CONTENTS 756 



Page 

 Barite deposits of Five Islands, Nova Scotia [abstract] ; by Charles H. 



Warren 780 



Fayalite in the granite of Rockport, Massachusetts [abstract] ; by Charles 



Palache 787 



Nelsouite, a new rock type: its occurrence, association, and composition 



[abstract] ; by Thomas L. Watson and Stephen Taber 787 



Regional devolatilization of coal [abstract] ; by David White 788 



Microscopic study of certain coals in relation to the sapropelic hypothesis 



[abstract] ; by E. C. Jeffrey 788 



Present and future of natural gas fields in the northern Appalachians 



[abstract] ; by F. G. Clapp 788 



POST-TERTIARY HISTORY OF THE LAKES OF ASIA MINOR AND SYRIA 

 BY ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON 



(Abstract) 



A study of the lakes of the Anatolian plateau and of Syria was one of the 

 chief objects of the Yale Expedition of 1909. The lakes fall naturally into five 

 groups, namely, normal fresli-water lakes with ordinary outlets, salt lakes of 

 the common type without outlets, karst lakes with underground outlets in 

 limestone regions, glacial lakes with no definite outlets, but kept fresh by 

 underground seepage, and crater lakes with similar indefinite outlets. In 

 Syria the number of lakes is small ; there are no glacial lakes, and the other 

 four tj^es are sharply differentiated. The most interesting problems are, first, 

 the part played by lava flows and deltaic deposits in the formation of lakes 

 Huleh and Galilee, and, second, the problematic former outlet of the Dead Sea 

 and the fluctuations to which this lake has been subject in post-Tertiary times. 

 In Anatolia the number of lakes is large and the various types merge into one 

 another. For instance, crater lakes are sometimes saline, normal lakes have 

 in some cases been drained by underground outlets, and salt lakes have in the 

 past overflowed and been fresh. A comparison of the ancient strands and 

 deposits of the lakes of both regions affords abundant data for the reconstruc- 

 tion of the varied climatic history of western Asia since the close of the Ter- 

 tiary era. 



Discussion 



Dr. F. P. Gulliver : I should like to ask Doctor Huntington if he found any 

 marked differences in the forms of his series of five shorelines, such that it 

 might be possible to distinguish each earlier from later formed shorelines. 

 Such distinctions of form would be helpful in determining the time since the 

 elevation of the land took place. With these five shorelines in Palestine and 

 Asia Minor so closely connected with historic data, it seems as if it would be 

 possible to make out a succession of forms resulting from weathering, stream 

 action, wind action, etcetera, since the several shorelines were formed. 



Prof. W. M. Davis : Is it necessary to suppose that the two lakes had ever 

 risen high enough to overflow the inclosing highlands, and thus begin the 



