318 
GEOLOGICAL CRITICISM 
The foregoing expressions, as you will see, are predicated on the as¬ 
sumption that the material of both papers is appropriate for publication 
by the Geological Society of America; and of course they would not be 
made if I did not incline rather strongly to that judgment. At the same 
time I am fully aware that while such is my judgment, it would not be the 
judgment of a considerable proportion of the geologists of the country 
most likely to be called upon for opinion, perhaps it might not even be the 
judgment of a majority of the Fellows of the Society. The great fact is 
that Doctor Keyes is in his papers occupying what is for this country at 
least a nearly novel viewpoint; and from that viewpoint he has brought 
together rather in a broad and general than in any special or conclusive 
way an assemblage of phenomena of which the greater part have either 
been interpreted otherwise or have not been interpreted at all. His con¬ 
cept of the development of western America, and especially of the Great 
Basin, is one of great boldness, and one involving decided originality de¬ 
spite the recent contributions of Hill, Cross, and others in this country, 
to say nothing of Walther and numerous other students in other coun¬ 
tries where the phenomena are seldom developed on anything like so grand 
a scale. Should Keyes’ views prove valid they will in no small way 
mark a newj stage in the growth of geology, a stage probably no less 
noteworthy than that marked, e.g., by glacial geology. Now it is in this 
light that it seems to me the papers should be viewed rather than in any 
narrow and technical one; and without committing myself as to the 
validity of his views I am unqualifiedly of opinion that a man of Doctor 
Keyes’s standing is entitled to the right of the tribunal. Then, when the 
question rises as to the tribunal, I find myself inclining strongly to the 
opinion that the Geological Society of America is par excellence the fitting 
one. Of course, if his interpretations do not stand the test of time there 
will be those who will feel that the Society somewhat lowered itself in 
publishing them; while on the other hand in case the views become cur¬ 
rent there will be those who will point with complacency, if not with 
pride, to their early exposition under the aegis of the Society—^ while in 
any event the Society will have to its credit a specific effort toward that 
promotion of knowledge which is one of its primary objects. Such are 
among the considerations leading to my judgment as to the propriety of 
publishing, whatsoever the future may bring forth. 
Having for a number of years given a good deal of attention to the 
geologic processes emphasized by Keyes (which for a half-generation I 
have been calling “eolation”) and having repeatedly worked in the arid 
region at intervals from 1881 until last year, I ought to have, and prob¬ 
ably have, about as definite convictions as anyone else concerning the 
validity of Keyes’s views. In this connection it is not needful to say more 
than this; on the one hand the prevailing notions as to the genesis of 
that area of half a million square miles which we may include in the 
Great Basin are so far from satisfactory as to cry aloud for revision or 
extension or some other mode of perfection; while on the other hand 
