932 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 807 



few ; most of them are almost self-explana- 

 tory, but they are all highly significant. 

 Consequent and insequent streams and 

 valleys present elementary and funda- 

 mental conceptions in rational physiog- 

 raphy. Retrogradation and progradation 

 of a shore line by marine action correspond 

 to degradation and aggradation of a valley 

 floor by a stream ; in both cases, the steady 

 action of balanced forces is implied. 

 Surely there can be no sufScient reason 

 that the newly recognized ideas represented 

 by these newly introduced terms should be 

 neglected by modern geographers who 

 employ, whenever they can, such innova- 

 tions as motor ears, film cameras and day- 

 light developers. Nor need there be any 

 fear that the mere use of such technical 

 terms as are here suggested will necessarily 

 result in enforcing an unattractive, non- 

 literary style upon geographical descrip- 

 tions. Attractiveness of style is a matter 

 to be cultivated for and by itself; it is a& 

 well worth cultivating in geography as in 

 history; but in neither subject should it 

 involve a sacrifice of truth and efficiency 

 to form and sound. The degree of tech- 

 nicality appropriate in a geographical de- 

 scription will depend largely on the condi- 

 tion of the readers for whom it is written. 

 As the description presented above is in- 

 tended for mature geographers, it does not 

 seem to be either unduly technical or un- 

 attractively awkward. 



It is assumed at the beginning of the 

 description that Apennines and Adriatic 

 are names that every mature geographical 

 reader will know without explanation. No 

 other local names are used in the general 

 physiographic description. But now that 

 the general features of the district have 

 been presented, local names and all sorts of 

 details may be conveniently added, and 

 ontographic relations may be effectively 

 introduced. For example, agricultural vil- 



lages are found on the broader hills of the 

 dissected interfluves, one of these being 

 Loreto with its famous shrine, standing on 

 a full-bodied spur-crest some four kilo- 

 meters back from the coast; here pilgrims 

 would appear to yield a larger revenue 

 than farms. Fishing villages lie on the 

 harborless strand plain, especially near the 

 mouths of the larger valleys; in bad 

 weather the boats are hauled up on the 

 beach or towed into the little rivers. An 

 important trunk railroad and a main wagon 

 road follow the level strandplain for a long 

 distance; branch railroads enter some of 

 the larger valleys, and wagon roads turn 

 up all of them; while roads of less impor- 

 tance enter certain smaller valleys and 

 sidle in zigzags up the spurs to the farming 

 villages on the interfluve hills, or follow the 

 hill crests in passing from one upland vil- 

 lage to another. It may be pointed out 

 that Ancona does not belong to the coastal 

 plain; it lies on the northern side of a 

 cliffed promontory of altogether different 

 constitution. 



THE VALLEY OP THE LAM ONE 



Our second stop was at Faenza, where 

 the valley of the Lamone was examined. 

 It is the work of one of the many streams 

 that extend in apparently consequent 

 fashion from the northeastern flanks of the 

 Apennines across a piedmont lower land, 

 to the fluviatile plain of the Po, which here 

 replaces the Adriatic sea. This late ma- 

 ture valley, enclosed by well-dissected up- 

 lands of moderate relief, is of particular 

 interest in having an early mature valley 

 of small depth eroded in its floor: that is, 

 we have here the late mature work of an 

 earlier cycle followed by the early mature 

 work of a later cycle; the earlier cycle 

 having been interrupted and the later one 

 introduced by a gentle uplift. I was 

 greatly impressed by the distinctness of 



