January 8, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



57 



marine shells now occur at the elevation of 

 3,000 feet which must have been elevated to 

 that amount. The same may be said of the 

 Eocene. It is, however, important to note 

 that the uplifting of the Cretaceous and 

 Eocene sediments about the close of the 

 Tertiary was connected with the Klamath 

 Mountains rather than that of the Cascade 

 range. 



Faulting that has played so large a role 

 in the development of the Sierra Nevada 

 and the coast range of California has not 

 given general features to the volcanic mass 

 of the Cascade range. Small faults are 

 common in the lavas southeast of Lassen 

 Peak, forming lines of bluffs and bringing 

 the ground water to the surface in large 

 springs, a feature which is common also in 

 the Klamath Lake region and, as pointed 

 out by Russell, along other portions of the 

 range, but these small faults have no effect 

 on the general form of the range. 



Along the western base of the range in 

 the Willamette Valley, Washbume has 

 pointed out some features suggesting a 

 fault, but as yet its existence is a matter of 

 doubt. There is no great relief feature in 

 that region that appears to have originated 

 in faulting. Farther south in the Rogue 

 River valley there is a regnilar practically 

 conformable succession from the Creta- 

 ceous through the Tertiary sediments to 

 the overlying lavas of the Cascade range. 

 Small faults occur in the Eocene coal beds 

 which dip beneath the range but the faults 

 are connected with the local intrusion of 

 the lavas and not of large extent con- 

 nected with the uplifting of the range. 



While it is evident that the lavas of the 

 Cascade range are faulted, I think Russell 

 has greatly overestimated the effect of the 

 faulting as a factor in the upbuilding of 

 the range, which, as it seems to me, is a 

 great pile chiefly of viscous andesitic lavas 

 from many confluent cone-capped vents, in 



strong contrast to the coneless basalt 

 plains in the formation of which the high 

 degree of fluidity in the outflowing lava 

 was the most important factor. 



THE GREAT VALLEY 



Of all the relief features of our Pacific 

 coast mountain belt the least impressive 

 and yet the most important is the Great 

 Valley where live by far the larger num- 

 ber of people, with railroads for transpor- 

 tation, and produce from the alluvial soil 

 washed in from the adjacent mountain 

 ranges the main portion not only of their 

 own subsistence, but much for other parts 

 of the world. The great valley extends 

 throughout the entire mountain system, but 

 not without interruptions, and in fact 

 these interruptions are so marked in cer- 

 tain localities, as between the heads of the 

 Sacramento and Willamette rivers, where 

 the valley is obscured by cross folds from^ 

 the Klamath Mountains, that some geolo- 

 gists have doubted its continuity. When 

 these cross folds and their effect upon the 

 great valley are clearly understood it will 

 be recognized that the valley is the great 

 feature of the Pacific mountain belt, with 

 its history deeply buried in and beneath 

 an enormous mass of sediments. 



J. S. DiLLER 



U. S. Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C, 

 December 10, 1914 



THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON 

 SOUNDAUr WATERS 

 Mr. Adolph F. Meyer, associate professor 

 of hydraulics in the college of engineering of 

 the University of Minnesota, has been engaged 

 as consulting engineer for the International 

 Joint High Commission, in connection with 

 investigations made on boundary waters. 

 These investigations have extended over the 

 past two and a half years, and in this work 

 Professor Meyer has been associated with Mr. 



