682 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 97. 



both, the out- door animals and the walks. 

 Two days were spent with Herr Carl 

 Hagenbeck, who has at Hamburg a Thier- 

 park of his own, quite as large as the Cen- 

 tral Park Menagerie of New York. Prob- 

 ably no man living has given more study to 

 the problems of zoological garden construc- 

 tion and the care of animals in captivity, 

 and Mr. Hornaday found him not only 

 willing but eager to explain the mistakes 

 to avoid, as well as the latest develop- 

 ments in the care of animals. 



The director of the very interesting gar- 

 den at Cologne, Dr. Wunderlich, was quite 

 as ready with helpful information as his 

 colleagues of other cities, and some of the 

 features of his establishment were found to 

 possess exceptional interest. The Frank- 

 fort garden contains much that is new and 

 admirable. Prof. Milne Edwards, Director 

 of the Paris Jardin des Plantes, also extended 

 every facility for study and examination of 

 this the oldest garden of Europe. Eegard- 

 ing the status of a garden which, like this, 

 is free to the entire public, the experiences 

 and observations of Prof. Milne Edwards 

 were both interesting and valuable. He ex- 

 pressed the opinion that no zoological gar- 

 den should be kept open every day in the 

 week, principally because it is not best for 

 the collections. 



The store of photographs, sketches, notes 

 and plans collected during this tour are 

 now being utilized in the preliminary plans 

 for the New York Park. It is proposed to 

 determine the location and general design 

 of every building and enclosure before the 

 project is finally submitted to the city au- 

 thorities in January, 1897. The site se- 

 lected by the Society is the southern portion 

 of Bronx Park, about a quarter of a mile 

 south of the Botanical Garden. According 

 to the Charter granted to the Society by 

 the New York Legislature in 1895, the ap- 

 proval of this selection rests with the Mayor 

 and Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PHY8I0GBAPHY. 



GLACIAL SAND PLAINS ABOUT NARRAGANSETT 

 BAY. 



The geographical significance of glacial 

 action is well exhibited in an account of the 

 ' Eetreat of the ice sheet in the Narragan- 

 sett bay region,' by J. B. Woodworth 

 {Amer. GeoL, XYIIL, 1896, 150-168). 

 Sand Plains, stretching east and west, re- 

 peatedly succeed one another on a north - 

 south line. Each plain was formed rapidly 

 by streams flowing out from the margin of 

 the slowly retreating ice sheet into standing 

 water ; whether the standing water was an 

 arm of the sea, then about fifty feet higher 

 than now, or a local water body, is not de- 

 termined. Each plain has the gently slop- 

 ing surface, the lobate front and the pecu- 

 liarly stratified structure of a delta ; but at 

 the head the plain falls off northward in a 

 steep slope, associated with kames, and de- 

 scending to a lowland area that is often 

 boulder-strewn and marked by gravel 

 mounds or occupied by swampy basins 

 drained by sluggish streams ; here the ice 

 sheet stood while the plain was forming. 

 This lowland is compared to the ' fosse,' a 

 marked feature on Nantucket, between the 

 head of the great sand plain on the south 

 and the moranic till mounds on the north. 

 The same might be said of the similar fosse 

 on Martha's Vineyard. 



A small but well defined boulder mo- 

 raine in southwest Ehode Island is described 

 by Woodworth and Marbut (Chicago Journ. 

 Geol., IV., 1896, 691-703). 



TOPOGRAPHIC TERMS OF SPANISH AMERICA. 



The richness of some languages and the 

 poverty of others in terms descriptive of 

 topographic form has often been remarked. 

 The New Englander never invented a 

 generic name for the numerous drumlins 

 that he early selected for clearing ; they 

 were to him simply ' hills.' The Spanish 

 race is more appreciative and a num- 



