DECEMBER 3, 1897. ] 
Britain would have just as much right to pro- 
test against the extermination, by the United 
States, of the buffalo and the beaver. 
Tt has been suggested that the seals might be 
exterminated, but this would be sawing off the 
branch with the man on it, unless the proposers 
of this plan mean by it what I wish to suggest. 
This is that so many seals be killed on the 
Islands that there would not be enough left in 
the seas to make pelagic sealing profitable. It 
would seem possible to keep a small herd on 
the Islands and the killing of the small number 
would be very profitable, as the price of seal- 
skins would doubtless rise. It looks to me as 
if we had the trump card in ‘our hands and 
could offer Great Britain almost any conditions 
on pelagic sealing that we like. 
12, Ge Jel, 
New York, November 27, 1897. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF 
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS. 
THE following notes on the character and 
elevation of the Cretaceous peneplain in west- 
ern Massachussetts were made during a trip in 
the Berkshire region in the spring of 1897. 
The area covered lies between the Housatonic 
and Connecticut lowlands and south of the 
Boston and Albany Railroad. 
From map-study alone the tendency is to 
locate the peneplain by the broadest tracts of 
level country to be found upon the map and to 
eall what lies above monadnocks. It was 
found, however, that this estimate placed the 
peneplain altogether too low. The broad 
spaces proved on observation to be broad, 
shallow tracts of etched-out country, and most 
of what had been supposed from map-study to 
be monadnocks fell into a very good level sky- 
line. The region contains but few monad- 
nocks, and these of small size, their size and 
number decreasing from north to south. 
In the township of Hinsdale the peneplain 
lies at a height of 2,050 to 2,100 feet ; at Wash- 
ington Centre it falls to 2,000 feet; and seven 
miles in a south-southeasterly direction, near 
Becket Centre, it is but 1,850 feet in height. 
Between Sandisfield Centre and-New Marl- 
borough, about seventeen miles due south of 
Washington, the height of the peneplain de- 
SCIENCE. 
847 
creases to 1,750 feet; at Tolland Centre its 
elevation is about 1,550 feet; and at Blandford 
Centre, about eight miles to the northeast, the 
same. By comparison of these points the fol- 
lowing conclusions were reached: 
(1) The peneplain dips from about north- 
northwest to south-southeast. 
(2) Its fall in twenty-five miles is about 550 
feet, a rate of twenty-two feet to the mile. 
An apparent consequence of this slope of the 
peneplain is the prevailingly south-southeast 
courses of the streams, great and small, through- 
out the area. Along the escarpments where 
the upland falls off into the Housatonic low- 
land or into the Connecticut lowland the 
streams naturally follow the steeper gradient 
and have cut east and west courses some dis- 
tance back into the upland, though even these 
streams in their upper courses conform more 
and more to the habit of the other streams. 
The long axes of the lakes and ponds also lie 
prevailingly northwest and southeast, and the 
majority of the long, straight stretches of road 
follow the same direction. 
Rouanp B. Drxon, 
CHARLES D. DREW. - 
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 
The Dawn of Astronomy, a study of the temple- 
worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians. 
By J. NormMAN LockyER. New York and 
London, The Macmillan Co. First edi- 
tion, 1894 ; second edition, 1897. Octavo, pp. 
432. Illustrated. Price, $3. 
Sir Norman Lockyer first gave his atten- 
tion to the questions treated in this book 
in the year 1890 and they are stated in 
his preface somewhat as follows: It is a 
matter of common knowledge that many of 
the churches of England are so constructed 
that their eastern windows face the point of 
sunrise on the day of the patron saint. For ex- 
ample, the churches dedicated to St. John the 
Baptist face nearly northeast. The question 
arises whether the Egyptian temples have a 
similar orientation to the sun or to some star. 
This can be completely determined by accurate 
surveys of the temple sites ; by an investigation 
of the inscriptions, etc.; by a study of the my- 
thology and history of the people ; by the caleu- 
