November 25, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



735 



be prepared to erect anothei more beautiful 

 because truer building if the first should be 

 overthrown. It is truth that we seek after, 

 and the building of our hands can never be 

 truth itself, but at best only its fit temple. 



I trust that I shall not be misunderstood 

 in what I have said about these dangers. 

 I am not an iconoclast, but wish only to 

 plead for conservatism and moderation. 

 F. P. Venable. 



TJniveesity of North Carolina. 



JEE VETTEBN ESCARPMEMTS OF SOUTHERN 

 SWEDEN. 



To a geologist a fault is always a fault. 

 Whatever its age, whatever the present con- 

 dition of the land, he reconstructs the dis- 

 location in his mind's eye, and sees the 

 break as vividly as though the action were 

 going on before him. Not so, however, 

 some physiographers. To them a fault is 

 expressive only in its topographic sense; 

 and just in so far as the dislocations can be 

 seen on the surface do many of the stu- 

 dents recognize their existence. 



On the other hand, the geologist fre- 

 quently fails to note two points of some im- 

 portance ; at least, he often neglects them in 

 his writings. These are the age of the dis- 

 location, and the form assumed by the land 

 after faulting. While in many cases some 

 attention is paid to these, it is very notice- 

 able that the literature of faulted regions 

 contains little of definite statement con- 

 cerning them. A good illustration of the 

 physiographic attitude is afforded by a 

 study of the escarpments in southern Swe- 

 den which run east from the northern end 

 of Lake Vettern to the Baltic. On the 

 ground, the appearance is of a tolerably 

 steep bluff from higher land on the north 

 down to lower ground on the south. The 

 main escarpment is fairly continuous except 

 near the lake, and is foi-med of a series of 

 leads and offsets at high angles. The con- 

 nection between them and the joint sys- 



tems elaborated by Mr. J. B. Wood worth 

 at once suggests itself, but so far only a 

 general resemblance has been established. 

 The various planes in these examples are 

 more irregular iu direction and continuity 

 than iu the minute cases which are the 

 basis of Mr. Woodworth's work. 



The series may be divided east and west 

 into two parts. That about the lake and for 

 some distance east is characterized by having 

 the angle of the notches face southwest and 

 the sides making the angle concave ; the 

 land is higher within the angles, i. e., to the 

 north and east. The rest of the series has 

 angles facing southeast and the sides con- 

 vex ; the land is higher to the north and 

 west. Whether this is due to any known 

 laws cannot be shown at present. One 

 thing is noticeable ; the escarpment enters 

 the sea on the east, but dies out on the 

 west. It may be that this is a case of a 

 fault dying out at both ends, and caused 

 by some disturbance at its center ; which 

 would probably make a symmetrical figure, 

 not alike on both sides. However, this is 

 mere hypothesis. 



To the north of the escarpments the 

 country is a fairly even upland, peculiarly 

 dissected and surmounted by innumerable 

 hills which bear northwest, more westeily 

 than any of the oflsets of the escarpments. 

 The drainage is by lakes and small streams. 

 The former are curvilinear, and both take 

 in general the direction of the axes of the 

 hills. All this apparently is due to glacial ac- 

 tion, and the same pattern exists over all the 

 country around. In the lowland aloug the 

 south side of the escarpment series there is 

 a line of drainage from Lake Vettern on the 

 west to the Baltic on the east. It consists 

 of Lakes Boren and Roxen and the estuary 

 Braviken, with a stream connecting them. 



The escarpments cannot be due to glacial 

 action, for (1) they are neither in line with 

 the ice motion, as shown by lakes and 

 eskers, nor at right angles to it ; (2) in cer- 



