684 



SCIENCE. 



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



so that examples of novel, undescribed 

 kinds may be attentively studied when dis- 

 covered. Second, in the equally thorough 

 study of the manifold types of weather and 

 climate, so that they may be similarly 

 treated. Third, in the equally thorough 

 study of the various relations between 

 earth and man — anthropogeography ; or, if. 

 desired, between earth and all forms of life 

 — ^biogeography ; for then only can the hu- 

 man or organic element be stated in its 

 geographical relations, and not simply in 

 its anthropological or biological relations. 

 A person who is untrained in these direc- 

 tions may, of course, follow known paths as 

 a traveller, or break new paths as an ex- 

 plorer ; but it is questionable whether he 

 should be called a geographer. 



GLACIAL ACTION AND SHIFTING DIVIDES IN 

 THE SCHWAEZWALD. 



G. Steinmann has recently discussed the 

 glacial phenomena of the Schwarzwald (Die 

 Spuren der letzen Eiszeit im hohen Schwarz- 

 walde. Freiburg Univ. Festprogr., 1896). 

 From ice fields above 700 m., many valley 

 glaciers descended to 400 m. Glaciated 

 surfaces, smoothed valleys, cirques, rock 

 basins, terminal moraines and valley gravels 

 are all described in evidence of ice action. 

 The author is led to ascribe the diversion 

 of former headwaters from the Wutach 

 (Danube system) to the Hollenthal (Khine 

 system) by ice-barring. Map and profiles 

 give clear illustration of the inferred pro- 

 cess, which Steinmann naturally prefers to 

 the cataclysmic explanation suggested by 

 Fromherz half a century ago. But the 

 width (about 1 k.) of the Hollenthal ac- 

 cross the old divide seems too great to have 

 been gained in post-glacial time. Further- 

 more, no consideration is given to the nor- 

 mal process of shifting divides by the more 

 rapid gnawing at the steeper headwater (Hol- 

 lenthal). This slow process is undoubtedly 

 responsible for the repeated examples of 



shifted divides between Rhine and Danube 

 headwaters farther northeast in the Swabian 

 Alp, where the ' cuesta,' as Hill might call 

 it, or the ' Stufenlandschaft,' as Penck 

 would say, becomes dominant. It there- 

 fore seems probable that normal shifting 

 may find some application in the Schwarz- 

 wald also. W. M. Davis. 

 Haevaed Univeesity. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 the INDIAN QUESTION. 



In practical sociology no question has so 

 long worried the American philanthropists 

 as ' What to do with the Indians.' Even 

 the archaeologists — who are popularly sup- 

 posed to agree with General Crook, that the 

 only good Indian is a dead Indian — have 

 taken it up, and in the last number of the 

 Proceedings of the American Antiquarian 

 Society is an article on the subject by Mr. 

 J. Evarts Greene. 



He makes the revolutionary suggestion 

 that our government should scrupulously 

 keep its promises to the Indians (!) and 

 then proclaim them minors, keep their 

 property and spend it for them as we see fit. 



This latter item we will all gladly under- 

 take ; but the former is so totally without 

 precedent that it sounds anarchistic! Are 

 we, because of some short-sighted promise 

 of our fathers, to allow the savage to im- 

 pede the glorious march of civilization in 

 this great western world ? Never ! 



In the discussion President G. Stanley 

 Hall rather timidly advanced the sugges- 

 tion that if the Indian is met ' in a sympa- 

 thetic way' he might develop his own civi- 

 lization. As if our noble and active youth 

 had time to ' sympathize ' with the ' gray 

 barbarian,' when the manifest destiny of 

 the youth is to amass a fortune and live 

 abroad ! 



Independence and land in severalty form 

 the only honorable platform, and, as we 

 grant that to white, yellow and black citi- 



