Personal and Scientific News. 405 
Jan., 1893), with my other and earlier studies of eskers in New Hamp- 
shire and other parts of New England and in Long Island, convince me 
that these remarkable ridges of modified drift were, in all the areas 
which I have studied, derived chiefly from englacial drift which had 
become superglacial, as on the Malaspina ice-sheet in Alaska, and that 
they were deposited in the canon-like lower courses of superglacial riv- 
ers. This indicates that the englacial drift, as shown by articles in the 
Am. Geologist for December, 1891, and December, 1892, and July, 1893, 
was of considerable amount in the Iowit part, perhaps for a fourth of 
tin' whole thickness, of the ice-sheet. Wakkeh Upham. 
Nov. 20th, m>Jt. 
An early Observation bearing on the History of the Great 
Lakes. The reading of Dr. J. TV. Spencer's "'Review of the History of 
the Great Lakes," in the American Geologist for November, recalled 
. an observation made in the last century by Alexander Henry. He was 
an English fur-trader, and in earning on his business with the Indians 
journeyed from Montreal to Michilimackinac in 1761. The route taken 
was the Ottawa and Mattawa rivers, lake Nipissing and its outlet, 
French river, to Georgian bay and lake Huron. An account of his trav- 
els was published in 1809. The following extract from it shows that he 
recognized the former presence of waters at a different level along what 
is now regarded as for a time an outlet of the three upper lakes: 
"Leaving the Indians, we proceeded to the mouth of the lake [Nipis- 
sing] at which is the carrying-place of La Chaudiere Francaise, a name 
part of which it has obtained from tin- holes in the rock over which we 
passed: and which holes, being of the kind which is known to be formed 
by water, with the assistance of pebbles, demonstrate that it has not 
always been dry, as at present it is: but the phenomenon is not peculiar 
to this spot, the same being observable at almost every carrying-plaoe 
on the Outaouais [Ottawa]. At the bight of a hundred feet above the 
river, I commonly found pebbles, worn into a round form, like those 
upon the beach below. Everywhere the water appears to have subsided 
from its ancient levels: and imagination may anticipate an era at which 
even the banks Of Newfoundland will be left bare.'"* E. .1. lln.t.. 
Chicago, X<>r. :.',. 1894. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
The Geological Society ok America will meet at Baltimore 
Thursday, Dec. 27, the assembly being in the geological labo- 
ratory of Johns Hopkins University. It is expected that 
Pres. D. C. G-ilman will welcome the society, and that Prof. 
W. B. Clark will read a memorial of Dr. George II. Williams. 
♦Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, between the yearfa 
1761 and 1776. By Alexander Henry, Esq. New York, 1^09. p. 31. 
