THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION AT BUFFALO 
315 
Western Australia. The colonial government is promoting legisla- 
tion authorizing a water supply for the gold fields, the extension of the 
raihvaj^ system, and the improvement of docks and harbors. The premier 
estimates a gold production of £7,000,000 per annum. 
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION AT BUFFALO 
The forty-fifth meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science was held at Buffalo, August 22-29. The attendance was 
rather small, partly on account of limited local interest, only thirteen 
Buffalonians being registered; yet in the number of investigators and 
teachers of renown the meeting ranked well, and in general excellence 
of the papers and discussions it was above the average, so that, despite 
unfavorable business conditions and prospects, the meeting was successful. 
Most of the contributions of interest to geographers were presented in 
Section E. One of these was an elaborate paper on the “ Development 
of the Physiography of California,” by J. Perrin Smith, in which succes- 
sive stages in the growth of mountains and shajiing of valleys along the 
Pacific slope were described and illustrated by landscapes and restorations. 
Todd presented “ A Revision of the Moraines of Minnesota,” in which 
these significant topographic features w'ere interpreted ; and I. C. White 
described and discussed the “Origin of the High Terrace Deposits of 
Monongahela River.” Of value to geographers, too, were Hovey’s papers 
on “ The IMaking of Mammoth Cave ” and “ The Colossal Cavern.” Under 
the title “ Sheetflood Erosion,” McGee defined the sheetflood as the logical 
correlative of the .stream, jiroduced under conditions of volume, declivity, 
and load tending to spread the flood over a wide belt instead of iiermit- 
ting it to converge, and exiilained tbe anomalous geographic features of 
southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico — rugged mountains 
rising sharply from smoothly-planed and lightly-veneered baselevels — as 
the product of sheetflood erosion, incidentally ])ointing out that the 
rounded summits and divides, as well as certain broad and shallow stream- 
ways in humid regions, represent similar agency. Collier Cobb’s “ Origin 
of Topographic Features in North Carolina,” and Gulliver’s “Post-Cre- 
taceous Grade-Plains in Southern New England ’’ dealt witli the land-foiins 
of the Piedmont ju’ovince and its New England extension ; Taylor’s 
“Notes on the Glacial Succession in Eastern Michigan” was largely a 
study of land-forms, while Spencer’s j>aper on “ The .Sloi)es of the Drowned 
Antillean Valleys” was a discussion of submarine toj)Ogra|)liy. 
Two features of the meeting were of special interest : One of the ses- 
sions of Section E was devoted to discussion of Niagara falls, with special 
reference to the origin of river and cataract, and to tlie reading of tliis 
most accurate of the geologic chronometers thus far known. To this 
session Gilbert contributed tliree remarkably clear and conci.se papers 
base<l on the season’s operations; Holley, Taylor, and Upham also made 
communications on the subject, the first two resting on extendeil field 
studies. Then, after the adjournment Friday evening, a day was devoted 
