596 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 63. 



doubt the first Eontgen picture was pro- 

 duced on February 22, 1890, in the physical 

 lecture room of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania. Arthur W. Goodspeed. 

 Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PSYSIOGRAPHY. 

 CATSKILL AND HELDERBERG ESCARPMENTS. 



Recent reports of the N"ew York State 

 Geologist contain chapters by N". H. Darton, 

 from which a number of interesting physio- 

 graphic paragraphs may be selected ; and 

 inasmuch as there is no good account of the 

 geography of the Empire State, all these 

 piecemeal contributions toward it are wel- 

 come. The Helderberg escarpment in Al- 

 bany county rises boldly over the broad 

 alluvial plain formed by the Mohawk dur- 

 ing the ' Champlain ' submergence. Back 

 of the escarpment the land rises in succes- 

 sive rock terraces of moderate height. The 

 Catskill escarpment in Ulster county is the 

 strongest feature of the kind in the eastern 

 part of our country. Subordinate character- 

 istics of this dominant form are found in 

 the capture of the headwaters of certain 

 consequent upland streams by the obse- 

 quent Kaaterskill and Plaaterskill, which 

 are gnawing deep ' cloves ' in the steep face 

 of the escarpment and thus gaining drain- 

 age area for the subsequent Hudson valley. 

 Among the ridges in the foreground the 

 complicated monocline of Medina sandstone 

 forming Shawangunk mountain is the most 

 conspicuous. A number of geographical 

 illustrations accompany these reports, but 

 their reproduction is disappointing in sev- 

 eral cases. 



exploration in lower CALIFORNIA. 



An account of a collecting expedition to 

 Lower California by G. Eisen (Proc. Cal. 

 Acad. Sci., V., 1895, 733-775), gives some 

 notes of interest on the features of the ex- 

 ti-emity of the peninsula. Winter rains are 

 light and rare ; late summer rains are fre- 



quent and come in comparatively heavy 

 showers ; the withered shrubby growth on 

 the mountain slopes bursts into leaf and 

 flower when the rains begin. Very brief 

 mention is made of raised beaches and of 

 'moraines,' which are described as promi- 

 nent, large and steep, especially on the east 

 slope of the mountains, where they ' all run 

 more or less parallel from west to east ' 

 (754). The mountains, being only 7,000 or 

 8,000 feet high, and their eastern slope 

 being drier than the western, it seems ques- 

 tionable whether these so-called moraines 

 are authentic records of glacial action. 

 Possibly they are dissected alluvial fans, 

 which have not infrequently been mistaken 

 for glacial deposits. 



NIUAFOU, A VOLCANIC KING ISLAND. 



Lieut. Somerville, of the British navy, 

 contributes an account of this remarkably 

 perfect ring island to tlie London Geo- 

 graphical Journal for Januarj'. It lies mid- 

 way between the Fiji and Samoa groups, 

 remote from other islands. Its outer diame- 

 ter is about three miles, the whole coast 

 line consisting of forbidding black lava 

 rocks. The caldera is about two miles in 

 diameter, with interior cliffs of 200 or 300 

 feet in height. On the eastern side of the 

 deep lake here contained is a peninsula 

 formed by the craters of the eruption of 

 1886. The view from the commanding 

 summits of the caldera ring is described as 

 of remarkable beauty, including a great ex- 

 panse of the surrounding ocean rolling un- 

 der the southeast trade, the calm lake with- 

 in the basin, the luxuriant vegetation on 

 the older slopes, and the barren cinder cones 

 of the recent outburst. A good sketch map 

 and two views are reproduced. 



the F.ffiE0ES. 



An account of the Faeroes, or Sheep 

 Islands, is presented to the same journal by 

 Karl Grossmann, as the result of visits 



