712 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 203. 



lying on the west side of the range, lies a little 

 basin named Avalanche Basin by Mr. L. B. 

 Sperry, of Oberlin, Ohio, and on the mountains 

 overlooking this, Mr. Sperry tells us, are ex- 

 tensive snow fields and a glacier. From the 

 summit of Blackfoot Mountain it appears that 

 this Avalanche Basin lies nearly south of Mt. 

 Piegan of my map, and southwest of Mt. Reyn- 

 olds. I understand that Mr. Sperry, who was, 

 of course, unaware that the mountain had been 

 earlier named, has called Mt. Reynolds Matter- 

 horn from the slender — as seen from the south- 

 west — finger of rock which forms its peak. Mt. 

 Reynolds is in the Continental Divide, although 

 most of the recent maps wrongly place it east 

 of the Divide. 



If the locations of the Pumpelly glacier and 

 of Avalanche Basin with regard to definite and 

 well-known points in the Continental Divide 

 are thus established, the matter is one of some 

 interest to students of this section of the north- 

 ern Rocky Mountains, since hitherto, so far as 

 I am aware, the relations of the east and west 

 sides of the range have not been known be- 

 tween the head of Belly River and the Cut 

 Bank Pass. 



Lying nearly to the south of Mt. Jackson, and 

 between it and the Blackfoot Mountain, is a 

 deep basin which is the head of Harrison 

 Creek, flowing down toward the Flathead 

 Lake. This basin, which I have called Pinchot's 

 Basin, is occupied by a large glacier, which is 

 fed by many smaller ones flowing down the steep 

 side of Mts. Jackson, Kainah and Blackfoot. 

 What the extent of this glacier may be I do not 

 know, but lying in this deep basin, and almost 

 completely surrounded by high mountains, the 

 area of the moving ice must be very considerable. 

 Geo. Bird Grinnell. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Outlines of the Earth's History. By N. S. 



Shalee. D. Appleton & Co. 1898. Price, 



$1.75. 



This ' Popular Study in Physiography ' is the 

 latest of a number of attractive publications 

 dealing with geological and geographical 

 themes, from the pen of the professor of geol- 

 ogy at Harvard. As in the case of the ' As- 

 pects of the Earth,' published in 1889, the pres- 



ent volume of over four hundred pages is a 

 series of essays on some of the broader phases of 

 the earth's history. 



Popular scientific books, well written, clearly 

 printed and attractively illustrated, are year by 

 year becoming more and more numerous, and are 

 taking the place of novels, especially among 

 the more intellectual and cultivated readers. It 

 is to this as yet small library of nature-novels 

 that the 'Outlines of the Earth's History' 

 belongs. 



The nine essays comprising the volume and 

 forming as many chapters are : 



I. An introduction to the study of nature. 



II. Ways and means of studying nature. 



III. The stellar realm. 



IV. The earth. 



V. The atmosphere. 



VI. Glaciers. 



VII. The work of underground water. 



VIII. The soil. 



IX. The rocks and their order. 



As may be seen from this outline, the volume, 

 although embracing a wide view of nature, is 

 not a systematic treatise, and does not fill the 

 place of a text-book on physiography. It is a col- 

 lection of graphic essays, each of which may be 

 read separately without detracting from its 

 value, designed to lead the reader by easy paths 

 to a sufliciently elevated, intellectual stand- 

 point, to command a comprehensive view of 

 what the author terms the natural realm. 



Following the first two chapters, which are of 

 the nature of an introduction, dealing briefly 

 with the ways in which bai-barous and civilized 

 men view their surroundings, and suggesting 

 methods to be pursued in nature study, comes 

 a description of the stellar realm. Most of the 

 material in this third chapter is of necessity 

 borrowed from astronomy, and presents, among 

 other discussions, a clear statement of the neb- 

 ular hypothesis, as formulated by Kant and La- 

 place. But scant, if any, attention is given, 

 however, to the modification of this explana- 

 tion of the earth's origin, presented especially 

 by Lockyer and known as the meteoric hypoth- 

 esis. A reason for this omission is perhaps to 

 be had later in the book, where it is stated that 

 meteors may possibly have been ejected by vol- 

 canoes of our own and other planets, a view 



