CONCEALED MEANING IN VARIOUS TERMS ll9 



degrees to the east — notched by many revived consequent valleys — along 

 the eastern mountain border, in which the later peneplain is seen in the 

 lofty, gently inclined and maturely dissected highland of the mountainous 

 area, interrupted here and there by strong monadnocks, rising singly or 

 in groups, with strongly glaciated forms in the higher valley heads, and 

 in which the covering strata are as a whole so weak that they are now 

 worn down to a third peneplain of faint relief far and wide to the east of 

 the mountain base, except that a resistant member near the base of the 

 covering strata stands up, parallel to the mountain base, as a subsequent 

 ridge inclosing a piedmont subsequent valley. 



It would be interesting again to meet some of the geologists who 

 claimed for geology the account of the Front Range, as given a year ago 

 and here reproduced at the opening of this address, and to ask them 

 whether they would claim for geology also the account of the range just 

 now given as a morvan. The two accounts are unlike in certain respects : 

 the second one is shorter than the first, because the mere introduction of 

 the significant term morvan implies the occurrence of a number of fea- 

 tures that had to be explicitly explained in the first account, and the first 

 account contains several verbs in the past tense, while all the verbs in the 

 second account are in the present tense. But in spite of these differences 

 of length and tense, the two accounts are essentially alike, and to my 

 understanding of the case, if the second account belongs to geography, 

 then both the accounts belong there. 



CONCEALED GEOLOGICAL MEANING IN VARIOUS GEOGRAPHICAL TERMS 



The most important difference between the two accounts is evidently 

 the lack of the explanatory term morvan in the first and its introduction 

 in the second. The meaning of the term must of course be studied 

 beforehand by any one who wishes easily to understand the second ac- 

 count, and such study manifestly involves a certain familiarity with 

 geology; but this does not warrant the transfer of the account from 

 geography to another science. Likewise the meaning of such a term as 

 eleolite-syenite must of course be studied beforehand by any one who 

 hopes to understand a description in which that term is found, and such 

 study manifestly involves a certain knowledge of chemistry and physics ; 

 but this does not require the exclusion of such a description from geology. 



It is the same with delta, volcano, mature river, and dissected pene- 

 plain. Descriptions in which these terms occur can not be understood 

 without previous study of their meaning, and their meaning inevitably 

 involves a consideration of past conditions and processes ; nevertheless the 

 terms stand and deserve to remain within the domain of geography. 



