Apeil 23, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



647 



that stream was a ti-ibutary of the Meuse 

 and flowed through the valley now occupied 

 by the beheaded bar. 



This geological confirmation of the geo- 

 graphic interpretation of the river captures 

 in this region made by Professor Davis* is 

 interesting on account of the reversal in 

 the order of the observations from those 

 made in the case of the capture at Toul.f 

 That the present upper Moselle formerly 

 joined the Meuse was first argued from the 

 presence of pebbles in the valley of the 

 Meuse which must have come from that of 

 the Moselle above Toul. The strong geo- 

 graphic argument from the form of the val- 

 leys later corroboi-ated the geologic evi- 

 dence. "Now we have the geologic added to 

 the geographic evidence for the turning of 

 the Aire by the Aisne from the drainage 

 system of the Meuse to that of the Seine. 



One of the sources of the present Bar 

 has been turned by man recently, so that it 

 now increases the water supply of the 

 Briquenay, the reversed portion of the sub- 

 sequent Aire-Bar. This change of a water- 

 course for industrial purposes is a continua- 

 tion of the work begun by nature. The 

 broad aggraded floodplain of the Bar is be- 

 ing taken advantage of this year, and a 

 railway has been constructed along it be- 

 tween Sedan and Vouziers, with a branch 

 running to Buzancy. 



F. P. GUIXIVER. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY. 



IS GREEN EIVEE ANTECEDENT TO THE UINTA 



MOUNTAINS ? 



A RECENT paper by J. D. Irving (' Strati- 

 graphical relations of the Brown's park 

 beds of Utah,' Trans. IST. Y. Acad. Sci., 

 XV., 1896, 253-259), says: "It is a fact 

 no longer disputed that these deep canons 

 in the quartzite by which Green river 



*Loe. cit., p. 232. 

 t Loc. cit , p. 228. 



crosses the Uinta mountains were first 

 established in the softer overlying forma- 

 tions, and that these formations furnished 

 much of the corrosive material by means of 

 which the harder rocks were cut away." 

 It is not clear whether the overl5'ing forma- 

 tions here mentioned were higher members 

 of the Uinta arch or unconformably over- 

 lying Tertiaries. If the former, the writer 

 would support Powell's explanation of the 

 antecedent origin of the river ; if the latter, 

 he would support Emmons' view that the 

 river is of superposed origin. In either 

 case discussion on the question is hardly 

 closed. Indeed, considering how frequently 

 the Green is referred to as an antecedent 

 river, it is remarkable that so little atten- 

 tion is given to the doubts that have been 

 expressed regarding that manner of origin 

 and to the difficulties that such an origin 

 involves. Two recent text-books on geology 

 credit the antecedent explanation. Tarr 

 saj'S : "In some cases the uplift of moun- 

 tains appears to have been so slow that 

 rivers have been able to maintain their 

 courses across them as they rose ; at least 

 this is the interpretation placed upon some 

 rivers, such as the Green river of Utah, 

 which cuts directly across the high Uinta 

 mountains ' (Elementary Geology, 1897, 

 319). Scott is more cautious: " A famous 

 example of what many authorities believe 

 to be an antecedent stream is the Green 

 river in Wyoming and Utah. Entering 

 from the north, the river cuts its way in a 

 winding course through the great mountain 

 barrier of the Uintas in a remarkable series 

 of carions. This explanation is not ac- 

 cepted by all the observers who have 

 examined the region ; some of them explain 

 the phenomenon by the theory of superim- 

 posed drainage " (Introduction to Geology, 

 1897, 325). 



The Green river was unquestionably 

 laked by the uplift of the Uinta range, and 

 to this extent it is a defeated and not an 



