400 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 114. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



' AN AMBITIOUS PABADOXEE. ' 



HiSTOEY tells us of a man whose great pride 

 and boast it was that lie had once been kicked 

 by the Duke of Wellington. Mr. Stephen H. 

 Emmens, whose advertisement appears in Sci- 

 ence of February 19th, seems to be moved by 

 a like ambition, only, the great Duke being 

 dead, he has to get men of lower rank to perform 

 the ceremony. Only thus can I explain his ad- 

 vertisement in which he cites a number of 

 names of scientific men, my own among them, 

 as having written in such a manner ' as to show 

 that they regard his arguments and mathemat- 

 ical demonstrations as incapable of refutation. ' 



I have never even seen Mr. Emmens' book, 

 and experience taught me long years ago that 

 any attempt to cure that special mental condi- 

 tion of which he is a victim by reasoning or ex- 

 planation was futile. I therefore have long ago 

 made it a rule neither to address any argument 

 or comment to that class of people, nor tell 

 them what I think of their vagaries. To fill the 

 cup of Mr. Emmens' happiness, I shall only add 

 that he is entitled to the highest place in the 

 class to which he belongs. 



S. Newcomb. 



FORMER extension OF GREENLAND GLACIERS. 



From Professor Tarr's letter in the last num- 

 ber of Science, under the above heading, it 

 would appear that he is disposed to insist upon 

 an erroneous interpretation of the views of Pro- 

 fessor Salisbury and myself after the error has 

 been explicitly pointed out. It appears that 

 on the basis of my general inference "that the 

 ice formerly so extended itself as to reach the 

 coast over about half its extent, while in the 

 remaining portion the ice fell short, ' ' Professor 

 Tarr inferred that the area which he studied 

 fell within the portion in which the ice did not 

 reach the coast. He further assumed that the 

 angularity of outline which he observed in a 

 region which had been glaciated was the angu- 

 larity from which we inferred non-glaciation. 

 In the editorial in the Journal of Geology, to 

 which he refers, it was explicitly pointed out 

 that the region between Disco Island and Mel- 

 ville Bay, within which Professor Tarr's studies 

 lay, was regarded by both Professor Salisbury 



and myself as having been glaciated in general. 

 Only some of the higher peaks which were not 

 visited by Professor Tarr, and which rose to 

 heights greater than any observed by him, and 

 some lee faces were excepted. It was also 

 pointed out that the topography of the region 

 was not classed by us with the rugged unsub- 

 dued type from which we inferred non-glacia- 

 tion. On the contrary, we looked upon it as 

 being partially subdued, and as indicating par- 

 tial glaciation, a view which is precisely con- 

 sonant with the determinations of Professor 

 Tarr, and is substantially confirmed by them. 

 Professor Tarr has thus unwittingly empha- 

 sized, by his attempt to place us in error, the 

 fact that the difference between a wholly un- 

 subdued and a slightly subdued topography can 

 be detected by passing observers with no better 

 facilities than a coasting vessel and good field 

 glasses. When his photographs shall be pub_ 

 lished it will remain for glacial experts to deter- 

 mine whether the topography gives indication 

 of the feeble glaciation that took place and was 

 detected by us, or not, and whether experi- 

 enced students of glacial topography can rea- 

 sonably be expected to catch and correctly in- 

 terpret such indications in passing or not. I 

 predict with the utmost confidence that expert 

 judgment will at once classify the topography 

 studied by Professor Tarr precisely as Professor 

 Salisbury and myself classified the topography 

 of the general tract in which it is embraced. I 

 feel confident that Professor Tarr will not be 

 sustained in calling the topography of the upper 

 Nugsuak peninsula unqualifiedly ' rugged' and 

 'angular,' but that, on the other hand, it will 

 be pronounced partially subdued and obviouslj' 

 glaciated. I think it will then become evident 

 that Professor Tarr's error lies, first, in a lack 

 of sufiScient care in interpreting our statements, 

 and second, in identifying the feebly glaciated 

 topography, which he studied, with our unsub- 

 dued topography, and in assuming that the 

 topographic effects of glaciation cannot be de- 

 tected even where some measure of ruggedness 

 — even a large measure of ruggedness in the 

 common gross sense of the term — may remain. 

 It was pointed out in the editorial that I 

 recognized an extension of ice in the general 

 region of Professor Tarr's studies essentially 



