Iiapidit(j of Weatheriini in Arctic Latitudes. — Tarr. 131 
Now, a few words, as brief as possible, on the status of the 
Geological Survey of New York, and the United States Geo- 
logical Surve}''. After more than fifty years of opposition to 
the acceptance of the Taconic system, the adversaries of that 
system have conceded that one-third of the portion of the map 
colored by Dr. Emmons as Taconic, is truly of that age, or, 
according to their nomenclature, is Georgian and Cambrian. 
It is certainly a progress. Only, at that rate, it will take one 
hundred years more for the adversaries of the Taconic system 
before they will accept the whole system. And we shall have 
the unique case in historic geology of a great period, first 
blotted out from existence, and then, little by little, creeping 
along at the most painful and incredibly slow pace, until af- 
ter a lapse of a century and a half, we shall find our knowl- 
edge of the primordial system of eastern New York and 
western Massachusetts just at the same point where its dis- 
coverer. Dr. Ebenezer Emmons, placed it in 1844. What a 
slow progress! entirely due to the opponents and persistent 
adversaries of the Taconic sj^stem. 
Cambridge, 3fass., December, 1896. 
RAPIDITY OF WEATHERING AND STREAM ERO- 
SION IN THE ARCTIC LATITUDES. 
By K. S. Taek, Ithaca, N. \. 
[Plate VI.] 
Weatheriuf/. Evidence that Baffin land and parts of Green- 
land have been recently glaciated is found on every hand. In 
the case of that part of Greenland especially studied by the 
Cornell party last summer,* it was found that the ice is still 
withdrawing from the land, and that some sections have been 
uncovered so recently that vegetation has not yet begun to 
cover the rock and the morainal soil. Very nearly the same 
remark holds for one of the nunataks located about seven 
miles from the land. On this, although many forms of plants 
have found a home, the heavy-seeded varieties have not yet 
begun to grow, except in a very few widely scattered colonies. 
Notwithstanding the recency of this ice covering, the weath- 
ering during the brief post-glacial time has been sufficient to 
*In coDnection with the expedition organized by Lieut. R. E. Pearv. 
