July 5, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



11 



ago, the list filled 90 pages ; ten years ago, 

 130 pages ; for 1890, 270 pages. With the 

 recent changes of editors, the preparation 

 of the lists was much delayed ; and hence 

 it has recently been decided to issue an in- 

 dependent bibliography, the Bibliotheca 

 Geographiea. Its preparation was placed in 

 the hands of 0. Baschin, and the first num- 

 ber for 1891 and 1892 has been recently is- 

 sued in an octavo volume of 506 pages. 

 Another number for 1893 will soon appear, 

 and thenceforwards regular annual vol- 

 umes will follow. The titles are carefullj' 

 classified, first under various subdivisions 

 of mathematical, physical and other general 

 aspects of geography, then by countries. 

 Presumably on account of the great amount 

 of spac^ demanded for even the briefest ab- 

 stracts or critical notices, and probably also 

 because the notices in Petermaimi' s Mittheil- 

 xmgen suffice so well for the more important 

 works, nothing but the author's name, the 

 title of his paper, and the reference to its 

 place of publication are given, with abbre- 

 viated indication of maps, tables and illus- 

 trations. If the Bibliotheca can be uniformlj' 

 prepared and promptly published,' it will 

 become a standard work of reference. 



JAHEBUCH DEE ASTRONOMIE UND GEOPHYSIK. 



The fifth number of this useful annual, 

 edited by Dr. H. J. Klein and published bj' 

 Mayer, of Leipzig, treats of publications of 

 1894 and shortly preceding dates. It con- 

 tains critical abstracts of a good number 

 of the more important books and papers ; 

 the headings which concern physiogTaphy 

 being topographical form in general, vol- 

 canoes and earthquakes, coastlines, the sea, 

 rivers, lakes, glaciers, and meteorology in 

 various subdivisions. Although not in- 

 tended to be a complete bibliographic refer- 

 ence book, tins annual must prove valuable 

 to those who wish for a condensed state- 

 ment of the best new material on physio- 

 graphical subjects. 



GLACIAL LAKES OF WESTERN NEW YORK. 



The Mohawk valley and the basins of 

 the Great Lakes lie in a subsequent depres- 

 sion that follows the strike of weaker strata 

 (chiefly Silurian) between the old-land area 

 of resistant crystalline rocks on the north 

 and the uplands of harder Devonian and 

 Carboniferous strata forming the Alleghany 

 plateau on the south. When this region 

 first rose from the paleozoic sea, the drain- 

 age probably followed the dip of the strata, 

 from the crystalline old-land soiithward 

 even to the plateau area, after the ordinary 

 habit of streams extending their courses 

 across young coastal plains ; but this was 

 so long ago and there has been on all ac- 

 counts so good an opportunity of rearrange- 

 ment of drainage lines in later time that the 

 St. Lawrence system now diverts all the 

 headwaters along the lateral line of escape 

 opened on the weaker Silurian strata; and 

 the southward flowing streams of the pla- 

 teau are reduced to moderate length by pro- 

 gressive beheading. A temporarj^ return 

 to ancient drainage conditions was, how- 

 ever, made during the glacial period, when 

 the subsequent lowland along the weaker 

 strata was filled by ice, and a general 

 slope southward fi-om Canada was restored. 

 Then for a time water was discharged as it 

 was originally; the beheaded streams in 

 the plateau gained short-lived headwaters, 

 either flowing directly from the margin of 

 the ice sheet, or through intermediate lakes 

 which were constrained to overflow into the 

 southward streams by the obstruction of 

 the retreating ice wall on the north. It is 

 the memorials of these lakes that Fairchild 

 describes in a preliminary essaj' under the 

 above title (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vi., 

 1895, 353-374), with especial reference to 

 their deltas and outlets. The paper is an 

 admirable beginning of a study which we 

 hope the author may pursue at length. 



W. M. Davis. 



Haevaed Univebsity. 



