40 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. ir. No. 28. 



rivers, lakes, waterfalls, etc.), geology, clim- 

 ate and productions, political divisions, edu- 

 cation, and railwaj^ journeys ; the latter 

 heading occupying a third of the book. 

 There are numerous illustrations, many of 

 which are well chosen and well produced. 

 Twenty-five small outline maps are used to 

 exhibit the distribution of various features. 

 Yet, on the whole, the book is an empirical 

 treatment of a rational subject. Not nearly 

 enough is made of the physical features of 

 the State, as to their origin on the one 

 hand, and as to their control over condi- 

 tions of life on the other hand. The atti- 

 tude of the author regarding physiogi'aphic 

 processes may be judged from an extract : 

 " The valleys [of the Finger Lakes] seem 

 like immense ravines, formed by some tre- 

 mendous force, which has torn the solid 

 rocks from their original beds ;" a foot note 

 adding — " The force that effected these im- 

 mense changes was probablj' great currents 

 of water from the N." The disregard of 

 geological structure as a basis of geograph- 

 ical subdivision is indicated by the follow- 

 ing: "Three distinct mountain masses or 

 ranges enter the State ft-om the S. and ex- 

 tend across it in a general XE. direction." 

 Then after accounts of the Highlands and 

 the Catskills we read: "The Adirondaclcs. — ■ 

 The third series of mountains enters the 

 State from Pennsylvania and extends NE. 

 through Broome * * * =i: •* and Herkimer 

 counties to the Mohawk, appears upon the 

 N". side of that river, and extends NE., 

 forming the whole series of highlands that 

 occupy the ISTE. part of the State, generallj' 

 known as the Adirondack Mountain re- 

 gion " (p. 19) . This association of a part of 

 the sedimentary Alleghenj^ plateau with the 

 crj'stalline Adirondacks is altogether unwar- 

 rantable, especially as the two are separated 

 by a well defined subsequent lowland. 



A common difficulty pervades these three 

 books ; they are not based on a serious, 

 thorough, scientific study of geography. 



TEAT VALLEY, ^TE&T VIRGINIA. 



The topographical sheets of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey for West Virginia in- 

 clude the path of Teay Valley, a wide-open, 

 claj'-floored trench running east and west 

 through the hillj- plateau, from the Kan- 

 awha Valley a little below Big Coal River, 

 to the Ohio Valley a little above Hunting- 

 ton, but not followed by any proportionate 

 stream. It has been stated that ' the val- 

 ley is clearly enough a remnant of early ero- 

 sion, when the water of the Upper Kanawha 

 took that course to join the Ohio ' (Wright, 

 Bull. .58, U. S. G. S., 87); but this is not 

 satisfactory, for if the master stream of the 

 region ever followed this course, how was it 

 ever diverted to any other course? The 

 following alternative explanation is offered, 

 in the hope that it may be criticized by 

 special observation on the ground. 



The diversion of one stream by another 

 flowing in the same general direction in a 

 region of horizontal strata is comparatively 

 rare; if it happens, it is usually the result 

 of the lateral ST\dnging of a larger toward 

 a smaller one. At the moment of contact, 

 the larger one, which has the lower grade, 

 laterally abstracts the smaller one, which 

 has the higher grade. The Cumberland in 

 western Kentucky is in some danger of 

 this sort of abstraction by the Tennessee, 

 and if that region were now uplifted, the 

 abstraction might easily result from the in- 

 creased lateral meandering that would be 

 there introduced. Lateral abstraction 

 seems to have been actually pi-actised on 

 the Big Coal River by the Kanawha; Teay 

 Valley being the lower abandoned com-se 

 formerly followed bj^ the Big Coal. In 

 France, cystalline pebbles carried by the 

 Moselle from tlie Vosges mountains into 

 the valley of the Meuse show plainly 

 enough a former arrangement of drainage 

 unlike the j)resent; but the monotonoias 

 sandstones of the Alleghany plateau in the 

 Kanawha and Big Coal River basins pro- 





