February 25, 1892] 



NATURE 



391 



rendered necessary." They are very pleasant reading, 

 and should be of considerable service to naval officers, 

 yachtsmen, and sportsmen who may visit South America. 

 The commission of the Ruby in South American waters 

 extended over three and a half years, and during that 

 time the officers seem to have missed no opportunity of 

 indulging their taste for sport. The game killed amounted 

 to 13,349 head. What was killed was never wasted, for 

 there were on board 250 persons to be fed. Although 

 Admiral Kennedy has much to say that will be especially 

 interesting to sportsmen, they are by no means the only 

 class of readers to whom he appeals. Revisited many 

 districts which are well worthy of being described, and 

 the impressions they produced upon him are invariably 

 recorded in a fresh, simple, and straightforward style. 

 The text is illustrated with copies of some pen-and-ink 

 sketches by the author. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of ^hTM'S.'B.. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. "l 



Cirques. 



Permit me, while thanking Mr. I. Russell for his friendly 



criticism of my views as to the origin of cirques (p. 317), and 



for a copy of his memoir on the Mono Valley, in which his own 



are developed, to indicate the reasons why I remain unconvinced. 



(1) The first part of his criticism appears to me to be wide of 

 the mark. I never said that the three conditions, quoted by 

 him, were necessary for the formation of cirques, only that they 

 were "the most favourable." I have described two cirques in 

 granite (Geol. Mag., 1871, p. 535), and seen them in other 

 crystalline rocks. 



(2) I never said that other topographical features might not 

 be associated with those dispositions of rocks, which are often 

 found in cirques. I stated that for the production of cirques, 

 not only certain materials, but also a particular machinery, were 

 required. Lines of cliffs, ravines, alcoves, corries, are numerous 

 in the Alps : cirques are comparatively rare. 



(3) The instances described in my original paper (Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, 1871, p. 312) were called cirques at that date, 

 and, I believe, still retain the name. They are in all essential 

 respects identical with Gavarnie and similar places in the 

 Pyrenees, which are always called cirques. Hence, it appears 

 to me, Mr. Russell cannot elude my arguments by proposing a 

 new terminology. Moreover, to call these places alcoves, is to 

 misuse the word. An alcove holds a bed, or screens two lovers 

 in earnest conference from over-curious eyes — it is a small affair. 

 The diameters of the Alpine cirques are measured by hundreds 

 of yards ; their walls by hundreds of feet. Mr. Russell's 

 studies in the Appalachians (unless I misunderstand him through 

 ignorance of the locality) appear to me to indicate no more 

 than that (as I have repeatedly affirmed) no real demarcation can 

 be drawn between cirques, corries, and bowl-like heads of 

 valleys. Of each I have seen examples, little as well as big. 

 The formation of an alcove, as described by him, is only a 

 special case of an action, identical in kind (but different in 

 degree and environment) with that by which the above-named 

 are produced. As it seems to me, he proves, not that cirques 

 and alcoves are genetically distinct, bat that they are genetically 

 identical. One stream will make an alcove, many a cirque. 



(4) I have never denied that under certain conditions a basin 

 (generally quite shallow) may be scooped out by ice-action on 

 the floor of a corrie, but the peculiar "tooth-drawing" action of 

 the base of the neve, postulated by Mr. Russell, appears to me 

 only an hypothesis. I stated, when it was propounded by Mr. 

 Helland, that 1 knew of no evidence in its favour, and much in 

 opposition {Geol. Mag., 1877, p. 273) ; I repeat the same now. 

 Wherever I have seen the bottom of a corrie uncovered, the 

 rock has been smooth and ice-worn, not rough with the sockets 

 of extracted "plugs " of rock. 



(5) As a hergschrund usually narrows in descending, the 

 tension of the ice should be at a minimum at the base of the 

 neve, and I do not believe that atmospheric cold is appreciably 



NO. I 165, VOL. 4.5I 



more potent there than at the bed of a glacier. Moreover, as 

 the ice must move more slowly in the nevi basin than in the 

 glacier, the former standing to the latter in the relation of a 

 pond to its effluent, the friction there should be least. 



(6) Some of the Alpine cirques lie rather low, and are not in 

 a position where glaciers would first appear, as is shown by the 

 fact that they are now full 3000 feet below the snow-line. 

 Perhaps, however, Mr. Russell supposes rock wrenched away 

 to a depth of quite a thousand yards. If so, I have nothing to 

 add to what I wrote in 1871 and 1877. All that I know of the 

 Alps and of other mountains is opposed to any such notion. 



(7) Above three at least of the cirques, described by me, the 

 cliffs rose in inaccessible steeps to the very summit of the range. 

 From the highest peak of the Diablerets one could almost throw 

 a stone on to the floor of the Creux de Champ, a full mile below ; 

 the two cirques near the Surenen Pass are immediately under 

 the crest of the range (as shown in my diagram). Yet there are 

 the streams fed by snow-ledges, which, though comparatively 

 narrow, keep them still at work. Doubtless, in some cases the 

 recession of the walls may bring to an end the work of excava- 

 tion. But even in Egypt, in a cirque-\\VQ glen beneath a narrow 

 crest, Mr. Jukes-Browne found evidence of streamlets {Geoi. 

 Mag., 1877, p. 477); and I may cite Herr J. \^2\\\i&x{Abhand k. 

 Sachs. Gesellsch., xvi. 345) for the occurrence of "amphitheater 

 Oder circusthaler " in that country, though he attributes more to 

 the action of wind than I should venture to do. 



I might continue, but it may suffice to say that the result of 

 twenty years' experience has been increased confidence in the 

 general accuracy of the views expressed by me in 1871. These, 

 it appears to me, Mr. Russell combats only by attempting a 

 distinction, which I believe to be non-existent, and devising a 

 method of glacier-erosion, which I believe to be not only 

 mechanically impossible, but also contrary to the facts of 

 Nature. T. G. Bonney. 



Bedford College and the Gresham University. 



You have given publicity to various communications on the 

 subject of the Albert or Gresham University ; may we there- 

 fore request that you will extend a like favour to us, and insert 

 a brief statement from one of the Colleges for Women, deeply 

 interested in everything affecting higher education in and for 

 London ? 



The following are some of the grounds on which the Bedford 

 College, London, opposes the Draft Charter : — 



(i) That the Bedford College, London, for Women, provides 

 a complete academical course in the two faculties of arts and 

 science, and therefore feels that from the very outset it is 

 entitled to be included in any proposed University for London, 

 on an equal footing with University and King's Colleges, with 

 due representation on the Council. For such immediate 

 affiliation the Draft Charter does not make any provision. 



(2) That should the Draft Charter become law, a University 

 would be created which, while exercising only some of the 

 functions of a Teaching University, would do this in such a 

 manner as to effectually prevent the foundation of any Teaching 

 University which should be capable of expanding to the ever- 

 growing demands of the Metropolis. 



(3) That while the Act of 1871 abolished all ecclesiastical 

 tests in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and 

 all Colleges therein to such an extent that all denominational 

 Colleges are separate from the Universities, this Draft Charter 

 of the Albert University allows one of its component Colleges 

 to impose ecclesiastical restrictions. The Council, therefore, in 

 its petition to both Houses of Parliament claims that the 

 Bedford College be made an original constituent College in 

 any new University for London, with due representation in the 

 governing body, and prays that the present Charter be not 

 granted unless so amended as to be far more comprehensive, 

 more adequate to the present and future needs of the Metropolis, 

 and free from all ecclesiastical restrictions. 



W. J. Russell, Chairman of Council. 

 Lucy J. Russell, Honorary Secretary. 

 Bedford College, London, February 19. 



The Implications of Science. 



Can you allow me space to reply to Miss Jones's courteous 

 letter (p. 366), which I shall have the more pleasure in doing as 

 I hope to be able to clear up the points in dispute between us ? 



I think it is clear — Miss Jones at least admits so much — that 



