appendix: keview and critique 481 



Provence, with which de Martonne is acquainted, it appears that there is 

 in this region, as in Algeria, a very constant littoral terrace at 15 meters, 

 visible on all the promontories, which he attributes to marine abrasion : 

 also that shore deposits have been found in place there. There are also 

 indications of higher levels, but these are not very clear. According to 

 de Martonne, the terraces of the valley of the Eh one and that of the 

 Durance are more numerous than de Lamothe and Deperet say, and are 

 manifestly influenced by glaciers ; but it is not true, as Penck says and as 

 de Martonne states that he himself has believed at times, that they all 

 join downstream. There are, particularly near the delta of the Rhone, 

 some very high terraces. De Martonne has not personally studied the 

 famous grotto of Baousse Pousse near Monaco, where there are human 

 remains, but he has confidence in Boule's very searching monograph, the 

 conclusions of which are favorable to displacements of the sealevel. 



(18) De Martonne sums up as follows: We can not deny modifica- 

 tions of sealevel since Pliocene time, but they may be attributable to 

 earth movements (diastrophic), not only regressive but transgressive ; 

 nor are these earth movements limited to sea-bottoms. The result is that 

 we can not find everywhere shorelines at the same levels. There is, with- 

 out doubt, much to- accept and much to abandon in the argument 

 advanced in favor of the eustatic theory, but the observations are too 

 numerous not to make a strong impression. We must remain capable 

 of giving fair consideration to earth movements (diastrophism) and to 

 changes in sealevel due to the accumulation and the melting of glaciers. 



(19) Professor Johnson doubts whether the eustatic theory of a rise 

 and fall of sealevel, advocated by de Lamothe and supported in part by 

 Deperet and G-ignoux, can adequately explain the elevated marine shore- 

 lines, marine terraces, and river terraces, attributed to the Pliocene and 

 Pleistocene periods, occurring at successive elevations on the shores of 

 the Mediterranean and Atlantic and along the rivers of Europe and 

 northwestern Africa. His own observations in America and Europe do 

 not indicate the existence of a fairly definite series of marine terraces 

 and river terraces, at more or less uniform elevations above the present 

 sealevel and present river channels, either on the shores of the Atlantic 

 or in parts of the Mediterranean seen by him; and he accordingly 

 believes, with the majority of geologists, that differential movements of 

 the land, together with the normal degrading of alluvium-filled valleys, 

 better account for the observed facts. [Johnson inclines rather to the 

 diastrophic theory. It appears from the above resume of opinion that 

 the new classification of the Quaternary proposed by Deperet is being 



