June 13, 190J.] 



SCIENCE. 



951 



CORRESPONDENCE OF RAFINESQUE AND CUTLER. 



To THE Editor of Science: Apropos of the 

 letter from Rafinesque to the Rev. M. Cutler, 

 printed in Science of May 2 (pp. 713, 714), al- 

 low me to point out that another letter from 

 Rafinesque to Cutler will be found in Cutler's 

 'Life, Journals and Correspondence,' 1888, II. 

 311-314. This letter is dated Palermo, Janu- 

 ary 28, 1807, and is signed 'C. S. Rafinesque- 

 Schmaltz, Chancellor of the American Consul- 

 ate, Palermo.' Albert Matthews. 



Boston, May 3, 1902. 



MASS AND WEIGHT. 



To THE Editor of Science: In view of the 

 wide interest at the present time in the sub- 

 ject of measurement and in view of the prob- 

 able change soon to be made in the national 

 system, I beg to call attention to the great 

 need for a radical change in the title used. 



It has long been denoted a system of 

 ' Weights and Measures.' This title, it seems 

 to me, gives much undue importance to the 

 idea of weight which is only a particular kind 

 of a force. The weight idea is of little use 

 except as a convenience in comparing masses 

 at a single location. A standard of weight is 

 of no real value, since weight is only the 

 earth's attraction of a body, and depends 

 upon the latitude, altitude, etc., of the body. 

 Eurthermore, since weight is only one of the 

 many measurable quantities, what more is im- 

 plied in the title 'Weights and Measures' 

 than in the simple term measurement'? 



Commercially, the quantity of matter con- 

 cerned, i. e., the mass, is the real thing of 

 importance; the balance being merely a con- 

 venient apparatus for comparing and so deter- 

 mining the relative values of masses. 



I urge due consideration of this topic by 

 all interested, feeling that a change in the 

 wording of an old title is very desirable, and 

 that the proper time to bring this about is 

 the present. I suggest that the title 'Meas- 

 urement' be employed in place of what seems 

 to me the inappropriate term 'Weights and 

 Measures.' 



Arthur W. Goodspeed. 



Randal Moegan Laboratory of Physics, 

 Unu'ersity of Pennsylvania. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



A SUPPOSED EARLY TERTIARY PENEPLAIN IN THE 

 KLAMATH REGION, CALIFORNLA. 



In another paper, now in preparation, the 

 writer will endeavor to show that remnants of 

 an erosion base level equivalent to the late 

 Tertiary peneplain of the Sierra Nevada 

 region may be identified in the Trinity basin, 

 between Trinity Center and Weaverville, in 

 Trinity county, California, at an altitude of 

 about 3,800 feet. While it yet remained a 

 lowland plain, there rose abruptly above it 

 on the west of the Trinity River the serpen- 

 tine, granodiorite, gabbro and schist peaks 

 of the Sierra Costa Mountains. Climbing to 

 the summit of one of these peaks, we see what 

 appear to be evidences of an older base level, 

 a dissected peneplain. 



With all its ruggedness and deep erosion, 

 the Sierra Costa range is virtually a dissected 

 plateau, about fifty miles in length in a 

 direction north of east and twenty miles in 

 average width. The principal peaks attain 

 about the same altitude and none rise prom- 

 inently above a general level. There is among 

 them the regularity which we should expect 

 from a very old peneplain which has been 

 almost destroyed by erosion. There is noth- 

 ing in the structure to explain this regularity, 

 as the region is one mainly of huge m^assifs 

 of serpentine, gabbro and granodiorite in- 

 truded into each other, with a belt of highly 

 tilted schists on the southwest and limited 

 areas of slate and greenstone toward the 

 northeast. 



From a position on the divide between 

 Coffee Creek and its north fork, one of the 

 high mountains between Trinity River and 

 its east fork presents the appearance of an 

 elevated plateau which one imagines to be 

 about one square mile in area. Erom Grizzly 

 Peak, a prominent mountain standing at the 

 northeastern corner of the McCloud-Pitt pro- 

 jection of the Klamath region, one can look 

 over all the mountains as far west as the 

 Sierra Costa range, and this latter being so 

 far distant, the valleys are not seen, but the 

 peaks coalesce to form a crest-line whose 

 evenness is startling to one used to the irregu- 

 larity of Klamath topography. 



