640 



SGIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 175. 



proved,* then there would be, it would seem, 

 justification for the term ' isolation' in evolu- 

 tion theory, with a meaning not already pre- 

 empted. This Professor Hutton claims, with 

 Romanes and Gulick. 



J. Mark Baldwin. 

 Princeton, April 26, 1898. 



A VIEW OF THE OHIO VALLEY IN 1756. 



Apropos of the interesting historical essay 

 by Mr. Baker (Science, April 22, 1898), allow 

 me to refer to an early and highly appreciative 

 account of the Ohio valley by Lewis Evans, a 

 clear headed contemporary and townsman of 

 Franklin's, and the author of a 'Map of the 

 Middle British Colonies in America,' with a de- 

 scriptive text published in 1755. 



Among other praises, he wrote: "Ohio is 

 naturally furnished with salt, coal, limestone, 

 grindstone, millstone, clay for glass-houses and 

 pottery, which are vast advantages to an inland 

 country, and well deserving the notice I take of 

 them in the map. * * Were there nothing at 

 stake between the crowns of Britain and France 

 but the lands on that part of Ohio included in 

 this map, we may reckon it as great a prize as 

 has ever yet been contended for between two 

 nations ; but if we further observe that this is 

 scarce a quarter of the valuable land that is con- 

 tained in one continued extent, and the influ- 

 ence that a State vested with all the wealth and 

 power that will naturally arise from the culture 

 of so great an extent of good land in a happy 

 climate, it will make so great an addition to 

 that nation which wins it, where there is no 

 third state to hold the balance of power, that 

 the loser must inevitably sink under his rival." 



While thus urging His British Majesty to dis- 

 pute with the French the acquisition of the 

 great Ohio country, Evans argues curiously 

 against any dangerous influence that such an 

 increase of possessions might have on the loyalty 

 pf the colonies. " Supposing the Colonies were 

 grown rich and powerful, what inducement have 

 they to throw off" their independency ? * * * 

 Each colony having a particular form of govern- 

 ment of its own, and the jealousy of either 



* At present it is far from being proved. Cf. Pro- 

 fessor Cookerell's review of Romanes in this Journal, 

 April 29, 1898. 



having the superiority over the rest, are un- 

 Burmountable obstacles to their ever uniting to 

 the prejudice of England upon anj' ambitious 

 views of their own. But that repeated and 

 continued ill usage, infringements of their dear- 

 bought privileges, sacrificing them to the ambi- 

 tion and intrigues of domestic and foreign 

 enemies, may not provoke them to do their 

 utmost for their own preservation, I would not 

 pretend to say, as weak as they are. But 

 while they are treated as members of one body 

 and allowed their natural rights, it would be 

 the height of madness for them to propose an 

 independency, were they ever so strong." 



Evans must have had a sharp eye for topog- 

 raphy, as his geographical descriptions are still 

 good enough to quote, and are indeed much 

 better than many accounts of later date. He 

 recognizes the fall line — ' this rief of rocks, 

 over which all the rivers fall.' The great Ap- 

 palachian valley is held to be " the most con- 

 siderable quantity of valuable land that the 

 English are possest of; and runs through New 

 Jersey, Pensilvania, Mariland and Virginia. It 

 has j'et obtained no general name, but may 

 properly enough be called Piemont, from its 

 situation." Of the Alleghenies, he says : "The 

 Endless mountains * * * come next in 

 order. They are not confusedly scattered and 

 in lofty peaks overtopping one another, but 

 stretch in long uniform ridges scarce half a mile 

 perpendicular in any place above the interme- 

 diate vallies. * * * The mountains are 

 almost all so many ridges with even tops and 

 nearly of a height. To look from these hills 

 into the lands is but, as it were, into an ocean 

 of woods, swelled and deprest here and there 

 by little inequalities, not to be distinguished 

 one part from another any more than the waves 

 of the real ocean." 



Can any of the readers of Science give me a 

 clue by which to reach some of the descend- 

 ants of this early American geographer. 



W. M. Davis. 



Harvard University. 



MRS. piper, 'THEMEDICTM.' 



To THE Editor of Science : Your reference 

 to my name in the editorial note in Science 

 for April 15th, entitled 'Mrs. Piper, the Me- 



