Sierra. 

 Near the centre of the lake is a group of volcanic islands in a 

 line with the group of volcanic cones on the plain to the south- 

 ward. Steam and boiling water issue in many places in the 

 rocky part of the island and in the shallow waters of that vicinity. 

 The twenty or thirty volcanic cones on the plain vary in height 

 from 200 to 2,700 feet above the plain. Some of them are pro- 

 bably recent, and retain a perfect form. Prof. Le Conte adduced 

 evidence to show that the eruptions were — at least in part — more 

 recent than the glaciers, and that many of the volcanoes them- 

 selves were also of later date than the Champlain epoch to which 

 the glaciers are assigned. From his observations on Lake Mono, 

 Prof. Le Conte concluded that its level is again rising, and that 

 this had been going on for ten or fifteen years. He found near 

 the margins of the lake, sheep-corral fences and old trails, sub- 

 merged many feet. He also found dead sage-brush [Artemesia 

 iridentata) and greasewood (Sarcobaiis vermiculatus), that were 

 under five feet of water. Neighbouring residents estimate the 

 rise of the lake as ten to twelve feet in ten to fifteen years. 

 The cause is evidently an increase of rainfall, and especially of 

 snowfall. With regard to a moving snowfield, or rather an im- 

 perfect glacier, on Mount Lyell, Prof. Le Conte finds signs that 

 the ice is advancing. 



In a paper on vowel theories in the light of recent ex- 

 periments with the phonograph, Prof. Graham Bell discussed 

 the whole subject, and gives an account of his own recent 

 experiences. Prof. Bell formulates his research as follows : — 

 We may adopt the "fixed pitch theoiy," which supposes that 

 the partial tones characteristic of vowel sounds have fixed, in- 

 variable pitches ; and the element of pitch may be considered 

 the distinguishing feature; or we may adopt the "harmonic 

 theory," which assumes that the partial tones are harmonics of 

 the fundamental, varying in pitch with it ; the vowel charac- 

 teristic lying in the predominance of certain harmonics. The 

 fi.xed pitch theory finds much support from a consideration of 

 the mechanism of speech. Various experiments, of which Prof. 

 Bell exhibited a considerable number, tend to bias the mind in 

 favour of this theory. But in a series of careful exjjeriments 

 with the phonautograph it was found that (i) Vowel sounds 

 uniformly produced periodic curves, whatever pitch of voice was 

 employed; (2) The form of vibration was not a stable phenome- 

 "°" > (3) Different vowels, sung to different pitches, often pro- 

 duced sensibly similar curves ; (4) Different vowels sung to the 

 same pitch yielded curves of different shapes; but the differences 

 were not so well marked as to identify the vowels ; (5) The size 



of the aperture seemed to influence the complexity of the tracing. 

 Prof. Bell tried a phonautograph made with the tympanic mem- 

 brane of the human ear, but obtained no different results. The 

 general indications of the phonautograph thus favour the har- 

 monic hypothesis. The phonograph was finally tried to help in 

 solving this problem. Other experimenters have tested the in- 

 strument on this point. After descril>ing their experiments and 

 results. Prof. Bell gave the details of his own. By changing the 

 speed of the phonograph, such words as ' ' mean, mane, men," 

 were altered (approximately) to "moon, moan, morn," and the 

 reproduced ee became a faint 00. Different opinions as to these 

 sounds are entertained by others who have experiments of a 

 similar character, but all of the numerous researches made on 

 this subject confirm Prof. Bell in his view that the phonograph 

 answers the question of vowel fixity in the negative. Some very 

 recent experiments, made by Prof. Bell and Mr. Francis Blake, 

 conjointly, not only demonstrate that the vowel quality changes 

 under varying speed of the phonograph cylinder's rotation, but 

 also show the direction and nature of the change. This was 

 shown by starting the cylinder at a given velocity, and letting it 

 slowly come to rest. During this reduction of speed the vowel- 

 sound "ah" changed successively from "ah" to "awe," "oh," 

 and "00." (The same effect can be produced by gradually con- 

 tracting and rounding the orifice of the lips, while, at the same 

 time, the back of the tongue is slightly raised.) With decreasing 

 rapidity of the cylinder, the prime tone and the partial tonesTall 

 simultaneously in pitch. If a gradually increasing velocity was 

 employed, the vowel-sound "ah" gradually changed to that of 

 "ir" in "sir," and then to that of "a" in the word "man." 

 Meanwhile, the quality of the sound became metallic. These 

 facts favour the fixed pitch theory. Prof. Bell approves the sug- 

 gestion of Ellis, that "what we call our vowels are not indi- 

 viduals — scarcely species — but rather genera, existing roughly in 

 a speaker's intention ; but at present mainly constituted arti- 

 ficially by the habits of reading and writing. Of the two hy- 

 potheses it is certain that one (the harmonic) is wrong, and the 

 other only partly right. Treating vowels as we find them — as 

 genera of sounds instead of individuals — the most plausible 

 theory seems to consist in what we may term the " Harmonic 

 Fixed Pitch Theory," according to which a vowel is a musical 

 compound composed of partial tones whose frequencies are 

 multiples of the fundamental of the voice, the predominant 

 partials being always those that are nearest in pitch to the reson- 

 ance cavities formed in the mouth by the position of the vocal 

 organs assumed during the utterance of the vowel. An interesting 

 discussion followed the reading of this paper. Prof. A. M. 

 Mayer remarked that it is exceedingly difficult to obtain uni- ^U 

 formity of results in analysing vowel-sounds. One curious ex- ^f\ 

 periment made by Prof. Mayer consisted in covering the ears of ■> 



a human subject with soft wax, so that they were hermetically 

 sealed, and then applying to the top of the head an instrument 

 which gave forth a certain note. The person thus treated heard 

 the note one octave higher than it was actually sounded. On 

 the whole, it must be admitted that we know very little of j 



physiological acoustics. j 



The following is a list of the papers read at the meeting of the 

 Academy : — 



C. S. Peirce — On Ghosts in Diffraction Spectra ; On Com- 

 parison of Wave-lengths with the Metre ; On a Method of 

 Swinging Pendulums, proposed by M. Faye ; On the Errors of 

 Pendulum Experiments ; On Projections of the Sphere which 

 still Preserve the Angles. S. H. Scudder — ^The Palaeozoic 

 Cockroaches. Henry Draper — Conformation, by Spectrum 

 Photographs, of the Discovery of Oxygen in the Sun. S. Weir 

 Mitchell — The Relation of Neuralgic Pains to Storms and the 

 Earth's Magnetism. Joseph Le Conte — On the Extinct Volca- 

 noes about Lake Mono, and their Relations to the Glacial Drift. 

 E. D. Cope — On the Extinct Species of the Rhinoceros, and 

 Allied Forms of North America. E. W. Ililgard — The Loess 

 of the Mississippi and the ^olian Hypothesis. J. E. Hilgard — 

 An Account of Geodetic Arcs determined by the Coast Survey 

 in Relation to the Figure of the Earth ; an Account of Recent 

 Comparison of the British Imperial Standard with its Copies 

 sent to the United States. J. E. Hilgard— Report of Progress 

 of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Paris. 

 G. K. Gilbert— On the Stability and Instability of Drainage 

 Lines. E. C. Pickering— Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites ; two 

 New Forms of Micrometer. C. V. Riley— The Hibernations 

 and Migrations of AUtia argillacea (the parent of the cotton- 

 worm). Alfred M. Mayer-^Description and Exhibition of a 



