994 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 130. 



loams, it does not seem so, incredible that the 

 loess and clayey loam are the delta-like accu- 

 mulation of great streams, fed from the glaciers 

 on the north and the Tertiary silts on the west. 

 I am surprised to learn from Mr. Hershey's 

 letter that in northwestern Illinois the ' upland 

 loess ' ' is present over the thick terrace-like 

 deposits of true loess down along the streams.' 

 Chamberlin "and Salisbury, as I understand, 

 make the terraces subsequent to the former, and 

 however that may be in that region, there is 

 clear evidence from fossils and rearranged ma- 

 terial that such is the case along the Missouri. 

 It is a common thing for all terraces to be 

 capped by a finer loam, the last deposition of 

 the flood which laid down the coarser material 

 below, or of some subsequent flood which 

 barely submerged them. 



Mr. Hershey assumes without question the 

 preglacial age of the troughs of the Missouri 

 and Mississippi through this region. This has 

 not yet been proved. The evidence to the con- 

 trary is given at some length in my report 

 which he reviewed, and I need not repeat here. 

 I would add only a few words. The rock 

 bottom of the Missouri through the State of 

 Missouri, and of the Mississippi below the mouth 

 of the Des Moines, is nowhere known to be 

 lower than is known to be sometimes reached 

 by ' the scour ' in floods of the present day, 

 viz., 80 or 90 feet. 



The interesting preglacial channel west of 

 Keokuk, first reported by General Warren, is 

 interesting, but instead of proving that most of 

 the present Mississippi channel is preglacial, 

 rather shows the contrary, for its course at 

 Quincy and below corresponds in depth and 

 size with the new channel at Keokuk rather 

 than the old one, and that has evidently been 

 cut since the glacial epoch. We may as reason- 

 ably search for the continuation of the old 

 channel toward the east as toward the south, 

 for bed rock opposite Quincy is 45 feet below 

 low water. 



Before closing I would state that I am not 

 over-confident concerning the Osage-Gasconade 

 divide, and am only sorry that circumstances 

 have not permitted my further study of the 

 problems involved. But as far as our present 

 knowledge goes, it still seems to me much more 



tenable than the theory which I understand Mr. 

 Hershey to propose. 



J. E. Todd. 

 State University, Vermilion, S. D., 

 May 31, 1897. 



A MONUMENT TO THE LATE BUYS-BALLOT. 



To THE Editor of Science : The Royal 

 Dutch Meteorological Institute is about to re- 

 move from the old buildings at Utrecht, where, 

 during forty years Professor C. H. D. Buys- 

 Ballot labored so indefatigably for meteorology, 

 to the new establishment at de Bilt, near 

 Utrecht. Buys-Ballot, who may be called the 

 founder of meteorological science in the Nether- 

 lands, is known to students of that science the 

 world over from the law bearing his name, 

 which connects the direction of the wind with 

 the position of the storm center. His noble 

 character, combined with a charming person- 

 ality, endeared him to his colleagues, and won 

 the respect and affection of a wide circle of 

 acquaintances, which included the writer. 

 A provisional committee, composed of his 

 former associates, believing that the memory of 

 such a man is honored outside of his own 

 country, has invited an international committee 

 to aid in obtaining funds for the erection at 

 Utrecht of a monumental bust of the great 

 meteorologist. The American members of this 

 committee are Professor Willis L. Moore, Chief 

 of the United States Weather Bureau at Wash- 

 ington, and the undersigned. Subscriptions 

 sent to either one of us will be acknowledged 

 and forwarded to the Dutch committee. 



A. Lawrence Rotch, 



Director of the Blue Hill Meteorological 

 Observatory, Readvillb, Mass. 



ORGANIC selection. 



I AM unable to agree with Mr. Robert M. 

 Pierce that the passage he quotes from Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer's ' Principles of Biology ' sets 

 forth the same conception that Professor Mark 

 Baldwin dealt with in Science for April 33d. 

 Mr. Spencer's position, I take it, is this : Ac- 

 quired characters are inherited ; there is a 

 natural selection of acquirers, the fittest of 

 whom survive to transmit their acquired char- 

 acters ; hence evolution is rendered more rapid 

 than it would otherwise be. This is primarily 



