116 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XVII. No. 420 



ice sheet on the north. The channels are 

 shown to vary with the character of the rock 

 in which they are cut. The stronger lime- 

 stones were most worn down where they were 

 cut through to weaker shales, and channels of 

 this kind often have a shallow up-stream floor, 

 separated by a cliff — the site of an ancient 

 waterfall — from a deep gorge with steep walls. 

 Channels cut in shales are often deep all 

 along their length, but their walls are weath- 

 ered to moderate slopes and their beds are 

 thereby narrowed. Many channels have no 

 northern bank, for the ice that restrained 

 their river on the north has melted away. 

 Some of this kind are to be seen from the N. 

 Y. Central Eailroad near Oneida, where the 

 track lies on the ancient river bed. Several 

 small lakes are described as occupying 

 ' plunge-basins ' excavated beneath cataracts. 



THE SCENERY OF ENGLAND. 



' The Scenery of Switzerland,' by Sir John 

 Lubbock, is now followed by ' The Scenery 

 of England ' by the same author under his 

 newer title of Lord Avebury (Macmillan, 1902, 

 xxvi + 534 pp., 197 figs, and pi.). The book 

 opens with 85 pages on geology and 30 on 

 general configuration. It then takes up such 

 topics as coast, mountains and hills, rivers and 

 lakes, giving to each a general consideration 

 as well as an account of local examples, and 

 closing with two chapters on law and names 

 as related to topography. Many of the illus- 

 trations are half-tone plates, most of which are 

 excellent; one of the incised meanders of the 

 Wye is notably fine. The author disarms the 

 critic in the preface; and indeed it is rather 

 ungrateful to find any fault with a book that 

 must prove useful in many ways; yet there is 

 ground for regret that the plan of treatment 

 adopted was not at once more thorough and 

 more systematic. The treatment of coasts 

 and of rivers, for example, does not do justice 

 to the position of these important subjects in 

 modern physiography. Truly, the items are 

 treated in a rational and explanatory manner, 

 but the arrangement of the items is not such 

 as to impress the reader with their natural 

 relations; the incised meanders of the Wye, 

 for instance, are referred to in the section 



which describes normal meanders; alluvial 

 fans of mountain torrents are described in 

 connection with the third stage of river devel- 

 opment in which the river, 'finally * * * reaches 

 a stage when the inclination becomes so small,' 

 etc. Sea cliffs are described in some detail, 

 bvit the reader will not learn the relation be- 

 tween the ragged outline and the beachless 

 base of young cliffs, or between the smoother 

 outline and continuous beach of mature cliffs. 

 The attention of geographers and philologists 

 should be called to the new word, ' manywhere ' 

 (p. 52), of value intermediate between some- 

 where and everywhere. 



TERMINOLOGY OP MORAINES. 



An elaborate historical monograph, ' Ge- 

 schichte der Moranenkunde,' by Bohm of 

 Vienna (Abhandl. Geogr. Gesellsch. Wien, III., 

 1901, No. 4, 334 pp., 4 pi.) forms an easy means 

 of reference to the writings of various authors 

 on a problem that is equally shared between 

 geologists and geographers. The earliest 

 writers quoted are Miinster (1544) and 

 Stumpff (1548). Their successors count up 

 to about 400, and the number of citations is 

 650; Agassiz, Chamberlin, Heim, Penck and 

 Saussure are the most frequently referred to. 

 This detailed review extends to 217 pages. 

 Then follows a 25-page discussion of the re- 

 sults reached by the Glacier Conference of 

 Aug-ust, 1899, of which the author was not a 

 member and from whose decision he dissents. 

 The classification and terminology of mor- 

 aines, as preferred by the author, are next 

 presented in a chapter of 23 pages, closing 

 with a table of 23 kinds of moraines named in 

 six languages. It is notable that drumlin 

 is the only name which holds unchanged in all 

 co^^ntries; but moraine itself varies slightly 

 from Italy (morena) to Norway (morsene). 

 In this respect drumlin and moraine are imi- 

 tated by atoll and monadnock. Those inter- 

 ested in the development of physiographic 

 terminology may perhaps gain a useful hint 

 from these accepted though unintentional con- 

 tributions towards a universal scientific lan- 

 guage; none of the four words are of classic 

 origin; all come from local names of forms 

 that have come to be used as types. 



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