336 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1447 



Hangman Creek (Latah Cr.) in the southwest 

 part of the city deposits are five or six hun- 

 dred feet deep, the valley having been filled 

 (as, presumably, was also the valley of Spo- 

 kane Eiver). As no evidence was found of the 

 glacier having crossed the Spokane River to 

 the east of the city limits and as what appeared 

 to be a marginal moraine was found on the 

 south side of the valley at the southeast corner 

 of the corporation boundary (Pantops) it 

 seemed that the valley of the Spokane must 

 have been completely dammed, impounding the 

 waters of the entire Columbia drainage basin. 

 It was believed that such a volume of water 

 even in a brief time must have cut an outlet 

 which would be readily found. Such was found 

 to be the case. In the gap between Mica Peak 

 and Moran Peak, at the village of Mica, on 

 the 0. W. R. & N. Railway, twelve miles south- 

 east of Spokane, at an elevation of about 2,460 

 feet, two outlets may be easily seen in the 

 iield or by examination of the topographic 

 sheet of Spokane Quadrangle of the U. S. 

 Geological map. These two sfci-eams join Cali- 

 fornia Creek a short distance south of Mica 

 and follow it to Hangman Creek (Latah Cr.). 

 Apparently Hangman Creek was obstructed 

 here also for the stream followed up Hangman 

 Creek (Oakesdale Quadrangle) until it reached 

 what is now the low land between Hangman 

 Creek and the head of North Pine Creek, where 

 it cut a channel some 200 feet in depth in the 

 Palouse soil of that region, reaching and 

 scouring the basalt beneath, thus opening an 

 outlet to the southwest. 



This glaciation was followed by a period 

 when stream erosion cleared the valleys of 

 Spokane River and Hangman Creek and per- 

 haps eroded Spokane VaUey almost 200 feet 

 below the present floor (left at the time of 

 the Wisconsin period of glaciation) as shown 

 by the depth of Lake Coeur d'Alene and other 

 lakes which occupy side branches of Spokane 

 Valley. There is also some evidence collected 

 of a glacier having almost reached Spokane 

 from the north by way of the valley of the 

 Little Spokane River. As this is about 400 

 feet lower than the glaciation on the "praiiies" 

 and extends some twenty miles south of what 

 seems to be the terminal moraine of the Wis- 

 consin period (the Wisconsin glaciation reach- 



ing Spokane came from the east), it will be 

 seen that we have evidence of three periods of 

 glaciation here. The earliest of these is re- 

 sponsible for "Lake Spokane"^ and its Mica 

 outlet by way of California, Hangman and 

 North Pine Creeks. 



It will be seen from this that a long period 

 has elapsed since the cutting of this great 

 trench through this soil and as yet the seolion 

 deposits have not covered the bare rocks of its 

 floor, though for eight miles between North 

 Pine Creek and Hangman Creek there is no 

 stream sufficient to account for removal of 

 deposits. 



(Mr. J. T. Pardee of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey spent six weeks of May and June of 

 this year making a careful study of glaciation 

 and related subjects in northeast Washington 

 and has secured data for what promises to be 

 the most interesting of all recent reports on 

 this subject. The appearance of his report 

 is awaited with gi-eat interest. The writer is 

 collecting further material on the shore line 

 of L. Spokane and on the glaciation in Little 

 Spokane Valley.) 



Thohas Large 



The Lewis and Claek High School, 

 Spokane, Washington 



A SUGGESTION TO ZOOGEOGRAPHERS 



Ranges of animals are most easily defined in 

 terms of political divisions, cities near the limit 

 of range, and such readily determinable points. 

 This eminently practical method will doubtless 

 always be used. 



But ordinarily zoogeographers have not been 

 content to use only this method, which, from 

 its nature, explains nothing, and questions 

 nothing. 



There has been a constant search for some 

 sort of scheme whereby ranges of animals 

 might be reduced to a common denominator. 

 Various schemes of this kind are in use at 

 present and hereinafter shall be commented 

 upon. 



1 The name "Lake Spokane" was given by the 

 writer in a paper on "Glaciation and Vulcanism 

 in the Spokane Eegion" read on November 3, 

 1921, before the Columbia Section of the Amer- 

 ican Institute of Mining and Metallurgical En- 

 gineers. 



