3l6 TJic A/ncrican Geologist. May, i898 
southern limit of tributary streams of any importance) would 
necessarily have been the same. It follows, therefore, that in 
the constricted outlets a considerably greater velocity, and 
consequently a greater slope, would have existed. 
In calculating the velocity and discharge from this stand- 
]:)oint, the portion of the bay south of Greenwich cove was 
divided into two sections; the northernmost, some seven miles 
long, comprising the open reaches of the bay lying between 
Greenwich cove and the northern end of Conanicut island ; 
and the southernmost, about eight miles long, comprising the 
Eastern and Western passages. The data, together with the 
calculated velocities and discharge, are given below : 
Upper Bay. 
W =35.000 A = 1,746,850. p = 70,520. 
s== 35 in. = .0005524 r = 24.77 ^' = ii-i8 
Discharge (approx.) = 19,525.000. 
Eastern Passage. 
W= 11,500 A=Q75,ioo. p=23,i72. 
s = 44.376 in. =.0007004 r = 42.o8 ^'=^15-53 
Discharge (approx.) = 15,143,000. 
Western Passage. 
W=g,6oo A = 402,750. p-= 19,344 
s = .0007004 r = 20.82 V = 10.88 
Discharge (approx. )= 4,382,000. 
The enormity of such a flood can only be appreciated by 
comparison. It would be equal to a stream having a dis- 
charge six times as great as the Amazon, thirty-two times as 
great as the Mississippi, 140 times that of the Nile, 190 times 
that of the Ganges, and from two to three times as great 
as the combined discharge of all the rivers of the earth at the 
present time. 
Ablation Dcjuandcd. — The impossibility of such a flood 
is clearly shown by the great amoimt of ablation which would 
be required to furnish the immense volumes of water de- 
manded by the theory. The conditions favorable to a con- 
centration of glacial drainage in Narragansett bay were no 
more favorable than at a dozen other points in New England, 
and the streams entering at this point could have comprised 
only a small part of the total numlier in the region in ques- 
