September 28, 18S3.] 



SCIENCE. 



437 



It should read, ' stony girdle,' and was in inverted 

 commas to show that the name did not originate witli 

 me. My special objert was to call attention to its 

 being, in a great measure, the same belt which forms 

 the prime-vertical when the pole of the land-centre 

 at Mount Ilosa is brought to the zenith. The unfavor- 

 able comments to which you allude have force as a 

 general rule ; namely, that closet geolog>- is not com- 

 parable to observations in the field. "Yet all r/eneral- 

 izations may be called closet geology, as being the 

 result of a large number of f.icts collected in the field, 

 and compared subsequently. As it would, however, 

 be presumptuous in any one to offer generalizations 

 who h.id not had somewhat extended opportunities 

 for observation, I may be permitted to mention, 

 as some justification, those I have enjoyed. In 

 North America my observations, partly in special 

 work, jjartly during travel, have tanged from Kainy 

 Lake, north of Lake Superior, to Saltillo, in Mex- 

 ico, and from the Atlantic states to the head watei'S 

 of the Gila, in Arizona. In the eastern continent, 

 I travelled from the north of Scotland to Cairo in 

 Egypt, ascending Etna, and spending tlie vacations 

 of three summers, during college-life, in Switzerland 

 among its mountains, ranging subsequently from 

 western France to the Crimea. In 1824 I saw the 

 'Perte du Rh6ne,' where that river disappeared for 

 miles, and then re-appeared, — a phenomenon no lon- 

 ger to be seen, as the superincumbent rocks, some 

 years later, caved in, and converted the subterranean 

 into a sub.aerial bed for that fine stream. 



In 1820 I visited the scene of the catastrophe at 

 New Madrid; and while granting a local subsidence 

 for the immediate cause, as claimed in the able paper 

 by Dr. Macfarlane, of which you give an abstract, I 

 am compelled to believe that the remote cause was 

 due to a seismic movement, felt, as Mallet states, at 

 least two hundred miles from New Madrid, and, in- 

 tleed, affecting large and more distant areas about 

 that time, .as mentioned in Key to geology, p. 77. 



These opportunities, in connection with the speci- 

 mens and notes of reference brought home, permit a 

 review of general geology, which I thought might 

 enable me to present to the student of geography and 

 geology some broad principles and truths into which 

 the details subsequently obtained by him might be 

 appropriately fitted: hence the paper rea<i at the Bos- 

 ton meeting, showing th.at the eastern trend of each 

 continent was distant one-fifth of the circumference 

 of the globe from its adjoining continental trend; also 

 th.at each continent presented a central focus, from 

 which a circle with radius of .'!(!° would embrace the 

 land proper, — sometimes excluding a peninsula, such 

 as Hindostan, sometimes inchuling adjacent islands, 

 as those of Madeira, Canary, and Cape Verd, as be- 

 longing to the main continent, Africa. The Mon- 

 treal papers were designed to show the important 

 seismic fissurings radiating from the pole of the 

 land-centre; also the relation between solar and ter- 

 restrial dynamics, where seismic phenomena are 

 transmitted along great circles coinciding with the 

 sun's apparent p.illi, or along belts of the earth's 

 crust which are secondaries to llie ecliptic. 



The occurrences of the last few weeks seem to 

 corroborate the generalization offered, inasmuch as 

 Ischia is on the ."50° fissure from Kosa, at no great 

 distance; while .Java and the Straits of ,Sunda, as 

 well as Guayaquil, more recently disturbed, are on 

 or close to the prime-vertical. 



If these generalizations belong rather in the cate- 

 gory of instruction for the student than of contribu- 

 tions to science, perhaps my twenty-five years of 

 natural-science teaching may present some excuse. 



Certainly, my great aim and desire are to arrive at 

 important scientific ttuths, especially general laws in 

 the dynamics of our globe, Hiciiakd Owen, 



Mr. Morse's papers at Minneapolis. 



A number of errors have been made in the report 

 of my papers which were read at the Minneapolis 

 meeting. 



In the paper on an apparatus for warming and 

 ventilating apartments, the statement that the tem- 

 perature of a hall was raised 40° above the outside 

 temperature is incorrect. I said that the air, as It 

 entered the room/ro;ij the heater, had been raised 40° 

 above the outside air. 



In the paper on the methods of arrow-release, I 

 spoke of the English method, which was probably 

 that of the Saxon, and said that American archers 

 followed the English. The Japanese never use 

 thumb-rings, to my knowledge. The Koreans, Chi- 

 nese, Manchu Tartars, and Persians use the thumb- 

 ring. 



A more serious mistake occurs in the report of my 

 paper on the indoor games of the Japanese. I said 

 very distinctly, that, in the game of chess, pieces cap- 

 tured could be used by the capturer against his oppo- 

 nent. In comparing the Japanese games with ours, 

 I made no allusion to seven-up or whist. With every 

 one I reg,ard whist as next to chess in character as a 

 highly intellectual game. 



You will confer a great favor by publishing these 

 corrections. Edw. S. Mokse. 



Snlem, Maas., Sept. 16, 18S3. 



Evidences of glacial man. 



In Science, no. ;;2, p. ;5S4, the statement is made, 

 respecting Miss Babbitt's Minnesota finds, that " thus 

 far, at best, the glacial workman is known only by 

 his chips." What better evidence. I would inquire, 

 is needed, if those chips are of artificial origin '.' 



Is not this sufficient? Are not shavings and saw- 

 dust as good evidence of men working in wood, to- 

 day, as are the planes and saws they use ".' From the 

 very nature of the case, it is unreasonable to find as 

 abundant and easily recognized evidence of man in 

 drift-deposits as upon the surface-soils; yet this is 

 what some of those present at the Minneapolis meet- 

 ing of the American association for the advancement 

 of science seemed to require. 



In the case of tha 'paleolithic' implements of 

 the Delaware Kiver valley, other evidence than the 

 chipped stones has been found. The human tooth, 

 lately described in detail in the Proceedings of the 

 Boston society of natural history, is, of itself, evi- 

 dence of man's presence at the time the gravels, in 

 which it occurred, were laid down. Other human re- 

 mains have also been found. 



A word, too, with reference to the implements. 

 These we nearly all as unmistakably artificial as the 

 most finished arrow-head. Objects of identical char- 

 acter are found among flic relics of the recent In- 

 dians, and are not questioned. Why, then, should a 

 similar class of objects, fotind in gravel-deposits that 

 antedate the superincumbent surface-soils, be ques- 

 tioned ? 



There is no doubt overshadowing the existence of 

 man in the Delaware valley as long ago as the close 

 of the glacial period: his presence, then, is not merely 

 'a theory advanced by Dr. Abbott," as you suggest, 

 but a fact susceptible of actual demonstration. 



Professor Mason, in his address (in the same issue), 

 asks, "What is the real import of such discoveries 

 as those of Dr. Abbott and Professor Whitney in es- 

 tablishing the great antiquity and early rudeness of 



