394 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 636 



occidentalis) . Many rodent remains are pres- 

 ent, notably those of Aplodoniia. 



The fauna, so far as known, differs from 

 that of the Shasta caves in the absence of the 

 peculiar goats, Euceratherium and Prepio- 

 ceras, and of the deer. As far as our knowl- 

 edge goes at present, the split bones so numer- 

 ous in the northern caverns are relatively 

 scarce in Hawver Cave. A fuller collection 

 will throw more light on this point, and will 

 give us a better knowledge of the relation of 

 this fauna to that of other caves in this state. 



Eustace L. Furlong 

 Univeesitt of Califoenia, 

 Berkeley, Cal. 



CURRENT NOTES ON LAND FORMS 

 changes of level in yakutat bay 



The deformed shorelines of the Yakutat 

 Bay region in Alaska as described by R. S. 

 Tarr and L. Martin in 'Eecent Changes of 

 Level in the Yakutat Bay Region' (Bull. 

 Geol. Soc. Amer., XVII., 1906, 29-64) reveal 

 recent and extraordinarily rapid and great 

 changes in land level. The region is one 

 whose general features were already known 

 through the studies of Russell (1890) and 

 Gilbert (1899), both of whom include mention 

 of the precipitous shores in their general de- 

 scriptions. 



In September, 1899, three months after the 

 Harriman expedition, of which Gilbert was a 

 member, a series of violent earthquakes oc- 

 curred in Alaska. The shocks are now found 

 to have been associated with displacements 

 that produced uplifts of from seven to ten feet 

 on the southeast and of from forty to forty- 

 seven feet on the northwest side of Yakutat 

 Bay. The uplifts seem to have occurred 

 within a little over two weeks and mainly on 

 a single day, September 10, 1899. There 

 were movements in other parts of the region 

 besides Yakutat Bay, but to a lesa extent, and 

 in some cases there was depression instead of 

 elevation. 



The physiographic effects of uplift are 

 clearly preserved in the form of elevated 

 beaches with fans and deltas of moderate size 

 in bays, and of elevated narrow rock benches 



with sea caves and chasms cut in the head- 

 lands. Several new reefs and islands have 

 appeared in consequence of the change of 

 level. In some localities the elevated beaches 

 are as clearly preserved as if they were merely 

 exposed at low tide; elsewhere they have been 

 partly dissected, the degree of preservation 

 varying with height above present tide, posi- 

 tion with respect to drainage from the land, 

 and effectiveness of present wave attack. At 

 almost every stream mouth there is an ele- 

 vated fan or delta, its front nipped away by 

 wave action after uplift and its top dissected 

 by the now intrenched stream. In some cases 

 the frontal nipping has been checked by new 

 deltas built seaward from the new shoreline. 

 The amount of land gained from the sea is 

 very small in consequence of the former steep 

 submarine slope imposed by previous glacial 

 erosion upon mountain sides that may have 

 been initially steep from faulting. It is evi- 

 dent that even the pre-earthquake stage of 

 shore-line development was very little ad- 

 vanced, so small was the modification of land 

 form along the line of sea action: the post- 

 earthquake development is perceptible only on 

 loose material; the rock slopes do not yet ap- 

 pear to be cut at the new water level. 



I. B. 



THE TLAN SHAN PLATEAU 



Recent explorations of the Tian Shan 

 Mountains of north-central Asia have shown 

 that a considerable part of their area consists 

 of highlands of moderate relief, locally known 

 as Syrt, at an altitude of 3,000 or 4,000 

 meters, above which various mountains rise 

 and beneath which numerous valleys are 

 deeply entrenched. The rocks of the high- 

 land are for the most part granites and other 

 crystallines or deformed Paleozoic strata, 

 across which the highland surface passes in- 

 differently; but Tertiary deposits occur here 

 and there, and the higher areas bear signs of 

 glaciation. One of the first explorers to give 

 an appreciative account of the plateau-like 

 highlands was M. Friederichsen, now of Got- 

 tingen, who in 1902 accompanied Saposhnikof, 

 botanist of Tomsk, into the district west of 

 Khan Tengri, the great dominating summit 



