lOO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 291 



came drained ; and Ontario remained at a lower level. The out- 

 let of this lake was south-east of Georgian Bay by way of the Trent 

 valley into Lake Ontario at about sixty miles west of the present 

 outlet of this lake. The waters of this upper lake were twenty-six 

 feet over this outlet into the Trent valley, and long continued to 

 flow through a channel from one to two miles wide ; and it has cut 

 across a drift ridge to a depth of five hundred feet, as the whole 

 area has been rising. With the continued continental uplift to the 

 north-east (which has raised the old beach at the outlet about 

 three hundred feet above the present surface of Lake Huron), the 

 waters were backed southward, and overflowed into the Michigan 

 basin and into the Erie, thus making the Erie outlet of the upper 

 lakes to be of recent date. This is proven by the fact that the 

 Georgian beach, which marked the old surface plain of the upper 

 great lake, descends to the present water-level at the southern end 

 of Lake Huron, and is beneath the surface of the water upon its 

 north-western side, as the uplift, which has been measured, was to 

 the north-east. 



The Erie basin is very shallow, and, upon the dismemberment of 

 Lake Warren, was drained by the newly constructed Niagara 

 River. Subsequently the north-eastward warping eventually lifted 

 up the rocky outlet, and formed Erie into a lake in recent times, 

 thus making it the youngest of all the lakes. 



Previous investigations have shown that there was a former river 

 draining the Erie basin, and flowing into the extreme western end 

 of Lake Ontario, and thence to the east of Oswego, but no further 

 traceable, as the lake-bottom rose to the north-east. Upon the 

 southern side there were a series of escarpments, some of which 

 are now submerged. By recent studies of the elevated beaches, it 

 is demonstrated that the disappearance of this valley is due to sub- 

 sequent warpings of the earth's crust, and that the valley of the St. 

 Lawrence was one with that of Lake Ontario. Recent discoveries 

 show that the ancient St. Lawrence, during the period of high con- 

 tinental elevation, rose in Lake Michigan, flowed across Lake 

 Huron and down Georgian Bay, and a drift filled the channel to 

 Lake Ontario, thence by the present water to the sea, receiving on 

 its way the ancient drainage of the Erie basin and other valleys. 



The Huron and Ontario basins are thus sections of the former 

 great St. Lawrence valley, which was bounded, especially upon the 

 southern side, by high and precipitous escarpments, some of which 

 are submerged. But upon their northern sides there are also lesser 

 vertical escarpments, now submerged, with walls facing the old 

 valley. The valley was excavated when the continent was at high 

 altitude, for the eastern portion stood at least two hundred feet 

 higher than at present, as shown by the channels in the lower St. 

 Lawrence, in Hudson Strait, and in the New York and Chesapeake 

 Bays. The valley was obstructed in part by drift, and in part by 

 a north and north-eastward differential elevation of the earth's sur- 

 face, due to internal movements. The measurable amount of 

 warping defied investigation until recently, but now it is measured 

 by the amount of uplift of beaches and sea-cliffs. Only one other 

 explanation of the origin of the basins has been given, — the 

 " erosion by glaciers." The foundation of this theory is that the 

 glaciers are considered (by some) to erode. A theory of this kind 

 was a necessity, so long as the terrestrial warping was not known. 

 Living glaciers, however, abrade but do not erode hard rocks ; 

 and both modern and extinct glaciers are known to have flowed 

 over even loose morasses and gravels. Again, even although 

 glaciers were capable of great ploughing action, they did not 

 affect the lake valleys, as the glaciation of the surface rocks 

 shows the movement to have been at angles (from 15" to 90°) to 

 the direction of the side of the vertical escarpments against which 

 the movement occurred ; also the vertical faces of the escarpments 

 are not smoothed off as are the faces of Alpine valleys, down 

 which glaciers have passed. Lastly, the warping of the earth's 

 surface in the lake region since the beach episode after the deposit 

 of the drift proper is sufficient to account for all rocky barriers 

 which may obstruct the basins. 



These papers were followed by an interesting discussion, in which 

 many prominent geologists took part. 



A considerable number of papers treated of phenomena similar 

 to those referred to in Mr. Spencer's papers, particular attention 

 being paid to the study of ancient river-beds. A study of wide 



scope was A. Winchell's report on systematic results of a field- 

 study of the archfean rocks of the North-west. It is not yet agreed 

 what main divisions of the archsean should be recognized, nor 

 whether any divisions exist in nature. The author's study in the 

 region north-west of Lake Superior showed that this region is 

 peculiarly adapted to the working-out of the order of succession of 

 the various formations. He discovered certain stratigraphic dis- 

 cordances which indicate that the archaic rocks embrace three 

 geological systems, which he designates as the equivalent to the 

 Huronian, the Marquettian, and the equivalent to the Laurentian. 

 Prof. J. S. Newberry reported on the oil-field of Colorado, while 

 E. Orton described recently discovered sources of oil and gas in 

 Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. We merely mention the interesting 

 paleontological papers by Professors Newberry and Ward. 



Mr. J. T. B. Ives exhibited one of his interesting geological 

 maps in the section, which consists of a series of colored pasteboards, 

 each representing a geological system. The most recent rocks 

 form the highest layer. Wherever they do not exist, the paste- 

 board is cut out ; and the deeper layers, which represent the more 

 ancient formations, are exposed to view, as they are on the earth's 

 surface. By this effective system the distribution of rocks is very 

 clearly shown. The only objection to such a map is, that those 

 regions which are highest in nature appear to be lowest on the 

 map. 



We turn with some reluctance from the proceedings of this sec- 

 tion, as so much that is of more than passing interest remains that 

 has not been mentioned in these brief remarks. 



While the meetings of Section F were not as good as in recent 

 years, those of the Section of Anthropology showed a marked 

 advance ; the number of papers handed in being more than suffi- 

 cient to secure a full programme, and their value being almost with- 

 out exception very high. The culminating point of the meetings of 

 this section was the discussion following Dr. Brinton's paper on 

 'The Alleged Mongolian Affinities of the American Race,' in 

 which Major J. W. Powell, Prof. Horatio Hale, Prof. Otis T. Mason, 

 and Prof. Frank Baker took part. Dr. Brinton gave a terse review of 

 the arguments advanced in favor of the theory of the unity of the 

 American and Mongolian races, and tried to refute them one by 

 one. The discussion turned very soon to the question of races and 

 the principles of classification. Major Powell upheld his fre- 

 quently expressed views, that language is the only means of classi- 

 fying peoples, although it also is imperfect. He rejected altogether 

 any division founded on physical characteristics found in the relative 

 proportions and in the peculiarities of the parts of the body, on the 

 ground that every attempt in this line has failed. Prof. Horatio 

 Hale agreed with Major Powell in that respect, that he also con- 

 sidered language the fundamental principle of classification. After 

 Frank Baker had defended the methods based on the physical 

 characteristics of peoples, Otis T. Mason was the first to make the 

 discussion clearer by separating the points of view, which had so 

 far been treated promiscuously, — the linguistic and the genealogical 

 standpoints, or, as Dr. Brinton formulated it later on, the historical 

 and genealogical standpoints. While the study of the former is 

 well advanced in North America, the importance of the latter has 

 hardly yet been fully recognized. The interesting discussion, the 

 salient features of which we have here recorded, will, it is hoped, 

 lead to an increased interest in the study of the physical character- 

 istics of the American race. 



Dr. Brinton read two papers more, which were as suggestive, 

 and excited as much interest, as the former. He reported on 

 ' Early Man in Spain,' and availed himself of this opportunity to 

 throw open to discussion the question of an early North Atlantic 

 connection between Europe and America, which was taken up by 

 Thomas Wilson. The second paper was on 'Traits of Primitive 

 Speech,' in which the author maintained that interchanging phonetic 

 elements is a characteristic of such languages, and in which he 

 concurred with C. Abel's theory of a root having the meaning of a 

 certain idea, and of its negation at the same time. Unfortunately 

 the limited time at the disposal of the section did not permit this 

 suggestive paper to be adequately discussed. The basis of the 

 inquiry was one that ought to be kept in mind by all philologists. 

 He maintained that when inquiring into the origin of language we 

 ought to know whether there is any language that can claim to be 



