February 27, 1903.J 



SCIENCE. 



'6bo 



the accident happened once, it might become 

 a common occurrence. The height of the 

 dams is in excess of examples ordinarily re- 

 ported, but not vastly in excess. The dura- 

 tion needed for the dams is of diiEcult accept- 

 ance. On the other hand, the hypothesis is 

 carefully studied out; it is literally a work- 

 ing hypothesis, in the sense that it will ac- 

 count for the observed facts. The alternative 

 hyiwthesis of laked rivers, obstructed in their 

 northward flow by the ice sheet itself, is of 

 diilicult application, in that it does not clearly 

 lead to the desertion of old valleys, unless on 

 the improbable supposition that the lakes were 

 filled by silting and the silts were afterwards 

 in great part removed. 



LA COTE d'or. 

 The headwaters of the Seine and Yonne 

 flow northwest through valleys well en- 

 trenched in the calcareous plateau of Langres, 

 in the east-central part of France, whose 

 surface at altitudes of 400 or 500 meters 

 expresses the structure of the region. The 

 Saone flows southward on the broad, ag- 

 graded plain of la Bresse at altitudes near 

 200 meters. Between the two is a dissected 

 escarpment, determined by a fault with down- 

 throw of several hundred meters on the south- 

 east, whose sunny slopes or cotes have given 

 name to the department, within the ancient 

 province of Burgundy, of which Dijon is the 

 chief city. Girardin describes the features 

 of this interesting district : ' Le relief des 

 environs de Dijon et les principales formes 

 topographiques de la Bourgogne ' (Ann. de 

 Geogr., XI., 1902, 4.3-53). The several ele- 

 ments of form are taken up in succession and 

 explained in their relation to geological struc- 

 ture, as well as to human occupation. The 

 isolated areas of upland, ' la montagne,' are 

 dry, relatively barren, with few and poor in- 

 habitants, whose number is decreasing. Re- 

 sidual mounds, ' hauteaux, montots, tasselots,' 

 the remnants of once overlying strata, sur- 

 mount the uplands. The slope, 'la cote,' 

 strewn with stony waste from the rimming 

 bluils of the ' montagne,' is occupied with 

 vineyards where well exposed to sunshine. 

 Ravines or ' combes ' and valleys, frequently 



with large springs at the stream heads, are 

 gnawing into the uplands from the low plain 

 on the southeast, threatening the headwaters 

 of the Seine system. 



The subject of this essay invites fuller 

 treatment in several directions. The develop- 

 ment of topographic features in relation to 

 time might be presented to advantage in 

 greater detail: thus a better understanding 

 could be gained of the effects of faulting on 

 form, and of the relation of the montots to 

 the combes. All of the elements of form 

 could be better appreciated by the foreign 

 reader if they were more explicitly related 

 to the type examples of systematic physiog- 

 raphy, so that each local instance should be 

 presented as a variant upon a standard of its 

 kind. Finally, several large problems invite 

 attention in this district: What effect had the 

 depression of the Saone basin on the head- 

 waters of the Seine system? At what stage 

 in the development of the valleys of the Seine 

 system did the Saone depression take place? 

 Wliat changes have taken place since the de- 

 pression occurred? Perhaps the French geol- 

 ogists are in a position to answer these physio- 

 graphic questions, but the answers have not 

 yet been given by French geographers. 



CAi50NS OP THE EUPHRATES. 



The narrative of a trip ' Through the Great 

 Canon of the Euphrates River ' on a skin 

 raft, by E. Huntington (Geogr. Journ., XX., 

 1902, 175-200), includes a graphic account of 

 a number of physiogi-aphic features. The 

 stretch of 190 miles along the river included 

 something more than the great northwest bend 

 within which Harput is situated. The jour- 

 ney occupied seven days, although only thirty- 

 seven hours were spent in floating down the 

 river. The region includes many subparallel 

 ranges, trending northeast-southwest, and en- 

 closing as many waste-floored basins. In the 

 basins, the river is incised but little below 

 the basin plain, its channel sometimes form- 

 ing a braided network on an open flood plain 

 with a fall of only two feet a mile. In the 

 mountains the river follows narrow canons, 

 from 2,000 to 5,000 feet deep, with steep 

 walls and no flood plain ; here the channel is 



