High tides in geological history. 
In the review of the Geographisches jahrbuch for 
1882, published in Science, No. 54, the notice of the 
contribution of Dr. Zoppritz on the progress of terres- 
trial physics contains the following words : — 
‘In commenting on Professor George Darwin’s work on the 
effect of the tides upon the moon’s distance, and on Mr. Ball’s 
entertaining lecture, ‘ A glimpse through the corridors of time,’ 
on the same subject, the reviewer accepts Professor Newberry’s 
conclusion, that the moon must have already attained its actual 
distance from us when our oldest Cambrian and Silurian strata 
were deposited. This seems an unnecessary adherence to doc- 
trines of uniformity: for, in the spread of our paleozoic strata, 
there is evidence of much stronger submarine transportation than 
we now find; and even in Jurassic times there is a surprising 
area of cross-bedded sandstones in the region of the Colorado 
plateau.” 
Those who have followed the discussion in Nature, 
of the theory of ancient high tides proposed by Pro- 
fessor Ball as a lesson to geologists, will perhaps re- 
member that I declined to receive the lesson, and 
denied the existence of the imagined high tides, be- 
cause the geological record not only contains no traces 
of such tides, but, on the contrary, supplies abun- 
dant evidence that no such violent action accompanied 
the formation of the sedimentary rocks. In making 
this statement I was not constrained by any devotion 
to uniformitarianism, as the reviewer intimates, but 
based my conclusions upon an unbroken series of 
facts. ‘These facts prove that the accumulation of the 
paleozoic rocks took place in conditions essentially 
like those which prevail at present, and show conclu- 
sively that the statement, ‘‘ that in the spread of our 
paleozoic strata there is,evidence of much stronger 
submarine transportation than we now find,” is un- 
warranted. As that statement and those I have made 
are in direct conflict, and the question involved is an 
all-important one in the reading of geological history, 
I take the liberty of reviewing briefly the evidence on 
which my conclusions were based. 
In the Cambrian age were laid down, along the east- 
ern margins of our continent, the Acadian shales of 
New Brunswick, the Olenellus shales of Vermont, 
the shales and limestones of Troy, and the shales 
(now siliceous slates) of Braintree, Mass.,—all the 
products of quiet deposition. In the Mississippi val- 
ley the Cambrian strata are buried, and inaccessible 
to us. In the Lake Superior region the copper series 
was probably deposited in the Cambrian age, although 
demonstration of this has not been obtained. There 
volcanic disturbances and eruptions produced great 
activity in the agents which form mechanical sedi- 
ments, — conglomerates, sandstones, and shales; but 
this violence was all local, as we find no traces of 
it outside that area. In the far west the Cambrian 
rocks are well exposed in many places, and constitute 
twelve thousand feet of shales, with one stratum of 
limestone in the section of the Colorado Cafion, seven 
thousand feet in Nevada, and twelve thousand feet 
in the Wasatch, of sandstones, shales, and limestones, 
according as deposited under inshore, offshore, or 
open-sea conditions, but nowhere showing marks of 
more violent action than may be observed to-day. 
In the lower Silurian rocks we have the record of 
a great continental subsidence, or elevation of the 
ocean-level; the advance of the sea upon the land; 
and the spread of a sheet of sea-beach material — the 
Potsdam sandstone — as far as the invasion extended. 
But the Potsdam beach was precisely like the beaches 
of to-day, — ripple-marked, sun-cracked, bored by an- 
nelids, strewed with seaweeds, and abounding in the 
entire or broken shells of beach-inhabiting brachio- 
pods. Above this we have the organic deposits made 
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by the Silurian sea when it stood over the submerged 1 
territory, —a thousand feet or more of limestones. 
Then the Hudson River and Utica shales were laid 
down in the shallower waters of the retreating sea. 
Here we have a complete history of the physical 
conditions which prevailed during the formation of 
the lower Silurian rocks, but nowhere find any traces 
of the high tides of Professor Ball’s interesting but 
imaginative lecture. 
A similar round of deposits composed the upper 
Silurian, the Devonian, and the carboniferous sys- 
tems. Each group of rocks tells its own story so 
clearly that a child may comprehend it; and that story 
is not only without any high-tide episode, but is 
clearly and positively contradictory to the high-tide 
theory. ; 
Your reviewer cites no facts to sustain his state- 
ment, and therearenone. The cross-bedded mesozoic 
sandstones of the Colorado plateau have, of course, 
no bearing upon it, and they afford no support to 
the high-tide theory: they simply show that peculiar 
conditions prevailed in the triassic age over a limited 
area on the east side of the Wasatch, where a shallow 
sea was moved with strong currents, tidal or other- 
wise. On the west side of the land which separated 
this ancient Bay of Fundy from the Pacific, the tri- 
assic and Jurassic strata show no such violent action ; 
and the same may be said of other parts of the world. 
The records of the cretaceous age, which are the most 
complete and completely exposed to view of any, are 
the most conclusive in their demonstration of the ab- 
sence of violent and abnormal action in the processes 
of nature. 
I may also call the attention of your reviewer to 
the fact that Prof. G. H. Darwin, whose study of the 
physical structure and history of the system of Mars 
was the inspiration of Professor Ball’s lecture, de- 
clines to subscribe to his conclusions, and concedes 
that there is no evidence of abnormally high tides 
since the beginning of the paleozoic ages. 
J.S. NEWBERRY. 
The flora of Labrador. 
A contributor to No. 59 tells us that ‘‘I have en- 
deavored to show that we must look to the north for 
the place of origin of many of our plants,”’ and that 
he *‘ can see further reason for the assertion’’ in an 
analysis which he makes of a very incomplete list of 
the flora of Labrador. He further teaches us, — 
‘‘That many of these plants were at one time distributed all 
around the Arctic circle, there can be no doubt; and that they 
have been driven from their first homes by the excessive cold, 
and found suitable abiding-places at the south, must also be con- 
sidered as an established fact.” 
Now, Mr. Editor, is not all this so well established 
and so familiar as to render superfiuous the endeavor 
to show it in the form of a contribution to Science ?. 
Whatever may be said upon the question ‘where did 
life begin ?’ considered deductively, there is no longer 
any doubt as to where the vegetable life around us 
came from; nor does your contributor throw any new 
light upon the matter, in the column which he fills. 
BoTANICUS. 
How do the winds blow within the storm-disk? 
The following method of showing graphically and 
concisely the result of many observations on storm- 
winds may, on account of its simplicity, prove of value 
to students of meteorology. Synchronous observa- 
tions of winds charted on weather-maps for any single — 
epoch are generally too few and often too discordant 
to give a precise picture of the spiral course followed 
by the whirling air; and it is difficult to combine by 
[Von IIL., No. ‘et 
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