REVIEWS 759 
The leading deductions from the work of the commission are as 
follows: First, that it is entirely feasible to construct canals between 
the several Great Lakes and the seaboard which will be adequate to 
any scale of navigation that may be desired; second, the most eligible 
route from the heads of Lakes Michigan and Superior is through the 
several Great Lakes and their intermediate channels, together with a 
proposed ship canal from Tonewanda to Olcott in Lake Ontario, from 
which the Canadian seaboard may be reached by way of the St. Law- 
rence River, and the American seaboard may be reached by way of the 
St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain, and the Hudson River, or by 
way of the Oswego-Oneida-Mohawk Valley, and the Hudson River. 
The direct line through Georgian Bay, Lake Nipissing, Mattawa, and 
Ottawa rivers, although presenting no great engineering difficulties, is 
not considered an available alternative to the route by way of Lake 
Erie, since the work of construction 'is much more serious, the water 
supply limited, the ice season longer, and the amount of traffic along 
the line much smaller. Until comprehensive surveys have been made 
it will be impossible to say how far lockage and restricted channels will 
offset the apparent saving in distance. Boyle 
The Former Extension of the Appalachians across Mississippi, Loutsi- 
ana and Texas. By PRoFEssoR J.C. BRANNER. From the 
American Journal of Science, Vol. 1V, November 1897. 
The paper is a brief and compact statement of the ground upon 
which the author concludes that the Appalachian Mountains formerly 
had the extension indicated by the title. That the mountains disap- 
peared by subsidence over the area named is evidenced by the following: 
(1) the reversal of the drainage of both the Arkansas and the Texas 
Carboniferous areas; (2) the truncation of the eastern part of the 
Ouachita uplift by Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments; (3) the general 
slope of the Ouachita uplift is toward the east; (4) the general direction 
of the drainage of the Ouachita uplift is toward the southeast, which is 
the direction of the principal axis of disturbance; (5) the faults and 
folds across the eastern end of the Boston Mountains are approximately 
parallel to the Cretaceous and Tertiary margin; (6) the great fault 
near the Tertiary border of Texas and the still greater faults in Ala- 
bama, with the downthrow (which is great) on the embayment side of 
