Meteoric Observations of Nov. X3th, 1834. 335 



About the shattered state of these remains it may be observed 

 that in the majority of cases, the skeletons of the mastodon have 

 been found remarkably little broken or displaced, sometimes standing 

 erect, with all the bones in their natural relations, in the morasses 

 where the animals perished. Now these morasses overlie the true 

 diluvium. In a report on the geology of North America lately made 

 by the author to the British Association at its request, an attempt 

 has been made to prove that those races perished on this continent, 

 not by the general deluge but by catastrophes and accidents of a 

 still more recent date. 



Remark by the Editor. — Among the causes that may produce the 

 drainage of the upper lakes it is obvious that even a moderate 

 heaving by an earthquake might at once crack the strata that now 

 form the barrier of lake Erie, and over which the Niagara flows, 

 and thus produce a fissure, (not without many examples in other 

 countries) which might, in a few days, or possibly hours, precipitate 

 a large portion of the upper lakes upon the nether country, thus 

 producing a debacle of vast sweep and resistless energy, and leaving 

 the present bed of Erie a tertiary valley. 



Mr. Fairholme by a strange geological anachronism, places the 

 coal formation above the chalk for the sake of bringing it nearer to 

 the deluge ; it is difficult to meet a writer, however respectable and 

 intelligent who takes such liberties with facts — liberties that are 

 equally unwarrantable and useless, for no sudden, short, and violent 

 flood could possibly produce the regular coal beds with their vast 

 and various stratifications and alternations. 



Art. XX. — Meteoric observations made on and about the \3th of 

 November, 1834; by A. D. Bache, Professor of Natural Phi- 

 losophy and Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. 



TO PUOFESSOR SILMMAN. 



Sir — On Saturday the 5th inst. my notice was drawn to a para- 

 graph which I supposed to be from the pen of our mutual friend 

 Professor Olmsted, calling attention to the Zodiacal light then visible 

 for some hours before sunrise, and suggesting a query in regard to its 

 connexion with " Falling stars" and to a change in its appearance 

 on or about the 13th of November. This induced me at once to 

 commence a series of observations, which were continued until the 



