Correspondence. 45 
plateau and its faults. He also described the appearance of the great 
basin of "Lake Bonneville." 
Remarks on foreign localities visited during the summer, were 
made by Prof. J. J. Stevenson and Dr. E. O. Hovey. 
Theodore G. White, 
Secretary. 
A Single Occurrence of Glaciation in Siberia. During three sea- 
sons' professional work in Siberia I have been constantly on the out- 
look for signs of glaciation. It seems almost an anomaly that in a 
country covered for fully half the year with snow and ice, there 
should be found no glacial remains. Yet such is the case, in the great 
majority of instances. In European Russia, north of latitude 63 de- 
grees, glacial drift, moraines and drumlins, have been found by the 
Russian geologists, as indicated on their maps, although specific ref- 
erences to their discoveries are rare. So far as is known the glacial 
indications do not extend over into the great northern plain of Si- 
beria. The numerous lakes scattered throughout, not only the Ural, 
but the whole of west and central Siberia have been sometimes 
referred to as of glacial origin. A little close observation of these 
bodies of water is, however, sufficient to convince anyone that their 
origin is due to a different cause. 
In the Steppe region, lying to the south of the Trans-Siberian 
railway, and extending from the Ural eastward for many thousand 
miles, until it merges with the Great Gobi desert, there are numer- 
ous topographic features, which would, by a hasty observer, be laid 
to glacial origin. Small mound-like hills, frequently beautiful in 
their dome-like symmetry, lie scattered over the treeless undulating 
plain. I have been led a mile or more off my route, by a desire to 
examine closely such occurrences. In every case they have proved to 
be merely curious forms assumed by the rock itself in process of 
erosion. In this same region of the Steppe, the presence of numerous 
lakes helps to bear out the deception, but when it is found that these 
are merely the remnants of former and greater lakes, many of them 
being salt at the present day, and that they have not been dammed, 
but merely occupy depressions in the gently rolling prairie, the 
glacial supposition must of course be abandoned. The Caspian is the 
most tremendous example of this kind, then come the Aral sea and 
the Balkash lake. In the case of lake Sheero, 200 miles to the west 
of Minnisinsk, I noted, surrounding it successively, at various bights 
up to 75 feet, rings or old shore-benches, each marking a stage of the 
lake's history. So gradual are the slopes in the Steppe that the last 
and highest of these rings was at least three miles away from the 
present water's edge. 
In a valley of the Altai mountains, on the head waters of the Tom 
river, there was a most remarkable case of pseudo-glacial topography. 
While riding up the center of the valley, I saw, making off from the 
steep side of the mountain, what appeared to be a glacial esker. It 
was perhap? 500 ft. long, 40 ft. in bight, with a width of 60 ft. and 
