BOOKS RECEIVED. Description d un Jeune Individu de la Dermatemys Mawii espece Americaine de la famille des Elodites. Par. M. Alf. Preudhomme de Borre. Brussells, 1869. 8vo. pp. 7. Description d une nouvelle espece Americaine du genre Caiman Alligator. Par. M. Alf. Preudhomme de Borre. Brussells, 1869. 8vo. pp. 8. Bulletin de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles. Neuchatel, Switzerland. Tom. iv-viii, 185569. 8vo. Annales Academici, 1816-65. Leiden. 42 vols. 4to. [1867. 8vo. Torslag til en Forandret Ordning af det hoiere Skoleraesen. Del. 1-3. 8vo. Christiania, Le Glacier de Boium en Juillet, 1868. Par S. A. Sexe. Christiania, 1869. 4to. pp. 40. En Anatomisk Beskrivelse af de paa. Over og Underextremiteterne forekommede. Bursa Mucose. A. S. D. Synnestvedt. Udgivet ved Dr. J. Voss. Christiania, 1869. 4to. pp. $8. The Mammals of Iowa, By J. A. Allen. [From Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. xiii, Dec. 1869.) Notes on the Rarer Birds of Massachusetts. By J. A. Allen. [From Am. Nat., Vol. iii.] Contributions to the Natural History of Nova Scotia, Part 1, Coleoptera, By J. Matthew Jones. [From the Trans. N. S. Inst. Nat. Sci., 1870.J Abstract of Some Remarks on the Relations of the Rocks in the vicinity of Boston. By N. S. Shaler. [From Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xiii, Dec., 1869.] Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science. Vol. ii, Pt. 3. 1868-9. 8vo. Halifax, 1870. The West Coast Fresh-water Univalves, No. 1. By J. G. Cooper. [From Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., iv. Feb., 1870.] The Fauna of California and its Geographical Distribution. By J. G. Cooper. [From Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., iv, Feb. 1870.J Contributions to Zoology from Museum of Yale College. No. 6. Descriptions of Shells from Gulf of California. By A. E. Verrill. [From Am, Jour. Sci. and Arts, Mch., 1870.] Transactions of the American Entomological Society. Vol. ii, No. 4. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, No. 3. Aug.-Nov., 1869. The Arts, Vol. 1, No. 1, March, 1870. Chicago. J. M. Hersh & Co. $1.00 a year. The Game Birds of America. By D. Darwin Hughes. (Contained in several numbers of the "Detroit Free Press" for Feb, and following.) Address of the President of the Peabody Institute to the Board of Trustees on the Organization and Government of the Institute. Feb. 12. 1870. Baltimore. Third Biennial Report of Trustees of Iowa Agricultural College. Des Moines, 1870. Annual Report of Adjutant General of Maryland for 1869. Fourth Report of the Massachusetts Commissioners of Fisheries for the year 1869. Boston, 1870, Catalogue of Officers and Students of University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, 1870. Circular and Catalogue of Union College. Albany. 1870. Meteorological Observations for 1869 at Iowa City. By T. S. Parvin. Prairie Farmer Annual (No. 3. 30 cts.) Chicago. Monthly Report of Department of Agriculture for Jan., 1870. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. New York. Nos. 1, 2, 3, Jan., Feb., March, 1870. Svo. 4 pages each. ($1.00 a year. W. H. Leggett, 224 E. 10th St., N. Y.) Bowdoin Scientific Review. Nos. 1, 2, 3, Feb., March, April, 1870. 8vo, pp. 16. (Fortnightly, $2.00 a year. Professors Brackett and Goodale, Brunswick, Me.) The Academy. Nos. 5, 6, 7, Feb.. March, April. London. Scientific Opinion. Nos. 66-72, Feb., March. London. Nature, Nos. 1-9. Nov., Dec., 1869; Feb. 10, 17; Mch. 3, 10, 17, 1870. London. McMillan & Co. The Field. June, 1869, to March 5, 12, 19, 24, April 2. 1870. London. Land and Water. Jan. 15, 22, 29, Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26. London. Petites Novelles Entomologiques. Nos. 16, 17. Feb., March Paris. Le Naturaliste Canadien. i, Nos. 3, 4. Feb., March. Quebec. Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale d'Acclimation. vi, No. 12. Dec., 1869. vii. No. 1, Jan., 1870. Paris. Notes on the Later Extinct Floras of North America with descriptions of New Species of Cretaceous and Tertiary Plants. By J. S. Newberry, (From Ann. Lyc. N. Y. ix, 1868.) Verhandlungen der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt. Vols. for 1867 and 1865, and Nos. 1-13 of 1869. Wien. Large 8vo. Jahrbuch der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt. Vols. for 1867 and 1868, and Nos. 1, 2, 3, of 1869. Wien. Large Svo. Jahresbericht der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Emden. 1868. 12mo. Science Gossip. March, April. London. How Crops Feed: a Treatise on the Atmosphere and the Soil as related to the Nutrition of Agricultural Plants. With illustrations. By S. W. Johnson (Professor in Sheffield Scientific School). New York. Orange Judd & Co. 12mo, pp. 375. 1870. Naturalist's Note Book. March, 1870. New Series. London. Bemrose and Sons. On the Graphite of the Laurentian of Canada. By J. W. Dawson. [From the Proceedings of the Geological Society. London, 1869.] Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Vol. iv, No. 4. Dec., 1869. Montreal. The Canadian Entomologist. Vol. ii. Nos. 5, 6. March, April. Toronto. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York. Vol. 9, No. 9. March, 1870. Second List of Birds collected at Conchtas. Argentine Republic. By Wm. Hudson. With Notes upon another Collection from the same Locality. By P. L. Sclater and Osbert Salvin. [From Proceedings Zoological Society. London. March, 1869.] The Annals of Iowa. By the State Historical Soc. Jan., 1870. 8vo. (quarterly). Iowa City. Notice of Fossil Birds from the Cretaceous and Tertiary Formations of the United States. By O. C. Marsh. [From the American Journal of Science and Arts. March, 1870.] Notes on Harper's Willson's Readers. By S. S. Haldemann. 1870. 12mo, pamph. American Entomologist. March, 1870. THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. Vol. IV.-JUNE, 1870.—No. 4. THE SURFACE GEOLOGY OF THE BASIN OF THE GREAT LAKES AND THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. BY PROFESSOR J. S. NEWBERRY. THE area bounded on the north by the Eozoic highlands of Canada, on the east by the Adirondacks and the Alleghanies, and on the west by the Rocky Mountains, though now, and apparently always, drained by two systems of watercourses, may be properly considered as one topographical district; since much of the water-shed which separates its two river systems is of insignificant height, is composed of unconsolidated "Drift" materials, has shifted its position hundreds of miles, as the water level in the great lakes has varied, and was for a long interval submerged beneath a water connection uniting both drainage systems in one. In this great hydrographic basin the surface geology presents a series of phenomena of which the details, carefully studied in but few localities, still offer an interesting and almost inexhaustible subject of investigation, but which, as it seems to me, are already sufficiently well known to enable us to write at least the generalities of the history which they record. The most important facts which the study of the "Drift Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. phenomena" of this region have brought to light are briefly as follows: 1st. In the northern half of this area down to the paral·lels of 38°-40°, we find, not everywhere, but in most localities where the nature of the underlying rocks is such as to retain inscriptions made upon them, the upper surface of these rocks planed, furrowed or excavated in a peculiar and striking manner, evidently by the action of one great denuding agent. No one who has seen glaciers and noticed the effect they produce on the rocks over which they move, upon examining good exposures of the markings to which I have referred, will fail to pronounce them the tracks of glaciers.* Though having a general north-south direction, locally the glacial furrows have very different bearings, conforming in a rude way to the present topography, and following the directions of the great lines of drainage. On certain uplands, like those of the Wisconsin lead region, no glacial furrows have been observed (Whitney), but on most of the highlands, and in all the lowlands and great valleys, they are distinctly discernible if the underlying rock has retained them. 2d. Some of the valleys and channels which bear the marks of glacial action-evidently formed or modified by ice, and dating from the ice period or an earlier epoch-are excavated far below the present lakes and water-courses which Occupy them. These valleys form a connected system of drainage, at a lower level than the present river system, and lower than could be produced without a continental elevation of several hundred feet. A few examples will suffice to show on what evidence this assertion is based. *From my own observations on the action of glaciers on rock surfaces in the Alps and in Oregon and Washington Territory, I do not hesitate to assert that no other agent could have produced such effects. A different view is taken of this subject, it is true, but only by those who either have never seen a glacier or have never seen the markings in question. The track of a glacier is as unmistakable as that of a man or a bear. Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario are basins excavated in undisturbed sedimentary rocks. Of these Lake Michigan is six hundred feet deep, with a surface level of five hundred and seventy-eight feet above tides; Lake Huron is five hundred feet deep, with a surface level of five hundred and seventy-four feet; Lake Erie is two hundred and four feet deep, with a surface level of five hundred and sixty-five feet; Lake Ontario is four hundred and fifty feet deep, with a surface level of two hundred and thirty-four feet above the sea. An old, excavated, now-filled channel connects Lake Erie and Lake Huron. At Detroit the rock surface is one hundred and thirty feet below the city. In the oil region of Bothwell, etc., from fifty to two hundred feet of clay overlie the rock. What the greatest depth of this channel is, is not known. An excavated trough runs south from Lake Michiganfilled with clay, sand, tree trunks, etc.-penetrated at Bloomington, Illinois, to the depth of two hundred and thirty feet. The rock bottoms of the troughs of the Mississippi and Missouri, near their junction or below, have never been reached, but they are many feet, perhaps some hundreds, beneath the present stream-beds. The borings for oil in the valleys of the Western rivers have enabled me not only to demonstrate the existence of deeply buried channels of excavation, but in many cases to map them out. Oil Creek flows from seventy-five to one hundred feet above its old channel, and that channel had sometimes vertical and even overhanging cliffs. The Beaver, at the junction of the Mahoning and Shenango, runs one hundred and fifty feet above the bottom of its old trough. The Ohio throughout its entire course runs in a valley which has been cut nowhere less than one hundred and fifty feet below the present river. The Cuyahoga enters Lake Erie at Cleveland, more than one hundred feet above the rock bottom of its excavated trough. The Chagrin, Vermilion, and other streams running into Lake Erie exhibit the same phenomena, and prove that the surface level of the lake must have once been at least one hundred feet lower than now. The bottom of the excavated channel in which Onondaga Lake is situated, and the Salina salt-wells bored, is at least four hundred and fourteen feet below the surface level of the lake and fifty feet below the sea level. New York State Agricultural Society, 1859.) (Geddes, Trans. The old channel of the Genesee River at Portage, described by Professor Hall in the Geology of the Fourth District of New York; the trough of the Hudson, traceable on the sea bottom nearly one hundred miles from the present river mouth; the deeply buried bed of the Lower Mississippi, are additional examples of the same kind; while the depth to which the Golden Gate, the Straits of Carquinez, the channel of the lower Columbia, the Canal de Haro, Hood's Canal, Puget Sound, etc., have been excavated, indicates a similar (perhaps simultaneous) elevation and erosion of the Western coast of America. The falls of the Ohio-formed by a rocky barrier across the stream-though at first sight seeming to disprove the theory of a deep continuous channel in our Western rivers, really afford no argument against it, for here, as in many other instances, the present river does not follow accurately the line of the old channel below, but runs along one or the other side of it. In the case of the Louisville falls the Ohio runs across a rocky point which projects into the old valley from the north side, while the deep channel passes under the lowland on the south side, on part of which the city of Louisville is built. The importance of a knowledge of these old channels in the improvement of the navigation of our larger rivers is obvious, and it is possible it would have led to the adoption of other means than a rock canal for passing the Louisville |