136 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 526. 



Professor A. P. Brigham, of Colgate Uni- 

 versity, with a paper on 'Early Interpre- 

 tations of the Physiography of New York 

 State,' in which were recounted some of 

 the views expressed concerning physical 

 features of the empire state in the early 

 decades of the nineteenth century, and the 

 years preceding. Among the travelers who 

 placed themselves on record was Timothy 

 Dwight, president of Yale College. He 

 and others discussed the origin and retreat 

 of Niagara Falls in ways that forcibly sug- 

 gest views held to-day. In observing the 

 waters of the Great Lakes and their con- 

 necting streams, the tendency toward grade 

 and the base-level was recognized, though 

 not of course in the terms or with the full 

 consequences of modern doctrines. The 

 gorge of the highlands, the deposits in the 

 Hudson valley, and the features of Little 

 Falls, received much notice, and the older 

 writers were quite familiar with the ex- 

 tension of Lake Ontario which we now call 

 Lake Iroquois. On the whole the proph- 

 ecies of modern views are numerous and 

 full of interest. 



In a paper on 'The Menace to the En- 

 trance of New York Harbor,' Professor 

 Lewis M. Haupt discussed the projects 

 which have been and are now being carried 

 on by the general government for improv- 

 ing the channels of the Lower Bay. Up 

 to 1886, the ruling depth on the bar was 

 23.3 feet at mean low water, which per- 

 mitted the passage at high water of a vessel 

 drawing 27 feet. At the meeting of the 

 American Association at Buffalo in the sum- 

 mer of that year (1886), Professor Haupt 

 read a paper on the method of improving 

 this entrance by natural forces, but the 

 government concluded, notwithstanding 

 the unanimous report of one of its boards 

 of engineers, to resort to dredging to create 

 a 30-foot channel, 1,000 foet wide, which 

 has been secured and maintained after the 

 removal, up to October, 1891, of 4,875,079 



cubic yards at a cost to date of $1,967,- 

 111.82. These depths not meeting the re- 

 quirements of the port, facilities are now 

 being increased by the opening of the Am- 

 brose channel, seven miles in length, cross- 

 ing the central part of the bar, by dredging 

 therefrom 42,500,000 cubic yards, provided 

 it shall not cost more than .$4,000,000, or 

 less than ten cents per yard. 



By means of charts covering a period of 

 125 years, it was shown that the inlet to 

 Jamaica Bay has moved westwardly seven 

 miles in that time and that the deposits 

 which were for-merly arrested in that bay 

 have now drifted past and are rapidly ap- 

 proaching the outer scarp of the New York 

 bar. This one bank of sand contains some 

 65,000,000 cubic yards, while, on the other 

 flank, the spit at Sandy Hook has advanced 

 about a mile and is now moving into the 

 bay, where it deposits a half million yards 

 on the point every year, to say nothing of 

 the sand held in suspension and which has 

 been removed by dredging. The great 

 quantities of drift thus advancing steadily 

 into the entrance are becoming a serious 

 menace to the harbor. 



The remedy which Professor Haupt pro- 

 poses consists of a single reaction training 

 wall extending along the southerly side of 

 the Ambrose channel to concentrate the ebb 

 currents and the arresting of the littoral 

 drift which will so soon convert Coney 

 Island and Manhattan Beach into interior 

 lagoons. The cost of this work would be 

 less than one half of the present contract 

 which guarantees no channel, as it is filling 

 up even where dredged far below the 

 requisite depths. 



Dr. J. W. Spencer, of Washington. D. C, 

 submitted a communication on 'The Sub- 

 marine Great Caiion of the Hudson River,' 

 in which he collated the results of sound- 

 ings which have been made during a period 

 of more than a century, but especially 

 those of the last forty years. Professor 



