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IV. MISCELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

1. The Life of Richard Oven; by his grandson the Rev. RICHARD OWEN, M.A. with the scientific portion revised by C. Davies Sherborn, also an essay on Owen's position in Anatomical Science by the Right Hon. T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. Portraits and illustrations. In two volumes, pp. 409 and 393. (London, John Murray; New York, D. Appleton & Co.). 1894-This is a remarkably interesting and vivid sketch of the life and experiences of one of the inost eminent of English men of science told mainly through extracts of private letters to his mother and sisters and the journals of his wife. Owen's published writings--639 titles given in the bibliographic list at the end of the book-show the scientific side of the man and his immense industry, but these private records exhibit the social side of his life, tell of the men he met, the journeys he took, the modes of his work, the honors showered upon him, and, not least interesting, the many sources from which came the anatomical treasures he described; the Dinornis bones from New Zealand, the Mylodon from South America, Dicynodon skull from South Africa, sent by Prince Alfred, and everything rare and uncanny, as the "adder with two hind legs" from Charles Kingsley, from every part of the earth where Englishmen wandered. We see him dissecting the defunct criminals who perished in Lancaster Jaol, describing the Hunterian collections and lecturing at the College of Surgeons, reading papers at the British Association and in various learned societies, or at the Royal Institution, or to the young princes and princesses at Buckingham palace.

We find him chatting with Carlyle, Tennyson, or Dickens, or Ruskin, on art, music and Shakespeare, serving as an active member of the Commission of Inquiry into the health of towns, which leads him all over the kingdom examining slaughter houses and fish ponds, etc., or discussing with Gladstone or Lord Russell the plans for the British Museum, or dining at the club with Lord Macaulay, Duke of Argyle, Dean Milman, Whewell, or again with Sir R. Inglis, Chev. Bunsen, Mr. Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawah, and others, or traveling up the Nile with the Prince and Princess of Wales, Sir Samuel Baker, the Duke of Sutherland, the Bishop of Bombay, and his Excellency Nubar Pacha, or unbending and singing songs at the jovial meetings of the "Red Lions" of the British Association.

All the story is so directly told that we seem to see the genial, ever busy but always cheerful companion of his many friends as he goes about accomplishing the great work of his life.

The book closes with an account of Owen's position in the history of Anatomical Science, written by Mr. Huxley, who, though often differing with him on scientific theories, speaks with knowledge and appreciation of his great contributions to their favorite

science.

H. S. W.

2. The Life and Writings of Rafinesque; by RICHARD E. CALL. Filson Club Publications, No. 10. Read at the Filson Club meet

ng, at Louisville, of April 2, 1894. 228 pp., 4to, with portraits and other illustrations. Louisville, Ky., 1895.--The name of Rafinesque, has, in this sumptuous volume and the kindly sketch of Dr. Call, all the generous treatment and honor that the eccentric naturalist could have reasonably desired. The many puzzling problems which Rafinesque left behind him in consequence of his eagerness and keenness of eye in noting distinctions, but hasty work in naming and describing genera and species, thereby duplicating names already accepted, and multiplying names with imperfect descriptions, or with no descriptions at all, have given much labor to those who would do him justice, and led some to question whether the study of any part of his scientific papers is not time lost. Dr. Call gives a lifelike picture of the enthusiastic naturalist and a judicious account of his work; and while admitting that part of the latter is peculiarly bad, rightly claims that what is good should be accepted. The volume closes with a carefully prepared bibliography. This Journal contains some of Rafinesque's earlier papers in its first volume, and an excellent biographic sketch and review of his botanical work by Dr. Gray, in volume xl, p. 221, 1841.

3. The Mineral Collector.-With the February number, this periodical has concluded its first volume. It is devoted to "the interests of the collector, student, dealer and miner of mineral specimens" and contains much both in articles and informal notes that is of interest and value to those mentioned and hence deserves their support. It has been through the past year under the editorship of Albert C. Bates and Arthur Chamberlain; and the ensuing year Mr. Chamberlain will take charge alone. The subscription price is one dollar per year (editorial address, 26 John St., New York City).

4. Geological Society of London.-The Bigsby medal has been presented by the Geological Society of London to Mr. Charles D. Walcott, Director of the U. S. Geological Survey.

5. Geological Survey of Canada.-Dr. George M. Dawson has been recently made Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, in place of Dr. A. R. C. Selwyn, who has retired at an advanced

age.

OBITUARY.

PROFESSOR ARTHUR CAYLEY, F.R.S., the eminent mathematician of Cambridge, England, died January 26 in his seventyfourth year.

DR. F. BUCHANAN WHITE, distinguished for his labors in entomology and botany, died at Perth, Scotland, December 3d. DR. MURRAY THOMSON, Professor of Experimental Science at Roorkee, India, died January 13th in his sixty-first year.

DR. KARL VON HAUSHOFER, Professor of Mineralogy at Munich, died early in January.

THE

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE

[THIRD SERIES.]

ART. XXI.-Niagara and the Great Lakes; by FRANK BURSLEY TAYLOR.

Introduction.

IN the recent papers of Professor J. W. Spencer* and Mr. Warren Upham the post-glacial history of the Great Lakes has been ably told according to two very different ideas of the cause of Pleistocene change. Prof. Spencer on the one hand levels all the higher abandoned beaches with the sea, and does not distinctly recognize a single ice-dammed lake. Mr. Upham, on the other hand, ascribes nearly all submergence to ice-dammed lakes, and admits none as marine except that which is proved by fossils. As often happens in such cases, the probability is that the truth lies between these wide extremes. Ice dams have played an important part, but not to the exclusion of marine submergence even at high levels. On the other hand, marine invasion is not available as an explanation for some of the most important areas of submergence.

The St. Lawrence river and the Great Lakes with their connecting channels are really all one stream. The lakes are great reservoirs which feed the rivers below them, and because they derive nearly all their supply from the lakes the rivers

*The Duration of Niagara Falls," by J. W. Spencer, this Journal, Dec., 1894; "A Review of the History of the Great Lakes," Am. Geol., vol. xiv, Nov., 1894.

"Late Glacial or Champlain Subsidence and Reëlevation of the St. Lawrence River Basin," by Warren Upham, this Journal, Jan., 1895; Twenty-second Ann. Rep't Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Minn., Part III, pp. 54-66; "Departure of the Ice-Sheet from the Laurentian Lakes," Bull. G. S. A., vol. vi, 1894. AM. JOUR. SCI.-THIRD SERIES, VOL. XLIX, No. 292.-APRIL, 1895.

themselves have almost no independent existence. If anything happens to the lakes to turn their discharge in some other direction the rivers go nearly or entirely dry. Niagara is one of these rivers, and its history is inseparable from that of the lakes above it. Prof. Spencer has described the salient features of the Niagara gorge, and has also given many important facts bearing on the lake history. But certain facts which he does not take into account indicate a somewhat different lake history, and in consequence a different Niagara history also. The lake history is recorded in the larger characters, and it seems best therefore to study it first. Reference will be made in the following pages to six papers in which the writer's observations on the abandoned shore lines

of the upper lakes are recorded.* Another paper discussing the latest chapter in the history of the Great Lakes also belongs to this series. It is entitled, "The Second Lake Algonquin." It precedes this paper in order, and relates to the lake stages following next after those discussed here. These two papers together cover, in a preliminary way, the whole period from the final disappearance of the great Laurentide glacier down to the present time. But they do not include, except by incidental reference, the period of the glacial recession with its lakes. The map which accompanies this paper is designed to show within its limits the probable distribution of land at the maximum of marine submergence, and also the extent of that part of the first Lake Algonquin of which shore lines still remain.

The Three Principal Beaches.

After the glacial recession the three principal critical stages in the recent history of the upper Great Lakes are marked by three great abandoned beaches. Two of these are lake beaches and one is marine. The lake beaches mark the highest stages of two independent epochs of Lake Algonquin, which had an outlet on each occasion eastward across the Nipissing pass at North Bay, Ontario. One epoch of this lake existed before the marine invasion and the other after. The latest one I have called the second Lake Algonquin, and its highest shore

1. "Highest Old Shore Line on Mackinae Island," this Jour., III, vol. xliii, March, 1892; 2. "The Ancient Strait at Nipissing," Bull. G. S. A., vol. v, 1893; 3. "A Reconnaissance of the Abandoned Shore Lines of Green Bay," Am. Geol., vol. xiii, May, 1894; 4. "A Reconnaissance of the Abandoned Shore Lines of the South Coast of Lake Superior," Am. Geol., vol. xiii, June, 1894; 5. The Limit of Postglacial Submergence in the Highlands East of Georgian Bay," Am. Geol., vol. xiv, Nov., 1894; 6. "The Munuscong Islands," Am. Geol., vol. xv, Jan, 1895. These papers will be referred to hereafter by number.

Am. Geol, vol. xv, Feb. and March, 1895.

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