170 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXII. No. 556 



Wien Darwin brouglit us out of the difficulty it was 

 largely by a study of the experience of breeders. This 

 was analogous to the establishing of a new and Tast bio- 

 logical laboratory for scientific experimentation and never 

 before was such a profound change brought about in a 

 dogma of science by a studj' of an economic art. 



All the earlier stud books and herd books were pre- 

 pared and published by private individuals as any other 

 book might be produced by a compiler and author. Now 

 they are mostly published by associations clothed with 

 authority and having wider aims. They record and pub- 

 lish pedigree, define methods and conditions for establish- 

 ing their authenticity, and fix the standards which dictate 

 what the essential characters of the breeds shall be. 

 Nearly every useful breed has now some such association, 

 ' publishing an authorized stud book, herd book, flock 

 book, or register of some kind ; the total number of such 

 works aggregates hundreds if not thousands of volumes. 



It is in fancy breeding that the most wonderful results 

 are produced and some of the most instructive facts are 

 found. The economic factor is here often entirely elimi- 

 nated, and mere whim or fancy guides the experiments. 

 Fanciers had their associations and set their standards 

 long before the breeders of the more useful farm animals 

 did, and to that Darwin turned his attention. He joined 

 various pigeon societies, put up his cotes, became a prac- 

 tical and experimental fancier and mingled with his fellow 

 fanciers, drawing on their rich stock of knowledge and 

 experience. 



A result of all this has been a better knowledge of the 

 laws of heredity and of the causes which promote varia- 

 tion. A science of breeding now underlies the practical 

 art. A pure science is relatively exact in the proportion 

 in which it enables us to predict events, its economic ap- 

 plications are valuable in the proportion in which it 

 enables us to control results. The breeder of to-day con- 

 trols results with a success his ancestors never dreamed 

 of. 



The practical result is that the economic production of 

 animals is now placed on a very much surer foundation, 

 excellence is made more uniform, the chances for failure 

 are enormously lessened and the methods of improvement 

 placed on a philosoj^hical basis. 



The gain to science has been correspondingly great and 

 numerous vinsolved j)roblems in biological science find 

 here their material for use. Economical and social 

 science, also, here find a field for experiment and deduc- 

 tion. Science will therefore be the gainer in the future' 

 as truly as in the past. 



NOTE ON THE BUEIED DRAINAGE SYSTEM OF 

 THE UPPEE OHIO. 



BV EICHAED E. HIOE, BEA.VEE, PA. 



In reading the discussion of the buried river channels 

 in western Pennsylvania, by Professor J. G. White,* the 

 impression is left with the reader that none of the tribu- 

 taries of the Ohio and Big Beaver rivers have buried chan- 

 nels, but that all are flowing over undoubted rock bot- 

 toms, at, or within a short distance of, their mouths. 



At the time Professor White examined this district, 

 (1876) there was, in sorae cases, apparently ground for 

 this belief, though a careful examination of other streams 

 would have thrown much doubt on the correctness of this 

 conclusion. Recent developments, however, have demon- 

 strated in some cases that buried channels exist, and the 

 nature of the surroundings in other cases, render the con- 

 clusion that the apparent rock bottom is real, a mistake. 



Passing up the Ohio and Beaver from the Ohio State 



*Second Geol. Survey Peuna. Vols. 2, 22. 



line, we first reach the Little Beaver. A short distance 

 from its mouth we apparently find a rock bottom as de- 

 scribed by Professor White,f but in building the abut- 

 ments of a bridge near this same point, a depth of 

 fifty feet was reached without finding rock. A depth that 

 closely corresponds with that of the Ohio, which here lies 

 on the southern side of the present valley. Near Cannel- 

 ton, also, a number of miles up the valley of the Little 

 Beaver, a well has been recently driven fifty feet through 

 gravel without finding rock and abandoned. 



Raccoon Creek, coming into the Ohio from the south, 

 flows at its mouth through a narrow rock gorge, but be- 

 low the jDresent mouth there is a gravel terrace for about 

 a half mile, and there is ample room for a buried channel. 

 Passing up this stream there does not seem to be a rock 

 bottom, except at its mouth, for several miles. The pres- 

 ent channel makes a sharp turn up the Ohio at its mouth, 

 while the gravel terrace, reaching on its river front at 

 least to low water, lies in the direct course of the creek, 

 and reaches back to the point where the course of the 

 creek changes. 



Two Mile Run, a comparatively small stream, flows 

 through a narrow gorge in the ferriferous limestone, for 

 about a quarter of a mile above its mouth, but passing 

 above this gorge, it flows over a gravel bottom, parallel 

 with the Ohio, for about a mile, at which point it leaves 

 the valley, and enters a narrow gorge, in which no rock is 

 found in the bed of the run for about two miles. The di- 

 rect course from the narrow gorge to the Ohio, is blocked 

 by a gravel terrace, which reaches below the present river 

 level. 



Passing up the Beaver, we first reach Brady's Run. 

 This stream, at its mouth, also runs over a rock bottom; 

 but, in the erection of a bridge at its mouth, it was dis- 

 covered that the present channel lies immediately beside 

 a buried one, the rock dropping off precipitously, and a 

 well one-half mile up the stream has been driven fifty feet 

 to rock, in a location that does not seem to be the middle 

 of the buried channel. This well is at a point where the 

 bounding bills rise 100 feet plus and 350 feet jslus, respec- 

 tively. 



Connoquenessing Creek, for the four lower miles of its 

 course, flows in a narrow rock gorge, and at one point, 

 about one-fourth mile from its mouth, it is now flowing 

 over a rock bottom. Above this gorge, the stream flows 

 in a much older valley, with no indication of a rock bot- 

 tom. As yet no outlet has been found for this str-eam into 

 the buried channel of the Beaver, but the thick covering 

 of morainic material makes any examination very uncertain 

 in its negative results. 



These are the principal streams, and the evidence, 

 though not yet conclusive in all cases, clearly shows that 

 no reliance can be placed on an apparent rock bottom at 

 or near the mouth of the stream; indeed the Beaver itself 

 flows over a rock bottom within two hundred yards of its 

 mouth, as well as at three other points within less than 

 five miles of its mouth, yet no stream has a better defined 

 buried channel; and also shows that the time of the ero- 

 sion of the buried channel was not so short as some have 

 claimed on the supposed evidence of the absence of buried 

 channels of the tributary streams, but was long enough to 

 admit of the erosion not only of the main lines of drain- 

 age, but of many of the tributary channels as well. 



Messes. P. Blakiston, Son & Co. announce that Dr. 

 George M. Gould, already well known as the editor of 

 two small medical dictionaries, has now about ready an 

 unabridged, exhaustive work of the same class, upon 

 which he and a corps of assistants have been engaged for 

 several years. 



fz, page 16. 



