Smithsonian Institution Libraries Given in memory of Elisha Hanson by Letitia Armistead Hanson THE NATION AL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE MOme Vin alse? INCORPORATED A.D.1888. WASHINGTON PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY NOV 97987 ~ f LIBRARIES ~~ 1889 OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY GARDINER G. HUBBARD, President HERBERT G. OGDEN ] GEO. L. DYER A. W. GREELY \ Vice-Presidents C. HART MERRIAM A. H. THOMPSON CHARLES J. BELL, Treasurer HENRY GANNETT } GEORGE KENNAN 3 CLEVELAND ABBE ) MARCUS BAKER ROGERS BIRNIE, JR. G. BROWN GOODE Cc, A. KENASTON W. B. POWELL O. H. TITTMANN JAMES C. WELLING | Secretaries \ Managers PRINTERS TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, New HAVEN, CONN. (ii) CONTENT. Announcement Introductory Address by the President : ; ; Geographic Methods in Geologic Investigation: Wm. M. Davis . Classification of Geographic Forms by Genesis: W. J. McGee . The Great Storm of March 11 to 14, 1888: A. W. Greely, Everett Hayden . The Survey of the Coast: Herbert G. Ogden . The Survey and Map of Massachusetts: Henry Gannett ; Proceedings of the National Geographic Society National Geographic Society Certificate of incorporation By-laws . ; List of Officers, 1888 ‘List of Members PRESS OF TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, NEW HAVEN, CONN. \ Lil ie i mK ine ANNOUNCEMENT. Tue “Nationat GnrocrRarwic Society” has been organized “to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,” and the publi- cation of a Magazine has been determined upon as one means of accomplishing these purposes. It will contain memoirs, essays, notes, correspondence, reviews, etc., relating to Geographic matters. As it is not intended to be simply the organ of the Society, its pages will be open to all persons interested in Geography, in the hope that it may become a channel of intercommunication, stimulate geographic investiga- tion and prove an acceptable medium for the publication of results. | The Magazine is to be edited by the Society. At present it will be issued at irregular intervals, but as the sources of infor- mation are increased the numbers will appear periodically. The National Capital seems to be the natural and appropriate place for an association of this character, and the aim of the founders has been, therefore, to form a National rather than a local society. As it is hoped to diffuse as well as to increase knowledge, due prominence will be given to the educational aspect of geo- graphic matters, and efforts will be made to stimulate an interest. in original sources of information. In addition to organizing, holding regular fortnightly meetings for presenting scientific and popular communications, and enter- ing upon the publication of a Magazine, considerable progress has been made in the preparation of a Physical Atlas of the United States. il The Society was organized in January, 1888, under the laws of the District of Columbia, and has at present an active member- ship of about two hundred persons. But there is no limitation to the number of members, and it will welcome both leaders and followers in geographic science, in order to better accomplish the objects of its organization. October, 1888. Correspondence with the Society should be addressed to Mr. Grorcr Krnnan, Corresponding Secretary, No. 1318 Massa- chusetts Avenue, Washington, D. C. THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Nolnolk: 1888. Nici INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. BY THE PRESIDENT, Mr. GARDINER G. HUBBARD. I am not a scientific man, nor can I lay claim to any special knowledge that would entitle me to be called a “ Geographer.” I owe the honor of my election as President of the National Geographic Society simply to the fact that I am one of those who desire to further the prosecution of geographic research. I possess only the same general interest in the subject of geog- raphy that should be felt by every educated man. By my election you notify the public that the membership of our Society will not be confined to professional geographers, but will include that large number who, like myself, desire to pro- mote special researches by others, and to diffuse the knowledge so gained, among men, so that we may all know more of the world upon which we live. By the establishment of this Society we hope to bring to- gether (1) the scattered workers of our country, and (2) the persons who desire to promote their researches. In union there is strength, and through the medium of a national organization, we may hope to promote geographic research in a manner that could not be accomplished by scattered individuals, or by local societies; we may also hope—threugh the same agency—to dif- fuse the results of geographic research over a wider area than would otherwise be possible. + National Geographic Magazine. The position to which I have been called has compelled me to become a student. Since my election I have been trying to learn the meaning of the word “geography,” and something of the history of the science to which it relates. The Greek origin of the word (yy, the earth, and ypaqn, description) betrays the source from which we derived the science, and shows that it relates to a description of the earth. But the “earth” known to the Greeks was a very different thing from the earth with which we are acquainted. To the ancient Greek it meant land—not all land, but only a limited territory, in the centre of which he lived. His earth comprised simply the Persian Empire, Italy, Egypt and the bor- ders of the Black and Mediterranean seas, besides his own coun- try. Beyond these limits, the land extended indefinitely to an unknown distance—till it reached the borders of the great ocean which completely surrounded it. To the members of this society the word “earth” suggests a very different idea. The term arouses in our minds the concep- tion of an enormous globe suspended in empty space, one side in shadow and the other bathed in the rays of the sun. The outer surface of this globe consists of a uniform, unbroken ocean of air, enclosing another more solid surface (composed partly of land and partly of water), which teems with countless forms of animal and vegetable life. This is the earth of which geo- graphy gives us « description. To the ancients the earth was a flat plain, solid and immovable, and surrounded by water, out of which the sun rose in the east and into which it set in the west. To them “ Geography ” meant simply a description of the lands with which they were ac- quainted. Herodotus, who lived about the year 450 B. C., transmitted to posterity an account of the world as it was known in his day. We look upon him as the father of geography as well as of history. He visited the known regions of the earth, and de- scribed accurately what he saw, thus laying the fouridations of comparative geography. About 300 years B. C., Alexander the Great penetrated into hitherto unknown regions, conquered India and Russia, and founded the Macedonian Empire. He sent a naval expedition to explore the coasts of India, accompanied by philosophers or learned men, who described the new countries discovered and Introductory Address. 5 the character of their inhabitants. This voyage may be consid- ered as originating the science of Political Geography, or the geography of man. About the year 200 B. C., Eratosthenes of Cyrene, the keeper of the Royal Library at Alexandria, became convinced, from ex- periments, that the idea of the rotundity of the earth, which had been advanced by some of his predecessors, was correct, and attempted to determine upon correct principles its magnitude. "The town of Cyrene, on the river Nile, was situated exactly under the tropic, for he knew that on the day of the summer solstice, the sun’s rays illuminated at noon the bottom of a deep well in that city. At Alexandria, however, on the day of the summer solstice, Eratosthenes observed that the vertical finger of a sun-dial cast a shadow at noon, showing that the sun was not there exactly overhead. From the length of the shadow he ascertained the sun’s distance from the zenith to be 7° 12’, or one-fiftieth part of the circumference of the heavens; from which he calculated that if the world was round the distance between Alexandria and Cyrene should be one-fiftieth part of the circum- ference of the world. The distance between these cities was 5000 stadia, from which he calculated that the circumference of the world was fifty times this amount, or 250,000 stadia. Un- fortunately we are ignorant of the exact length of a stadium, so we have no means of testing the accuracy of his deduction. He was the founder of Mathematical Geography; it became pos- sible through the labors of Eratosthenes to determine the loca- tion of places on the surface of the earth by means of lines cor- responding to our lines of latitude and longitude. Claudius Ptolemy, in the second century of the Christian era, made a catalogue of the positions of plans as determined by EKrastosthenes and his successors, and with this as his basis, he made a series of twenty-six maps, thus exhibiting, at a glance, in geographical form, the results of the labors of all who pre- ceded him. To him we owe the art of map-making, the origina- tion of Geographic Art. We thus see that when Rome began to rule the world, the Greeks had made great progress in geography. They already possessed Comparative, Political and Mathematical Geography, and Geographic Art, or the art of making maps. ‘Then came a pause in the progress of geography. The Romans were so constantly occupied with the practical affairs of life, that they paid little attention to any other kind of 6 National Geographic Magazine. geography than that which facilitated the administration of their empire. They were great road-builders, and laid out highways from Rome to the farthest limits of their possessions. Maps of their military roads were made, but little else. These exhibited with accuracy the less and greater stations on the route from Rome to India, and from Rome to the further end of Britain. Then came the decline and fall of Rome, and with it the com- plete collapse of geographical knowledge. In the dark ages,. geography practically ceased to exist. In the typical map of the middle ages, Jerusalem lay in the centre with Paradise on the East and Europe on the West. It was not until. the close of the dark ages that the spirit of discovery was re-awakened.. Then the adventurous Northmen from Norway and Sweden crossed the ocean to Iceland. From Iceland they proceeded to Greenland and even visited the main-land of North America about the year 1000 A. D.,. coasting as far south as New England; but these voyages led to no practical results, and were forgotten or looked upon as myths, until within a few years. For hundreds of years geography made but little advance—and the discoveries of five centuries. were less than those now made in five years. In the fourteenth or fifteenth century, the mariner’s compass was introduced into Europe from China, and it then became possible to venture upon the ocean far cut of sight of land. Columbus instead of coast- ing from shore to shore like the ancient Northmen, boldly set sail across the Atlantic. To many of his contemporaries it must have seemed madness to seek the East by thus sailing towards the West, and we need hardly wonder at the opposition experienced from his crew. The rotundity of the earth had become to him an objective reality, and in sublime faith he pursued his westward way. Expecting to find the East Indies he found America in-. stead. Five centuries had elapsed since the Northmen had made their voyages to these shores—and their labors had proved to be barren of results. The discovery of Columbus, however, im- mediately bore fruit. It was his genius and perseverance alone that gave the new world to the people of Europe, and he is therefore rightfully entitled to be called the discoverer of Amer-- ica. His discovery was fraught with enormous consequences, and it inaugurated a new era for geographic research. The spirit of discovery was quickened and geographic knowledge ad- vanced with a great leap. America was explored ; Africa was. Introductory Address. € circumnavigated. Magellan demonstrated the rotundity of the earth by sailing westward until he reached his starting point. Everywhere —all over the civilized world—the spirit of adven- ture was aroused. Navigators from England, Holland, France and Spain rapidly extended the boundaries of geographical knowledge, while explorers penetrated into the interior of the new lands discovered. The mighty impetus given by Columbus set the whole world in motion and it has gone on moving ever since with accelerated velocity. The great progress that has been made can hardly be realized without comparing the famous Borgia map, constructed about one hundred years before the discovery of America, with the modern maps of the same countries ; or Hubbard’s map of New England made two hundred years ago, with the corresponding map. of to-day. The improvements in map-making originated with Mercator, who, in 1556 constructed his cylindrical projec- tion of the sphere. But it has been only during the last hundred years that great progress has been made. Much yet remains to be done before geographic art can fully accomplish its mission. The present century forms a new era in the progress of geog- raphy —the era of organized research. In 1830, the Royal - Geographical Society of England was founded, and it already forms a landmark in the history of discovery. The Paris Society preceded it in point of time, and the other countries of Europe soon followed the example. Through these organizations, stu- dents and explorers have been encouraged and assisted, and in- formation systematically collected and arranged. The wide diffusion of geographical knowledge through the medium of these societies and the publicity of the discussions and criticism that followed, operated to direct the current of exploration into the most useful channels. Before organized effort, darkness gave way at every step. Hach observer added fresh knowledge to the existing store, without unnecessary duplication of research. The reports of discoveries were discussed and criticized by the socie- ties, and the contributions of all were co-ordinated into one great whole. America refuses to be left in the rear. Already her explorers are in every land and on every sea. Already she has contributed her quota of martyrs in the frozen north, and has led the way into the torrid regions of Africa. The people of Europe, through Columbus, opened up a new world for us; and we, 8 National Geographic Magazme. through Stanley, have discovered a new world in the old, for them. Much has been done on land—little on the other three-quar- ters of the earth’s surface. But here America has laid the foun- dations of a new science,—the Geography of the Sea. Our explorers have mapped out the surface of the ocean and discovered the great movements of the waters. They have traced the southward flow of the Arctic waters to temper the climate of the torrid zone. They have followed the northward set of the heated waters of the equator and have shown how they form those wonderful rivers of warm water that flow, without walls, through the colder waters of the sea, till they strike the western shores of Europe and America, and how they render habitable the almost Arctic countries of Great Britian and Alaska. They have even followed these warm currents further and shown how they penetrate the Arctic Ocean to lessen the rigors of the Arctic cold. Bravely, but vainly, have they sought for that ignis fatuus of explorers—the open polar sea—produced by the action of the warm waters from the south. American explorers have sounded the depths of the ocean and discovered mountains and valleys beneath the waves. They have found the great plateaus on which the cables rest that bring us into instantaneous communication with the rest of the world. They have shown the probable existence of a vast submarine range of mountains, extending nearly the whole length of the Pacific Ocean—mountains so high that their summits rise above the sur- face to form islands and archipelagoes in the Pacific. And all this vast region of the earth, which, a few years ago, was con- sidered uninhabitable on account of the great pressure, they have discovered to be teeming with life. From the depths of the ocean they have brought living things, whose lives were spent under conditions of such pressure that the elastic force of their own bodies burst them open before they could be brought to the sur face ; living creatures whose self-luminous spots supplied them with the light denied them in the deep abyss from which they sprang—abysses so deep that the powerful rays of the sun could only feebly penetrate to illuminate or warm. The exploring vessels of our Fish Commission have discovered in the deep sea, in one single season, more forms of life than were found by the Challenger Expedition in a three years’ cruise. Through their agency, we have studied the geographical distribu- Introductory Address. 9 tion of marine life ; and in our marine laboratories, explorers have studied the life history of the most useful forms. The knowledge gained has enabled us to breed and multiply at will; to protect the young fish during the period of their in- fancy—when alone they are liable to wholesale destruction—finally to release them in the ocean, in those waters that are most suit- able to their growth. The fecundity of fish is so great, and the protection afforded them during the critical period of their life so ample, that it may now be possible to feed the world from the ocean and set the laws of Matthews at defiance. Our geographers of the sea have shown that an acre of water may be made to pro- duce more food for the support of man than ten acres of arable land. They have thrown open to cultivation a territory of the earth constituting three-quarters of the entire surface of the globe. And what shall we say of our conquests in that other vast ter- ritory of the earth, greater in extent than all the oceans and the lands put together—the atmosphere that surrounds it. Here again America has led the way, and laid the foundations of a Geography of the Air. But a little while ago and we might have truly said with the ancients “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and we know neither from whence it comes nor whither it goes”; but now our explorers track the wind from point to point and telegraph warnings in advance of the storm. In this department, the Geography of the Air, we have far out- stripped the nations of the world. We have passed the mob- period of research when the observations of multitudes of individ- uals amounted to little, from lack of concentrated action. Organi- zation has been effected. A Central Bureau has been established in Washington, and an army of trained observers has been dispersed over the surface of the globe, who all observe the con- dition of the atmosphere according to a pre-concerted plan. The vessels of our navy and the mercantile marine of our own and other countries have been impressed into the service, and thus our geographers of the air are stationed in every land and traverse the waters of every sea. Every day, at the same moment of ab- solute time, they observe and note the condition of the atmosphere at the part of the earth where they happen to be, and the latitude and longitude of their position. The collocation of these observa- tions gives us a series of what -may be termed instantaneous photographs of the condition of the whole atmosphere. The co- ordination of the observations, and their geographical representa- . 10 National Geographie Magazme. tion upon a map, is undertaken by a staff of trained experts in the Central Bureau in Washington, and through this organization we obtain a weather-map of the world for every day of the year. We can now study at leisure the past movements of the atmos- phere, and from these observations we shall surely discover the grand laws that control aerial phenomena. We shall then not only know, as we do at present, whence comes the wind and whither it goes, but be able to predict its movements for the benefit of humanity. Already we have attained a useful, though limited, power of prediction. Our Central Bureau daily collects observations by telegraph from all parts of this continent, and our experts are thus enabled to forecast the probabilities by a few hours. Day by day the re- sults are communicated to the public by telegraph in time to avert disaster to the mariners on our eastern coast, and facilitate agri- cultural operations in the Eastern and Middle States. Although many of the predictions are still falsified by events, the percentage of fulfilments has become so large as to show that continued research will in the future give us fresh forms of pre- diction and increase the usefulness of this branch of science to mankind. In all departments of geographical knowledge, Americans are at work. They have pushed themselves into the front rank and they demand the best efforts of their countrymen to encourage and support. When we embark on the great ocean of discovery, the horizon of the unknown advances with us and surrounds us wherever we go. The more we know, the greater we find is our ignorance. Because we know so little we have formed this society for the in- crease and diffusion of Geographical knowledge. Because our subject is so large we have organized the society into four broad sections: relating to the geography of the land, H. G. Ogden, vice- president ; the sea, J. R. Bartlett, vice-president ; the air, A. W. Greely, vice-president ; the geographic distribution of life, C. H. Merriam, vice-president; to which we have added a fifth, relating to the abstract science of geographic art, including the art of map- making etc., A: H. Thompson, vice-president ; our recording and corresponding secretaries are Henry Gannett and George Kennan. We have been fortunate indeed to secure as Vice-Presidents. men learned in each department, and who have been personally identified with the work of research. Geographic Methods in Geologie Investigation. ite GEOGRAPHIC METHODS IN GEOLOGIC INVESTIGATION. By W. M. Davis. OUTLINE. Definition of Geography and Geology-—Geographic Methods in Geology—Hutton and Lyell—Marine deposits explained by existing processes reveal the history of the earth—American Topographers—First Pennsylvania Survey ; geographic form as the result of extinct processes— Western Surveys; geographic form explained by existing processes reveals the history of the earth—Deductive Topography—Comparison with Palzeontology—Geographic Individuals—Classi- fication according to structure—Ideal cycle of regular development——Interrup- tions in the Simple Ideal Cycle-—-Geography needs ideal types and technical terms—-Comparison with the biological sciences—Teaching of Geography——The water-falls of Northeastern Pennsylvania as examples of deductive study— Systematic Geography. Tue history of the earth includes among many things an account of its structure and form at successive times, of the pro- cesses by which changes in its structure and form have been produced, and of the causes of these processes. (Geography is according to ordinary definition allowed of all this only an account of the present form of the earth, while geology takes all the rest, and it is too generally the case that even the present form of the earth is insufficiently examined by geographers. Geographic morphology, or topography, is not yet developed into a science. Some writers seem to think it a division of geology, while geologists are as a rule too much occupied with other mat- ters to give it the attention it deserves. It is not worth while to embarrass one’s study by too much definition of its subdivisions, but it is clearly advisable in this case to take such steps as shall hasten a critical and minute examination of the form of the earth’s surface by geographers, and to this end it may serve a useful purpose to enlarge the limited definition of geography, as given above, and insist that it shall include not only a descriptive and statistical account of the present surface of the earth, but also a systematic classification of the features of the earth’s sur- face, viewed as the results of certain processes, acting for various periods, at different ages, on divers structures. As Mackinder of Oxford has recently expressed it, geography is the study of the 12 National Geographic Magazime. present in the light of the past. When thus conceived it forms a fitting complement to geology, which, as defined by the same author, is the study of the past in the ight of the present. The studies are inseparable and up to a certain point, their physical aspects may be well followed together, under such a name as physiography. Specialization may then lead the student more to one subject than to the other. An illustration from human history, where the study of the past and present has a single name, may serve to make my mean- ing clear in regard to the relation of the two parts of terrestrial history, which have different names. Orogenic. § (Depression. R= OPAC A LION syepse oe ee og eye ee \ Deposition. 5 | Degradation. Principal Categories SS . (1.—Vulcanism. __--____- Extravasation. (Antithesis of Extrav.) | 2.— Alteration. __.....__- ( Lithifaction. ) Decomposition. 4 3.— Glaciation. _____._--- { Glacial construction. ( Glacial destruction. | 4.—Wind action. ________ Wind construction. 1 Wind destruction. Subordinate Categories 5.—Vital action. _______- Various constructive and destructive processes. On applying this classification to geographic forms, the various. phenomena immediately fall into the same arrangement. The continents, great islands, mountain systems, and non-volcanic ranges and peaks generally, the oceans, seas, and some bays, gulfs. and lakes, evidently represent the diastatic category of move- ments. ‘These greater geographic features have long been named The Classification of Geographic Forms by Genesis. 31 and classified empirically, and can be referred to their proper places in a genetic taxonomy without change in terminology. The volcanoes, craters, calderas, lava fields, tuff fields, tufa crags, mesas, volcanic necks, dykes, etc., however modified by degrada- tion, alteration, glaciation, or wind action, exhibit characteristic forms which have often received names indicative of their origin. The glacial drift with its various types of surface, the moraines, drumlins, kames, roches de moutonnées, rock basins, kettles, lacus- tral plains, aqueo-glacial terraces, loess hills and plains, ete., have been studied in their morphologic as well as their structural aspects, and the elements of the configuration commonly assumed have been described, portrayed, and appropriately named ; and they take a natural place in the classification of products by the processes giving rise to them. The dunes, dust drifts, sand ridges, ete., and the wind-scooped basins with which they are associated, are local and limited, but are fairly well known and fall at once into the genetic classification of forms and structures. But all of these geographic forms are modified, even obliterated, by the ever prevailing process of gradation, which has given ori- gin to nearly all of the minor and many of the major geographic forms of the earth. The forms resulting from this second great category of geologic processes have generally engaged the atten- tion of systematic students, but their prevalence, variety and complexity of relation are such that even yet they stand in great- est need of classification. Lesley thirty years ago regarded the mountain as the funda- mental topographic element; Richthofen recognizes the upland and the plain (“aufragendes Land und Flachbiden”) as the primary classes of configuration comprehending all minor elements of topography; Dana groups topographic forms as (1) lowlands, (2) plateaus and elevated table lands, and (3) mountains; and these related allocations are satisfactory for the purposes for which they are employed. But the implied classification in all these cases is morphologic rather than genetic, and is based upon superficial and ever varying if not fortuitous characters ; and if it were extended to the endless variety of forms exhibited in the topography of different regions it would only lead to the dis- crimination of a meaningless multitude of unrelated topographic elements. Tn an exceedingly simple classification of geographic phenom- ena, the primary grouping is into forms of construction and forms of destruction ; but it is evident on inspection of the table intro- 32 National Geographic Magazine. duced above that such a classification is objectionable unless the greater geographic elements due to diastatic movements (in which the constructive action is veritable but different in kind from those in the other categories) be excluded, and this is impractica- ble without limiting the classification to subordinate phenomena. Moreover it is illogical and useless to unite the constructive phe- nomena of the remaining categories, since (1) the processes exem- plify widely diverse laws, which must find expression in any detailed classification whether genetic or not, and since (2) the differences between the forms united are much greater than the differences between the forms separated in such a classification — e. g. the differences between a dune, a drumlin and a mesa (all constructive forms) are far greater than the differences between a fresh lava sheet and a deeply cut mesa, between a drumlin and the smallest drift remnant, or between a dune and a ‘Triassic mound of circumdenudation; and this is true whether the distine- tion be made on analogic, homologic, or genetic grounds. Indeed it seems evident that while discrimination of constructive and destructive forms is necessary and useful in each genetic cate- gory, the use of this distinction as a primary basis of classifi- cation is inexpedient. The classification of topographic forms proposed a few years ago by Davis, who regards “special peculiarities of original structure” as a primary, and “degree of development by erosion” a secondary basis, and Richthofen’s arrangement of categories of surface forms as (1) tectonic mountains, (2) mountains of abrasion, (3) eruptive mountains, (4) mountains of deposition, (5) plains, and (6) mountains of erosion,* in addition to depressions of the land (Die Hohlformen des Festlandes), are more accept- able, since they are based in part on conditions of genesis. But it is clearly recognized by modern students of dynamic geol- ogy that waterways are the most persistent features of the terrestrial surface; and the most widely applicable systems of classification of the surface configuration of the earth thus far proposed have been based substantially on the agencies of grada- tion. ‘Thus Powell, Léwl and Richthofen classify valleys by the’ conditions of their genesis; Gilbert classifies drainage; and Phillipson, unduly magnifies the stability and genetic import- ance of the water parting, classifies the hydrography through * (1) Tektonische Gebirge, (2) Rumpfgebirge oder Abrasionsgebirge, (3) Ausbruchsgebirge, (4) Aufschiittungsgebirge, (5) Flachbéden, und (6) Krosionsgebirge. The Classification of Geographic Forms by Genesis. 33 the divides ; and, although these geologists have not dwelt upon and perhaps have failed to perceive the relation, the same classi-. fication is as applicable to every feature of the local relief as to the streams by which the relief was developed. In a general classification of the topographic forms developed through gradation, it would be necessary to include the forms resulting from deposition as well as degradation, and also to dis- cuss the relation of base-level plains to antecedent and consequent relief ; but in a brief résumé it will suffice to consider only the modifications produced by degradation upon a surface of deposi- tion after its emergence from beneath water level as a regular or irregular terrane ; and the influence of base-level upon the topo- graphic forms developed upon such a surface may be neglected in a qualitative discussion, though it is'quite essential in quantitative investigation. The hydrography developed upon terranes affected by displace- ment both before and after emergence has already been satis- factorily classified. Powell, years ago, denominated valleys estab- lished previous to displacement of the terrane by faulting or fold- ing, antecedent valleys; valleys having directions depending on displacement, conseguent valleys; and valleys originally estab- lished upon superior and subsequently transferred to inferior ter- ranes, superimposed valleys; and these valleys were separated into orders determined by relation to strike and again into varie- ties determined by relation to subordinate attitude of the terranes traversed. Gilbert adopted the same geveral classification, and so extended as to include certain special genetic conditions. Tietze, in the course of his investigation of the Sefidrud (or Kizil Uzen) and other rivers in the Alburs mountains of Persia, independently ascertained the characteristics of the class of water- ways comprehended by Powell under the term antecedent ; Medlicott and Blanford observed that many of the Himalayan rivers are of like genesis; and Riitimeyer, Peschel and others have recognized the same genetic class of waterways; but none of these foreign geologists have discussed their taxonomic relations. Léwl, who upon @ prior? grounds denies the possibility of ante- cedent drainage, has recently developed an elaborate taxonomy of valleys which he groups as (@) tectonic valleys, and (6) valleys of erosion (Erosionsthaler). The first of these categories is separated into two classes, viz: valleys of flexure and valleys of fracture, and these in turn into several sub-classes determined by character of the displacement and its relations to structure ; and the second, 3 34 National Geographic Magazine. whose genesis is attributed to retrogressive (riickwirts fort- schreitende” or “riickschreitende ”) erosion, is vaguely separa- ted into several ill-defined classes and sub-classes determined by structure, climate, and various other conditions. The second of Lowl’s categories is also recognized by Phillipson. Still more recently, Richthofen, neglecting antecedent drainage, designated the superimposed class of Powell epigenetic, and formulated a classification of the remaining types of continental depressions (Die. Hohlformen des Festlandes) as (a) orographic depressions (Landsenken) ; (2) tectonic valleys, and (c) sculptured valleys; and the last two categories are separated into classes and sub-classes, corresponding fairly with those of Léwl, determined by their relations to structure and by various genetic conditions. These several classifications have much in common; their differences are largely due to the diversity of the regions m which the investigations of their respective authors have been prosecuted; but combined they probably comprehend all the topographic types which it is necessary to discriminate. The American classification and nomenclature, particularly, is unobjectionable as applied to montanic hydrography; but it does not apply to the perhaps equally extensive drainage systems and the resulting topographic configuration developed on emergent terranes either (@) without localized displacement or (0) with local- ized displacement of less value in determining hydrography than the concomitant erosion, terracing and reef building ; neither does it apply to the minor hydrography in those regions in which the main hydrography is either antecedent or consequent ; nor does it apply even to the original condition of the superimposed or antecedent drainage of montainous regions. Upon terranes emerging without displacement and upon equal | surfaces not yet invaded by valleys, the streams depend for their origin on the convergence of the waters falling upon the uneroded surface and affected by its minor inequalities, and for their direc- tion upon the inclination of that surface. They are developed proximally (or seaward) by simple extension of their courses by continued elevation, and distally by the recession of the old and the birth of new ravines ; and since in the simple case it follows from the law of probabilities that the receding ravine will retain approximately the old direction and that the new ravines will de- part therefrom at high angles, the drainage systems thus inde- pendently developed become intricately but systematically rami- fied and more or less dendritic in form. Loéwl, Phillipson, Richt- The Classification of Geographic Forms by Genesis. 35 hofen, and other continental, as well as different British and Indian geologists, and Lesley in this country, indeed recognize this type of drainage, but they do not correlate it with the montanic types; and Léwl’s designation, derived from the manner in which he con- ceives it to be generated (‘“riickschreitende Erosion”), does not apply to either the completed drainage or the coincident topog- raphy. Although its subordinate phases are not yet discriminated on a genetic basis, this type or order of drainage is sufficiently distinct and important to be regarded as coérdinate with the type repre- sented by the entire group of categories recognized by Powell and clearly defined by Gilbert. Such hydrography (which either in its natural condition or superimposed characterizes many plains, some plateaus, and the sides of large valleys of whatever genesis) may be termed autogenous ; while the drainage systems imposed by conditions resulting from displacement (which characterize most mountainous regions) may be termed tectonic. Gilbert’s classification of drainage may then be so extended as to include topography as well as hydrography, and so amplified as to include the additional type. Drainage systems and the resulting systems of topograpby (all of which belong to the degradational class of forms) are accord- ingly.— Type 1, Autogenous. — Type 2, Tectonic— Order A, Consequent, upon Class a, Displacement before emergence, and Class b, Sudden displacement after emergence; Order B, Antecedent ; and Order C, Superimposed, through Class a, Sedimentation (when the superimposed drain - age may be autogenous), Class 6, Alluviation or subaerial deposition, and Class c, Planation (in which two cases the superim- posed drainage may simulate the autogenous type). In brief, the entire domain of geologic science is traversed and defined by a genetic Classification of the phenomena with which the geologist has to deal; and the same classification is equally applicable to geographic forms, as the accompanying table illus- trates : 36 National Geographic Magazine. Representative Geographic Forms as classified by Genesis. GENETIC PROCESSES. GEOGRAPHIC FORMS. | Continents, great islands, most mountain ranges, etc., not Oceans, great seas and bays, some inland valleys and lake- basins, etc., not classified in Newly emerged ocean-bottoms (é. g., portions of the Coastal plain), playas and mountain- bound deserts, many flood- plains, marshes, etc., not Category. Class. f ELEVATION DEFORMATION classified in detail. | DEPRESSION detail. ( DEPOSITION GRADATION 4 | classified in detail. {| DEGRADATION ( EXTRAVASATION | VULCANISM , l (ANTITHESIS OF DO.) ( LITHIFACTION ALTERATION | DELITHIFACTION (GLACIAL CONSTRUC- | TION GLACIATION 4 Nanna DESTRUC- | TION WIND CONSTRUCTION WIND ACTION | WIND DESTRUCTION ViTAL ACTION | (Not discriminated) Drainage-systems and result- ing topographic elements which are— 1—Autogenous (not classi- fied in detail) ; and 2—Tectonic— Consequent, upon Displace- ment before emergence, and Sudden displacement after emergence; Antecedent; and Superimposed, through Sedimentation, Alluviation, and Planation. Volcanic peaks, craters, lava- fields, tufa-crags, sinter- cones, volcanic necks, mesas, dykes, some mineral veins, etc., not classified in detail. |Sinks, caverns, some fissures, | etc., not classified in detail. | Minor features of certain topo- graphic forms, e. g., reefs, crags, pinnacles, salients, out-cropping veins, some cataracts, etc., not classified in detail. Minor features of certain topo- graphic forms, e. g., pools and basins, reéntrants, some fissures and caverns, etc., not classified in detail. Drift-plains, moraines of what- ever character, drumlins, kames. aasar, drift-dammed lakes, loss-plains and ridges; | etc., not classified in detail. | Rock-basins. U-cafions, roches de moutonnées, ete., not here classified in detail. Dunes, sand-ridges, bars, spits, etc., not here classified in detail. Ponds associated with dunes, ‘*blow-outs,” ‘‘ purgatories,” ete., not classified in detail. | The Great Storm of March 11-1}, 1888. BT THE GREAT STORM OF MARCH 11-14, 1888. A SUMMARY OF THE REMARKS MADE BY BRIGADIER-GENERAL A. W. GREELY, CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER OF THE ARMY. Tuts storm is by no means as violent as others which have occurred in the eastern part of the United States. It is noted, however, as being one in which an unusual amount of snow fell, which, drifted by the high winds caused by the advance of an anticyclonic area in rear of the storm depression, did an enormous amount of damage to the railways in Massachusetts, southern - New York, and New Jersey. The storm centre was first noticed in the North Pacific on March 6th ; whence it passed southeast from the Oregon coast to northern Texas by the 9th. The centre instead of maintaining the usual elliptical form, gradually shaped itself into an extended trough of low pressure, which covered the Mississippi and Ohio valleys during the 10th. On the morning of March 11th the bar- ometer trough extended from Lake Superior southward to the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico ; in the northern section over Lake Superior, and the southern part, over Georgia, distinct centres, with independent wind circulation, had formed. The northern storm centre moved northeastward and disap- peared, while the southern centre moved slowly eastward, passing off the Atlantic coast near Cape Hatteras. The pressure on the afternoon of March 11th was about 29.07 at the centre of both the northern and southern storms, but during the night of the 11-12th the pressure decreased in the southern storm centre, and the area instead of continuing its easterly direction moved almost directly to the north, and on the morning of March 12th was central off the New Jersey coast. The causes which underlie the decrease of pressure and conse- quent increase in the violence of storms are, as yet, undetermined. The theory of “surges,” that is, atmospheric waves independent of the irregular variations consequent on storms, has been urged by some, and especially by Abercromby, as the cause of the deepen- ing of depressions in some cases or of increasing the pressure in other cases. It is possible that under this theory a “surge,” pass- ing over the United States to the eastward, as its trough became 38 National Geographic Magazine. coincident with the centre of low pressure increased its intensity or decreased its pressure, and the consequent increase in baro- metric gradients added to the violence of the winds. It should be pointed out, however, that the very heavy rainfalls from Phil- adelphia southward to Wilmington during the 11th, and even the heavier ones over the lower valley of the Hudson and in Connec- ticut during the 12th, may have exercised a potent influence in depressing the barometer at the centre of this storm. However this may be, it is certain that the storm remained nearly station- ary, with steadily decreasing pressure until midnight of March 12th, ‘at which time it was central between Block Island and Wood’s Holl, with an unusually low barometer of 28.92 at each station. During this day the winds were unusually high along the Atlantic coast from Eastport to Norfolk; the maximum velocities at the various stations ranging from 48 miles at New York City and New Haven to 60 miles at Atlantic City and 70 miles per hour at Block Island. These winds, though high, are not unprecedented, and if they had been accompanied only by precipitation in the form of rain, the damage on land would have been inconsiderable, but, unfortunately for the commercial inter- ests of New York and other neighboring great cities, the passage of the low area to the eastward was followed by a cold wave of considerable severity and of unusual continuance. The northern storm centre, which had passed eastward on the 11th, had had the usual effect of drawing in a large quantity of cold air from British America ; a cold wave following the wake of this storm, as is usual during the winter season. This usual effect was intensified by the advance of a second, and more vio- lent, cyclonic centre northward; the effect of which was to aug- ment the cold wave already in progress by drawing in a still larger amount of cold air to re-enforce it. As has been already alluded to, the quantity of snowfall was unusually great. The easterly and northeasterly winds had drawn a large amount of aqueous vapor from the Atlantic over New England in advance of the low area. The sudden change of tem-. perature precipitated by far the greater portion of the aqueous vapor in the air, with the result of an almost unprecedented fall of snow over western Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the valley of the Hudson. ; Professor Winslow Upton, Secretary of the New England Meteorological Society, has gathered estimates of snow from 420. The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1888. 39 different observers, which go to show that 40 inches or more of snow fell over the greater part of the districts named. The deepening of the area of low pressure and the augmenta- tion of the cold high area advancing from British America resulted in barometric gradients of unusual intensity; there be ing gradients in excess of 6, when gradients of 5 rarely oceur either in the United States or Great Britain. The high winds caused by these unusual gradients had the effect of drift- ing the snow to an unusual extent, so that, as is well known, nearly every railroad in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts was snow-bound ; the earliest and most pro- longed effects being experienced in Connecticut, which doubtless received the full benefit of the heavy snowfall in the Hudson River valley in addition to that in the western part of that State. It is thought by some that the storm re-curved and passed northwest into Connecticut; an opinion in which I cannot concur. The international map and reports tend to show that this storm passed northeastward and was on the Banks of Nowfoundland on the 17th of March. The peculiar shape of the isobars, while the storm could be clearly defined from observations at hand, was such that it 1s not unreasonable to believe that the change of wind. to the south at Block Island was due simply to an off-shoot of the - storm from the main centre, in like manner as the storm itself was the outgrowth of a previous depression. The track of this storm across the sea is left to Professor Hay- den. ‘These remarks are necessarily imperfect, as my official duties have been such as to prevent any careful study or examina- tion of the storm apart from that possible on the current weather maps of the Signal Service. 40 National Geographic Magazime. THE GREAT STORM OFF THE ATLANTIC COAST OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 111x-147n, 1888. ‘By EVERETT HayDEN, In charge of the division of Marine Meteorology, Hydrographic Office, Navy Dept. INTRODUCTION. Tue history of a great ocean storm cannot be written with any completeness until a long interval of time has elapsed, when the meteorological observations taken on board hundreds of vessels of every nationality, scattered over the broad expanse of ocean, and bound, many of them, for far distant ports, can be gathered together, compared, and, where observations seem dis- cordant, rigidly analyzed and the best data selected. It is only when based upon such a foundation that the story can fully deserve the title of history, and not romance, fact and not hypo- thesis. At best, there must be wide areas where the absence of vessels will forever leave some blank pages in this history, while elsewhere, along the great highways of ocean traffic, the data are absolutely complete. Last August a tropical hurricane of ter- rific violence swept in toward our coast from between Bermuda and the Bahamas, curved to the northward off Hatteras, and continued its destructive course past the Grand Banks toward northern Europe; hundreds of reports from masters of vessels enabled us accurately to plot its track, a great parabolic curve tangent to St. Thomas, Hatteras, Cape Race, and the northern coast of Norway. ‘Six months later a report forwarded by the British Meteorogical Office, from a vessel homeward bound from the Equator, indicated that it originated far to the eastward, off the coast of Africa, and only the other day the log of a ship which arrived at New York, March 30th, from Calcutta, supplied — data by means of which the storm track can be traced still more accurately, westward of the Cape Verde islands. Not only that, but this same vessel on the 11th of March was about 500 miles to the eastward of Bermuda, and, while the great storm was raging between Hatteras and Sandy Hook, was traversing a region to the northeastward of Bermuda from which our records are as yet very incomplete. It will thus be clearly understood that while the most earnest efforts have been made, not only to % The Great Storm of March, 11-14, 1888. 41 collect and utilize all available information, but to be careful and cautious in generalizing from the data at hand, yet this study must be considered as only preliminary to an exhaustive treatise ‘based on more complete data than it is now possible to obtain. Four charts have been prepared to illustrate the meteorologi- cal conditions within the area from 25° to 50° north latitude, 50° to 85° west longitude, at 7 a. m., 75th meridian time, March 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th respectively. Data for land stations have been taken from the daily weather maps published by the U.S. Signal Service, and the set of tri-daily maps covering the period of the great storm has been invaluable for reference throughout this discussion. Marine data are from reports of marine meteorology made to this office by masters of vessels, and not only from vessels within the area charted, but from many others just beyond its limits. The refined and accurate observa- tions taken with standard instruments at the same moment of absolute time all over the United States by the skilled observers of the Signal Service, together with those contributed to the Hydrographic Oftice by the voluntary co-operation of masters of vessels of every nationality, and taken with instruments com- pared with standards at the Branch Hydrographic Offices immed- - iately upon arrival in port, make it safe to say that never have the data been so complete and reliable for such a discussion at such an early date. It will not be out of place briefly to refer to certain principles of meteorology that are essential to a clear understanding of what follows. The general atmospheric movement in these lati- tudes is from west to east, and by far the greater proportion of all the areas of low barometer, or centers of more or less per- fectly developed wind systems, that traverse the United States, move along paths which cross the Great Lakes, and thence reach out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence across the Atlantic toward Iceland and northern Europe. Another very characteristic storm path may also be referred to in this connection, the curved track along which West Indian hurricanes travel up the coast. The atmospheric movement in the tropics is, generally speaking, west- ward, but a hurricane starting on a westward track soon curves off to the northwest and north, and then getting into the general east- ward trend of the temperate zone, falls into line and moves off to the northeast, circling about the western limits of the area of high barometer which so persistently overhangs the Azores and a 42 National Geographic Magazme. great elliptical area to the southwestward. The circulation of the wind about these areas of low barometer, and the correspond- ing changes of temperature, are indicated graphically on the map: the isobars, or lines of equal barometric pressure, are, as a” rule, somewhat circular in form, and the winds blow about and away from an area of “high” in a direction with the hands of a ‘watch (in nautical parlance, “with the sun”), toward and about “low” with an opposite rotary motion, or against the hands of a watch; in front of a “low” there will therefore be, in extra tropi- cal latitudes, warm southeasterly winds, and behind it cold north- westerly winds, the resulting changes of temperature being shown by the isotherms, or lines of equal temperature. Moreover, in a cyclonic system of this kind the westerly winds are generally far stronger than the easterly winds, the motion of the whole system from west to east increasing the apparent force of the former ” and decreasing that of the latter. Upon reaching the coast, such areas of low barometer, or storm systems, almost invariably develop a great increase of energy, largely due to the moisture in the atmosphere overhanging the ocean, which, when the air is chilled by contact with the cold dry ‘air rushing in from the “high,” is precipitated and becomes visible in the form of clouds, with rain or snow. The latent heat liberated by the condensa- - tion of this aqueous vapor plays a most important part in the continuance of the storm’s energy and, indeed, in its increase of energy: the warm light air flowing in towards the central area of the storm rises rapidly into regions where the pressure is less, that is, where the thickness and consequently the weight of the superincumbent atmosphere is less; it therefore rapidly expands, and such expansion would result in a much more rapid cooling, and a corresponding decrease in its tendency to rise still higher, were it not for the latent heat liberated by the condensation of — the moisture which it contains. Thus the forces that are con- spiring to increase the energy of the storm are powerfully assisted by the presence and condensation of aqueous vapor, and the increasing updraught and rarefaction are at once marked by the decreasing barometric pressure at the center. For example, a storm was central over the Great Lakes on Jan. 25th, with lowest barometer 29.7; the following day it was central off Nan- tucket, barometer 29.2; and on the 27th and 28th, over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with barometer below 28.6. But such instances are so common as to make it the rule, and not the exception. The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1888. 43 As stated above, the isobars about an area of low barometer are somewhat circular in form; more strictly speaking, they are somewhat oval or elliptical in shape, and the more elongated the north and south axis of this ellipse, the greater the resulting changes of temperature, because, as it moves along its broad path toward the Atlantic, the indraught, or suction, is felt in front far down toward the tropics, and in rear far to the northward, beyond the territorial limits of the United States. Similarly with regard to the general movement of areas of high barometer, certain laws of motion have been clearly estab- lished by means of studies of the daily international charts; instead of a motion toward east-northeast, these areas when north of the 40th parallel, have in general a motion towards east-southeast, and as a rule move more rapidly and with greater momentum than “lows,” so that they may be said to have the right of way, when the tracks of two such systems converge or intersect. These laws, or at least that relating to the Great Lake storm track, as it may be called, soon become evident to anyone who watches the weather map from day to day, upon which are charted the systems of low and high barometer as they follow one another across the continent, bringing each its charac- teristic weather. Marcu Tilses 7 ANS WIE The first of the accompanying weather charts indicates graphi- cally the meteorological conditions over the wide area charted, comprising about 3,000,000 square miles, of which one-third is land and two-thirds water. Over the land there is a long line, or trough, of low barometer, extending from the west coast of Florida up past the eastern shore of Lake Huron, and far north- ward toward the southern limits of Hudson Bay. In front of this advancing line the prevailing winds are southeasterly, and the warm moist air drawn up from southern latitudes spreads a warm wave along the coast, with generally cloudy weather and heavy rains, especially south of Hatteras; the Signal Service observer at Pensacola, for example, reports the heavy rain-fall of 4.05 inches on the 10th. About midway of this trough of low barometer there is a long narrow region of light variable winds ; of rapid changes in meteorological conditions ; calms, shifts of wind, intervals of clearing weather ; then overcast again, with cooler and fresh northwesterly winds, increasing to a gale. The +4 National Geographic Magazine. front line of this advancing battalion of cold northwesterly winds is more than a thousand miles in length, and covers the whole breadth of the United States: its right flank is on the Gulf, its left rests on the Great Lakes, or even farther north ; the tempera- ture falls rapidly at its approach, with frost far south into Louis- lana and Mississippi, and heavy snow in central Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. The long swaying line is advancing toward the coast at the rate of about 600 miles a day, followed by a ridge of high barometer reaching from Texas to Dakota and Manitoba. At points along the trough the barometer ranges from 29.70, a hundred miles north of Toronto, to 29.86 at Pitts- burg, 29.88 at Augusta, and 29.94 at Cedar Keys. Along the ridge the barometer is very high; 30.7 to the northward about Lake Winnipeg, 30.6 in Wyoming, 30 7 in Indian Territory, and 30.5 south of the Rio Grande. The difference of pressure from trough to ridge is thus measured by about an inch of mercury in the barometer. Moreover, the chart shows that there is another ridge of high barometer in advance, curving down off the coast from northern Newfoundland, where the pressure is 30.6, toward Santo Domingo, where the pressure is 30.3, and passing midway between Hatteras and Bermuda. Farther to the eastward the concentric isobars show the presence of a storm which originated about Bermuda on the 9th, and is moving off toward Europe where, in a few days, it may cause northwesterly gales with snow to the northward of its track, and southeasterly gales with rain to the southward. Storm reports from various vessels show that this storm was of hurricane violence, with heavy squalls and high seas, but it need not be referred to in this connection further than to say that it sent back a long rolling swell from northeast, felt all along the Alantic sea-board the morning of the 11th, and quite distinct from that caused by the freshening gale from the southeast. METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS OFF THE COAST. While this trough of low barometer, with all its attendant phenomena, is advancing rapidly eastward toward the Atlantic, and the cold wave in its train is spreading over towns, counties aud states—crossing the Great Lakes, moving up the Ohio valley, and extending far south over the Gulf of Mexico—we may pause for a moment to consider a factor which is to play a most im- portant part in the warfare of the elements so soon to rage with The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1888. 45 destructive violence between Hatteras and Block Island, and finally to disturb the weather of the entire North Atlantic north of the 20th parallel. The great warm ocean current called the Gulf Stream has, to most people, a more or less vague, mythical existence. The words sound familiar, but the thing itself is only an abstract idea; it lacks reality, for want of any personal experience or knowledge of its characteristic effects. To the navigator of the North Atlantic it is a reality ; it has a concrete, definite existence; it is an ele- ment which enters into the calculations of his every-day life— sometimes as a friend, to help him on his course, sometimes as an enemy, to endanger, harass, and delay. Briefly, the warm waters of the tropics are carried slowly and steadily westward by the broad equatorial drift-current, and banked up in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, there to constitute the head or source of the Gulf Stream, by which the greater portion is drained off through the straits of Florida in a comparatively narrow and swiftly moving stream. This great movement goes on unceasingly, subject, however, to certain variations which the changing seasons bring with them. As the sun advances northward in the spring, the southeast trades creep up toward and across the equator, the volume of that portion of the equatorial current which is diverted to the northward of Cape San Roque is gradually increased, and this increase is soon felt far to the westward, in the Yucatan and Florida straits. Figures fail utterly to give even an approximate idea of the amount of heat thus conveyed from the tropics to the north temperate zone by the ceaseless pulsations of this mighty engine of oceanic circulation. To put it in some tangible shape for the mind to grasp, however, suppose we consider the amount of energy, in the form of heat, that would be liberated were this great volume of water reduced in temperature to the freezing point. Suppose,.again, that we convert the number of heat-units thus obtained into units of work, so many foot-pounds, and thence ascertain the corresponding horse-power, in order to compare it with something with which we are familiar. Considering only the portion of the Gulf Stream that flows between Cape Florida and the Great Bahama bank, we find from the latest and most reliable data, collected by the U. 8. Coast and Geodetic Survey, that the area of cross section is 10.97 square miles (geographic or sea miles, of 6,086 feet each) ; mean velocity, at this time of the year, 1.305 miles per hour; mean temperature, 71° F. These 46 National Geographic Magazine. figures for mean velocity and temperature from surface to bottom are, it will be noticed, far below those for the surface current alone, where the velovity is often as great as five knots an hour, and the temperature as high as 80°. The indicated horse-power of a great ocean steamship—‘ La Bourgogne,” “ Werra,” ‘‘ Umbria” and “ City of New York,” for example—is from 9,000 to 16,000 ; that of some modern vessels of war is still greater ; the ‘‘ Vulcan,” now building for the British Government, is 20,000, and the “Sardegna,” for the Italian Government, 22,800. Again, if we convert into its equivalent horse-power the potential energy of the 270,000 cubic feet of water per second that rush down -the rapids of Niagara and make their headlong plunge of 160 feet over the American and Horse-shoe falls, we get the enormous sum of 5,847,000. The Gulf Stream, however, is every hour carrying north through the straits of Florida fourteen and three- tenths cubic miles of water (more than three thousand times the the volume of Niagara), equivalent, considering the amount of heat it contains from 71° to 32°F ., to three trillion and sixty three billion horse-power, or more than five hundred thousand times as much as all of these combined ; indeed, considering only the amount of heat from 71° to 50°, it is still two hundred and seventy-five thousand times as great. Sweeping northward toward Hatteras with its widening torrent, its volume still further increased by new supplies drawn in from the Bahamas and the northern coast of Cuba, its color a liquid — ultramarine like the dark blue of the Mediterranean, or of some deep mountain lake, it then spreads northeastward toward the Grand banks of Newfoundland, and with decreasing velocity and lower temperature gradually merges into the general easterly drift that sets toward the shores of Kurope about the 40th parallel. The cold inshore current must also be considered, because it is to great contrasts of temperature that the violence of storms is very largely due. East of Newfoundland the Labrador current flows southward, and during the spring and summer months carries gigantic icebergs and masses of field-ice into the tracks of transatlantic steamships. Upon meeting the Gulf Stream, a portion of this cold current underruns it, and continues on its course at the bottom of the sea; another portion is deflected to the southwest, and flows, counter to the Gulf Stream, along the coast as far south as Hatteras. The broad features of these great ocean currents have thus The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1888. Aq been briefly outlined, and, although they are subject to consider- able variation as to temperature, velocity, and limits, in response to the varying forces that act upon them, this general view must suffice for the present purpose. Now to consider for a moment some of the phenomena result- ing from the presence and relative positions of these ocean cur- rents, so far as such phenomena bear upon the great storm now under consideration. With the Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for March there was issued a Supplement descriptive of water-spouts off the Atlantic coast of the United States during January and February. Additional interest and importance have been given to the facts, there grouped together and published, by their evident bearing upon the conditions that gave rise to the tremendous increase of violence attendant upon the approach of this trough of low barometer toward the coast. In it were given descriptions, in greater or less detail, of as many as forty water- spouts reported by masters of vessels during these two months, at various positions off the coast, from the northern coast of Cuba to the Grand banks ; and since that Supplement was published many other similar reports have been received. Moreover, it was pointed out that the conditions that gave rise to such remarkable and dangerous phenomena are due to the interaction between the warm moist air overhanging the Gulf stream and the cold dry air brought over it by northwesterly winds from the coast, and from over the cold inshore current, and the greater the differences of temperature and moisture, the greater the resulting energy of action. Reports were also quoted showing that the Gulf Stream was beginning to re-assert itself after a period of comparative quiescence during the winter months, and with increasing strength and volume was approaching its northern limits, as the sun moved north in declination. Such, then, were the meteorological conditions off the coast, awaiting the attack of the advance guard of this long line of cold northwesterly gales,—conditions still further intensified by the freshening gale that sprung up from the southeast at its approach, drawing re-enforcements of warm, moist ocean air from far down within the tropics. The energy developed when storm systems of only ordinary character and severity reach the Atlantic on their eastward march toward northern Europe is well-known, and need not be referred to further: let us now return to the consid- eration of this storm which is advancing toward the coast at the 48 National Geographie Magazine. rate of about 600 miles a day, in the form of a great arched squall whose front is more than a thousand miles in length, and which is followed, far down the line, by northwesterly gales and tem- peratures below the freezing point. THE NiGHT OF THE 11TH-12TH. Sunday afternoon, at 3 o’clock, the line of the storm center, or trough, extended in a curved line, convex to the east, from Lake Ontario down through New York State and Pennsylvania, along about the middle of Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, across North Carolina to Point Lookout, and thence down through eastern Florida to Key West. Northeasterly, easterly, and southeasterly gales were therefore felt all along the coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Florida Keys, except in the bight between Look- out and Cafiaveral, where the barometer had already reached and: passed its lowest point and the wind was northwest, with much cooler weather. Reference to the Barometer Diagram shows. pretty clearly that the trough passed Norfolk a short time before it reached Hatteras, where the lowest reading was undoubtedly lower, the evening of the 11th, than it was at Norfolk. By 10 P. M. the line has advanced as far east as the 74th meridian. Telegraphic reports are soon all in from signal stations along the coast. The barometer is rising at Hatteras and Nor- folk and still falling at Atlantic City, New York, and Block Island, but there is little or no indication of the fury of the storm off shore along the 74th meridian, from the 30th to the 40th parallel, where the cold northwesterly gale is sweeping over the great warm ocean current, carrying air at a temperature below the freezing point over water above 75° Fahrenheit, and where the barometer is falling more and more rapidly, the gale becoming a storm, and the storm a hurricane. Nor are there any indications that the area of high barometer about Newfoundland is slowing down, blocking the advance of the rapidly increasing storm, and> about to hold the center of the line in check to the westward of Nantucket for days, which seem like weeks, while a terrific north- west gale plays havoc along the coast from Montauk Point to Hatteras, and until the right flank of the line has swung around to the eastward far enough to cut off the supply of warm moist air pouring in from the southeast. Long before midnight the welcome “ good night” message has flashed along the wires to all the signal stations from the Atlantic to the Pacific slope, whilst —— The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1888. 49 at sea, aboard scores of vessels, from the little fishing-schooner and pilot-boat to the great transatlantic liner, a life-or-death struggle with the elements is being waged, with heroism none the less real because it is in self-defence, and none the less admirable because it cannot always avert disaster. The accompanying Track Chart gives the tracks of as many vessels as can be shown without confusion, and illustrates very clearly where data for this discussion are most complete, as well as where additional information is specially needed. Thus it is here plainly evident that vessels are always most numerous to the eastward of New York (along the transatlantic route), and to the southward, off the coast. To the southeastward, however, about the Bermudas, there is a large area from which comparatively few reports have been received, although additional data will doubtless be obtained from outward-bound sailing vessels, upon their return. Of all the days in the week, Saturday, in particular, is the day on which the greatest number of vessels sail from New York. The 10th of March, for instance, as many as eight trans- atlantic liners got under way. Out in mid-ocean there were plowing their way toward our coast, to encounter the storm west of the 50th meridian, one steamship bound for Halifax, five for Boston, nineteen for New York, one for Philadelphia, one for Baltimore, and two for New Orleans. Northward bound, off the coast, were six more, not to mention here the many sailing vessels engaged in the coasting-or foreign trade, whose sails whiten the waters of our coasts. Of all the steamships that sailed from New York on the 10th, those bound south, with hardly a single exception, encountered the storm in all its fury, off the coast. Hastward-bound vessels escaped its greatest violence, although all met with strong head winds and heavy seas, and, had the storm not delayed between Block Island and Nantucket on the 12th and 13th, would have been overtaken by it off the Grand banks. Without quoting in detail the reports received, let us see what they indicate regarding the general character of the storm during the night, preparatory to our consideration of the weather chart for 7 A. M. March 12th. To do so, be it remembered, is a very different task from that which is involved in the study and comparison of. ob- servations taken with standard instruments at fixed stations ashore. Here our stations are constantly changing their posi- tions ; different observers read the instruments at different hours; 4 50 National Geographic Magazme. the instruments themselves vary greatly in quality, and while some of them may have been compared with standards very recently, there are others whose errors are only approximately known. Moreover, when a vessel is pitching and rolling in a storm at sea, in imminent danger of foundering, it is, of course, impossible to set the vernier of the barometer scale and read off the height of the mercury with very great precision. It will thus be readily understood that the many hundreds of observa- tions carefully taken and recorded for the Hydrographic Office by masters of vessels are necessarily more or less discordant, although the results obtained rest on the averages of so many reports that the probable error is always very small. An exhaus- tive study of reports from vessels at various positions along the coast, from the Straits of Florida to Sandy Hook, together with the records of the coast stations of the U. 8. Signal Service, indi- cates a continuous eastward movement of the trough of low bar- ometer during the night, accompanied by a rapid deepening of the depression. All along the coast we have the same sequence of phenomena, in greater or less intensity, according to the lati- tude of the vessel, as we noticed here in Washington that Sun- day afternoon, when the warm southeasterly wind, with rain, — died out, and after a short pause a cold northwesterly gale swept through the city, piling up the snow in heavy drifts, with trains belated or blockaded, and telegraphic communication cut off almost entirely with the outer world. It was a wild, stormy night ashore, but it was ten-fold more so off the coast, where the lights at Hatteras, Currituck, Assateague, Barnegat, and Sandy Hook mark the outline of one of the most dangerous coasts the navigator has to guard against. To bring the scene vividly before the mind would require far more time than I have at my disposal, and I can only regret that I cannot quote a few reports to give some idea of the violence of the storm. By means of a careful comparison of many reports, it 1s evident that although the general trough-like form of the storm remained, yet another secondary storm center, and one of very great energy, formed off shore, north of Hatteras, as soon as the line had passed the coast. It was this center, fully equal to a tropical hur- ricane in violence, and rendered still more dangerous by freezing weather and blinding snow, which raged with such fury off Sandy Hook and Block Island for two days,—days likely to be long mem- orable along the coast. Its long continuance was probably due to The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1888. 51 the retardation of the center of the line, in its eastward motion, by the area of high barometer about Newfoundland ; thus this storm center delayed between Block Island and Nantucket while the northern and southern flanks of the line swung around to the eastward, the advance of the lower one gradually cutting off the supply of warm moist air rushing up from lower latitudes into contact with the cold northwesterly gale sweeping down from off the coast between Hatteras and Montauk point. So far as the ocean is concerned, the 12th of March saw the great storm at its maximum, and its wide extent and terrific violence make it one of the most severe ever experienced off our coast. The deepening of the depression is well illustrated by the fact that the lowest reading of the barometer at 7 a. M. was 29.88, at Augusta, Ga.; at 3 Pp. m., 29.68, at Wilmington, N. C.; at 1l p.m, on board the “Andes,” 29.35; and at 7 a. m., the following morn- ing it was as low as 29.20,—an average rate of decrease of pressure at the center of very nearly .23 in eight hours, and a maximum, from reliable observations, of .33. MARCH 12TH, 13TH, AND 14TH. The Weather Chart for 7 a. m., March 12th, shows the line, or trough, with isobars closely crowded together southward of Block Island, but still of a general elliptical shape, the lower portion of the line swinging eastward toward Bermuda, and carrying with it violent squalls of rain and hail far below the 35th parallel. The high land of Cuba and Santo Domingo prevented its effects from reaching the Caribbean Sea, although it was distinctly noticed by a vessel south of Cape Maysi, in the Windward chan- nel, where there were three hours of very heavy rain, and a shift of windto NW by N. The isotherm of 32° F. reaches from Cen- tral Georgia. to the coast below Norfolk, and thence out over the Atlantic to a point about one hundred miles south of Block Island, and thence due north, inshore of Cape Cod, explaining the fact that so little snow, comparatively, fell in Rhode Island and south- eastern Massachusetts ; from about Cape Ann it runs eastward to Cape Sable, and farther east it is carried southward again by the northeasterly winds off the Grand banks. These northeasterly winds are part of the cyclonic system shown to the eastward of this and the preceding chart ; farther south they become north- ° erly and northwesterly, and it will be noticed that they have now carried the isotherm of 70° below the limits of the chart. Thus 52 National Geographic Magazme. this chart shows very clearly the positions of warm and cold waves relative to such cyclonic systems: first there is this cool wave in rear of the eastern cyclonic system, then a warm wave in front of the system advancing from the coast, and finally a cold wave of marked intensity following in its train. 3 It was probably during the night of the 12th that the lowest barometric pressure and the steepest gradients occurred. Although several vessels report lower readings, yet a careful consideration of all the data at hand indicates that about the lowest reliable readings are those taken at 10 p. m. at Wood’s Holl, Mass. (28.92), Nantucket (28.93), Providence, R. I. (28.98), and Block Island (29.00). The steepest barometic gradients, so far as indicated by data at hand, are also those that occurred at this time, and are as follows, taking Block Island as the initial point and distances in nautical miles: at New London, 26 miles, the barometer stood 29.11, giving a difference of pressure in 15 miles of .063 inch 5 New Haven, 62 miles, 29.36, .087; New York, 116 miles, 29.64, 083; Albany, 126 miles, 29.76,.090. At 7 a. M. the following day, very low readings are also reported: New Bedford, Mass.,. 28.91, Block Island, 28.92, and Wood’s Holl, 28.96. The chart for 7 4. m., March 13th, shows a marked decrease in the intensity of the storm, although the area over which stormy winds are blowing is still enormous, comprising, as it does, almost — the entire region charted. From the Great Lakes and northern Vermont to the northern coast of Cuba the wind is blowing a gale from a direction almost invariably northwest, whilst westerly winds and low temperatures have spread over a wide tract of ocean south of the 40th parallel. North of this parallel, the pre- vailing winds are easterly, the isobars extending in a general easterly and westerly direction. At the storm center off Block Island the pressure is 28.90, but the gradients are not so steep as on the preceding chart, and the severity of the storm, both ashore and at sea, has begun to diminish. About this center, too, the isobars are noticeably circular in form, showing that, althou al it first formed as an elliptical area, it gradually assumed the charac- ter of a true revolving storm, remaining almost stationary between Block Island and Nantucket until it had actually “blown itself out,” while the great storm of which it was a conspicuous but not essential part was continuing its eastward progress. The enor- mous influx of cold air brought down by the long continued northwesterly gale is graphically shown on this chart by the The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1588. 58 large extent and deepening intensity of the blue tint, where the temperatures are below the freezing point. From the northwest- ern to the southeastern portion of the chart we find a difference in temperature of more than 80° F. (from below —10° to above 70°); the steepest barometric gradient is found to the northwest ° of Block Island, where the pressure varies 1.80 inches in 750 miles (gradient, .036 inch in 15 nautical miles), and .66 inch in 126 miles (Block Island to Albany, N. Y.; gradient, .079). On the chart for 7 a. m., March 14th, the depression off Block Island has almost filled up, and the stormy winds have died out and become light and variable, with occasional snow squalls. The other storm center has now regained its ascendency, and is situated about two hundred miles southeast from Sable Island, with a pressure about 29.3. The great wave of low barometer has over- spread the entire western portion of the North Atlantic, with un- settled squally weather from Labrador to the Windward Islands. The area of high pressure in advance has moved eastward, to be felt over the British Isles from the 17th to the 21st of the month, followed by a rapid fall of the barometer as this great atmos- pheric disturbance moves along its circuit round the northern hemisphere. The isotherm of 32° is still south of Hatteras, reaching well out off shore, and thence northward, tangent to Cape Cod, as far as central Maine, and thence eastward to St. Johns, Newfoundland. Great contrasts of temperature and pressure are still indicated, but considerably less marked than on the preceding chart, and the normal conditions are being gradu- ally restored. CONCLUSION. The great storm that has thus been briefly described, as well as can be done from the data now at hand and in the limited time at our disposal, has furnished a most striking and instructive exam- ple of a somewhat unusual class of storms, and this on such a grand scale, and ina part of the world where the data for its study are so complete, that it must long remain a memorable instance. Instead of a more or less circular area of low barometer at the storm center, there is here a great trough of “low” between two ridges of “high,” the whole system moving rapidly eastward, and including “within the are of its majestic sweep,” almost the entire width of the temperate zone. The “trough phenomena,” as an eminent meteorologist has called the violent squalls, with shifts 54 National Geographic Magazme. of wind and change of conditions at about the time of lowest barometer, are here illustrated most impressively. Such’ changes are, of course, to be expected and guarded against in every storm, and sailors have long ago summed them up, to store away in memory for practical use when occasion demands, in the well- known lines,— ‘‘ First rise after low Indicates a stronger blow.” One thing to which attention is particularly called is the fact that storms of only ordinary severity are likely, upon reaching the coast, to develop greatly increased energy. As has been already pointed out, there can be no doubt but that this is espe- cially so in a storm of this kind, where the isobars are elongated in a north and south direction. The accompanying Barometer Diagram, if studied in connection with the Track Chart and the Weather Chart for March 11th, illustrates very clearly this. deepening of the depression at the storm center. The formation and persistency off Block Island of a secondary storm center of such energy as was developed in this case, however, it would seem wholly impossible to have foretold, and a prediction to that effect made under similar circumstances would probably prove wrong in at least nine cases out of ten. But it may be safely said that the establishment of telegraphic signal stations at out- lying points off the coast is a matter of great importance, not only to our extensive shipping interests, but to the people of all our great seaboard cities as well. To the northward, telegraphic reports from such stations would furnish data by which to watch the movement of areas of high barometer, upon which that of the succeeding ‘“‘ low ” so largely depends; and to the southward, to give warning of the approach and progress of the terrific hur- ricanes which, summer after summer, bring devastation and destruction along our Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and of which this great storm is an approximate example and a timely remin- der. In this connection, also, there is another important result to be gained: scientific research and practical inventive genius, advancing hand in hand for the benefit of mankind, have dis- covered not only the laws governing the formation of the dense banks of fog that have made the Grand Banks dreaded by navigators but also the means by which certain facts may be observed, telegraphed, charted, and studied a thousand miles. away, and the occurrence of fog predicted with almost unfailing The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1888. DD accuracy, even whilst the very elements themselves are only pre- paring for its formation. By means of such predictions, the safety of navigation along the greatest highway of ocean traffic in the world would be vastly increased,—routes traversed yearly at almost railway speed by vessels intrusted with more than a million human lives, and property of an aggregate value of fully a billion dollars. What is everybody’s business is too often nobody’s business, and if no single nation is going to undertake. this work, an international congress should be formed to do so, with full authority to act and power to enforce its decisions. Probably nothing will more forcibly attract the attention of the practical navigator than the new and striking illustrations which have been furnished by reports from various masters of vessels, caught in the terrific winds and violent cross seas of this great storm, relative to the use of oil to prevent heavy broken seas from coming on board. Although this property of oil has been known from time immemorial, it has only recently come into general use, and it is good cause for congratulation, con- sidering the great benefits to be so easily and so cheaply gained, that the U. 8. Hydrographic Office is acknowledged to have taken the lead in the revival of knowledge regarding it, and in its practical use at sea. It is difficult to select one from among the many reports at hand, but the following brief extract from the report made by boat-keeper Robinson, in behalf of the pilots of New York pilot-boat No. 3 (the “Charles H. Marshall”), can- not fail to be read with interest. The gallant and successful struggle made by the crew of this little vessel for two long days and nights against such terrific odds is one of the most thrilling incidents of the storm, and well illustrates the dangers to which these hardy men are constantly exposed. The “Charles H. Marshall” was off Barnegat the forenoon of the 11th, and, as the weather looked threatening, two more reefs were put in tlie sails and she was headed to the northward, in- tending to run into port for shelter. During the afternoon the breeze increased to a strong gale, and sail was r-duced still further. When about 18 miles 8.E. from the ligbcuship, a dense fog shut in, and it was decided to remain outsite and ride out the storm. The wind hauled to the eastward toward midnight, and at 3 a. m. it looked so threatening in the ).W. that a fourth reef was taken in the mainsail and the fores;il was treble-reeted. In half an hour the wind died out completely, and the vessel lay 56 National Geographic Magazine. in the trough of a heavy 8.E. sea, that was threatening every moment to engulf her. She was then about 12 miles E.S.E. from Sandy Hook lightship, and in twenty minutes the gale struck her with such force from N.W. that she was thrown on her beam ends; she instantly righted again, however, but in two hours was so covered with ice that she looked like a small ice- berg. By 8 a.m. the wind had increased to a hurricane, the little vessel pitching and tossing in a terrific cross-sea, and only by the united efforts of the entire crew was it possible to partially lower and lash down the foresail and fore-staysail. No one but those on board can realize the danger she was in from the huge breaking seas that rolled down upon her; the snow and rain came with such force that it was impossible to look to wind- ward, and the vessel was lying broadside to wind and sea. A drag was rigged with a heavy log, anchor, and hawser, to keep her head to sea and break the force of the waves, but it had . little effect, and it was evident that something must be done to save the vessel. Three oil bags were made of duck, half filled with oakum saturated with oil, and hung over the side forward, amidships, and on the weather quarter. It is admitted that this is all that saved the boat and the lives of all on board, for the oil prevented the seas from breaking, and they swept past as heavy rolling swells. Another drag was rigged and launched, although not without great exertion and danger, and this helped a little. Heavy iron bolts had to be put in the oil bags to keep them in the water, and there the little vessel lay, fighting for life against the storm, refilling the oil bags every half hour, and fearing every instant that some passing vessel would run her down, as it was impossible to see a hundred feet in any direction. The boat looked like a wreck; she was covered with ice and it seemed impossible for her to remain afloat until daylight. The oi-hags were replenished every haif hour during the night, all hands isking turn about to go on deck and fill them, crawling along the Jeck on hands and knees and secured with a rope in case of bein»y washed overboard. Just before midnight’a heavy sea struck the boat and sent her over on her side; everything movable was ttrown to leeward, and the water rushed down the forward hatch. But again she righted, and the fight went on. The morning of tre 13th, it was still blowing with hurricane force, the wind shri+king past in terrific squalls. It cleared up a little towards evening, and she wore around to head to the The Great Storm of March 11-14, 1888. oN northward and eastward, but not without having her deck swept by a heavy sea. It moderated and cleared up the next day, and after five hours of hard work the vessel was cleared of ice, and sail set for home. She had been driven 100 miles before the storm, fighting every inch of the way, her crew without a chance to sleep, frost-bitten, clothes drenched and no dry ones to put on, food and fuel giving out, but they brought her into port without the loss of a spar or a sail, and she took her station on the bar as usual. | Do the pages of history contain the record of a more gallant fight! Nothing could show more graphically than this brief report, the violence and long duration of the storm. No wonder that this terrific northwest gale drove the ocean itself before it, so that the very tides did not resume their normal heights for nearly a week at certain ports along the coast, and the Gulf Stream itself was far south of its usual limits. The damage and - destruction wrought ashore are too fresh in mind to be referred to here, and losses along the coast can only be mentioned briefly. Below Hatteras there was little damage done to shipping. In Chesapeake Bay, 2 barks, 77 schooners, and 17 sloops were blown ashore, sunk, or damaged; in Delaware Bay, 37 vessels; along the New Jersey coast and in the Horse-shoe at Sandy Hook, 13; in New York harbor and along the Long Island coast, 20; and along the New England coast, 9. The names of six vessels that were abandoned at sea-have been reported, and there are at least nine others missing, among them the lamented New York pilot boats “ Phantom” and “ Enchantress,” and the yacht ‘ Cythera.” Several of these abandoned vessels have taken their places amongst the derelicts whose positions and erratic tracks are plotted each month on the Pilot Chart, that other vessels may be warned of the danger of collision; the sch. “W. L. White,” for instance, started off to the eastward in the Gulf Stream, and will soon become a source of anxiety to the captains of steam- ships along the transatlantic route, and furnish a brief sensation to the passengers when she is sighted. There is thus an in- tensely human side to the history of a great ocean storm, and to one who reads these brief records of facts and at the same time gives some little play to his imagination, there is a very pathetic side to the picture. In the words of Longfellow,— 5 Or OO. - National Geographic Magazine. ‘T see the patient mother read, With aching heart, of wrecks that float Disabled on those seas remote, Or of some great heroic deed On battle fields, where thousands bleed To lift one hero into fame. 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To look from these hills into the lower lands is but, as it were, into an ocean of woods, swelled and deprest here and there by little inequalities, not to be distinguished one part from another any more than the The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 187 waves of the real ocean. The uniformity of these mountains, though debarring us of an advantage in this respect, makes some amends in another. They are very regular in their courses, and confine the creeks and rivers that run between ; and if we know where the gaps are that let through these streams, we are not at a loss to lay down their most considerable inflections. ..... “To the northwestward of the Endless mountains is a country of vast extent, and ina manner as high as the mountains them- selves. ‘To look at the abrupt termination of it, near the sea level, as is the case on the west side of Hudson’s river below Albany, it looks as a vast high mountain ; for the Kaats Kills, though of more lofty stature than any other mountains in these parts of America, are but the continuation of the Plains on the top, and the cliffs of them in the front they present towards Kinderhook. These Upper Plains are of extraordinary rich level land, and extend from the Mohocks river through the country of the Confederates.* Their termination northward is at a little distance from Lake Ontario; but what it is westward is not known, for those most extensive plains of Ohio are part of them.” These several districts recognized by Evans may be summar- ized as the coastal plain, of nearly horizontal Cretaceous and later beds, just entering the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania ; the marginal upland of contorted schists of disputed age; the South Mountain belt of ancient and much disturbed crystalline rocks, commonly called Archean; a space between these two traversed by the sandstone lowland of the Newark formation 3+ the great Appalachian valley of crowded Cambrian limestones and slates; the region of the even-crested, linear Paleozoic ridges, bounded by Kittatinny or Blue mountain on the south- east and by Alleghany mountain on the northwest, this being the area with which we are here most concerned ; and finally the Alleghany plateau, consisting of nearly horizontal Devonian and Carboniferous beds and embracing all the western part of the state. The whole region presents the most emphatic expression not only of its structure but also of the more recent cycles of development through which it has passed. Fig. 1 represents the stronger ridges and larger streams of the greater part of the cen- tral district : it is reproduced from the expressive Topographic Map of Pennsylvania (1871) by Lesley. The Susquehanna flows down the middle, receiving the West Branch from Lock Haven * Referring to the league of Indian tribes, so-called. + Russell has lately recommended the revival of this term, proposed many years ago by Redfield, as a non-committal name for the ‘‘ New red sandstones” of our Atlantic slope, commonly called Triassic. aol QS ~ Cs) 401807 “gf Sq. ‘ves Asuue SS et eT d jo dey ovydeasodog, jo weg | Dig <= Com, TTA Pen epee TS SI sea) <9: The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 189 and Williamsport, the East Branch from Wilkes-Barre in the Wyoming basin, and the Juniata from the Broad Top region, south of Huntingdon. The Anthracite basins lie on the right, enclosed by zigzag ridges of Pocono and Pottsville sandstone; the Plateau, trenched by the West Branch of the Susquehanna is in the northwest. Medina sandstone forms most of the central ridges. . 3. The drainage of Pennsylvania.—The greater part of the Alleghany plateau is drained westward into the Ohio, and with this we shall have little todo. The remainder of the plateau drainage reaches the Atlantic by two rivers, the Delaware and the Susquehanna, of which the latter is the more special object of our study. The North and West Branches of the Susque- hanna rise in the plateau, which they traverse in deep valleys ; thence they enter the district of the central ranges, where they unite and flow in broad lowlands among the even-crested ridges. The Juniata brings the drainage of the Broad Top region to the main stream just before their confluent current cuts across the marginal Blue Mountain. The rock-rimmed basins of the anthra- cite region are drained by small branches of the Susquehanna northward and westward, and by the Schuylkill and Lehigh to the south and east. The Delaware, which traverses the plateau between the Anthracite region and the Catskill Mountain front, together with the Lehigh, the Schuylkill, the little Swatara and the Susquehanna, cut the Blue Mountain by fine water-gaps, and cross the great limestone valley.. The Lehigh then turns east- ward and joins the Delaware, and the Swatara,. turns westward to the Susquehanna ; but the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna all continue across South Mountain and the Newark belt, and into the low plateau of schists beyond. The Schuylkill unites with the Delaware near Philadelphia, just below the inner margin of the coastal plain; the Delaware and the Susquehanna con- tinue in their deflected estuaries to the sea. All of these rivers and many of their side streams are at present sunk in small valleys of moderate depth and width, below the general surface of the lowlands, and are more or less complicated with terrace gravels. 4, Previous studies of Appalachian drainage.—There have been no special studies of the history of the rivers of Pennsyl- vania in the light of what is now known of river development. A few recent essays of rather general character as far as our rivers are concerned, may be mentioned. 190 National Geographie Magazine. Peschel examined our rivers chiefly by means of general maps with little regard to the structure and complicated history of the region. He concluded that the several transverse rivers which break through the mountains, namely, the Delaware, Susquehanna and Potomac, are guided by fractures, anterior to the origin of the rivers.* There does not seem to be sufficient evidence to support this obsolescent view, for most of the water-gaps are located independently of fractures ; nor can Peschel’s method of river study be trusted as leading to safe conclusions. Tietze regards our transverse valleys as antecedent ;+ but this was made only as a general suggestion, for his examination of the structure and development of the region is too brief to estab- lish this and exclude other views.t Léwl questions the conclusion reached by Tietze and ascribes the transverse gaps to the backward or headwater erosion of ex- ternal streams, a process which he has done much to bring into its present important position, and which for him replaces the persistence of antecedent streams of other authors.{ A brief article§ that I wrote in comment on Léwl’s first essay several years ago now seems to me insufficient in its method. It exaggerated the importance of antecedent streams; it took no sufficient account of the several cycles of erosion through which the region has certainly passed ; and it neglected due considera- tion of the readjustment of initial immature stream courses dur- ing more advanced river-life. Since then, a few words in Léwl’s essay have come to have more and more significance to me; he says that in mountain systems of very great age, the original arrangement of the longitudinal valleys often becomes entirely confused by means of their conquest by transverse erosion gaps. This suggestion has been so profitable to me that I have placed the original sentence at the beginning of this paper. Its thesis is the essential element of my present study. ; Phillipson refers to the above-mentioned authors and gives a brief account of the arrangement of drainage areas within our Appalachians, but briefly dismisses the subject.|| His essay con- tains a serviceable bibliography. If these several earlier essays have not reached any precise *Physische Erdkunde, 1880, ii, 442. + Jahrbuch Geol. Reichsanstalt, xxviii, 1878, 600. t Pet. Mitth., 1882, 405 ; Ueber Thalbildung, Prag, 1884. $ Origin of Cross-valleys. Science, i, 1883, 325. | Studien tiber Wasserscheiden. Leipsig, 1886, 149. The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylwania. ISU conclusion, it may perhaps be because the details of the geologi- cal structure and development of Pennsylvania have not been sufficiently examined. Indeed, unless the reader has already be- come familiar with the geological maps and reports of the Penn- sylvania surveys and is somewhat acquainted with its geography, I shall hardly hope to make my case clear to him. The volumes that should be most carefully studied are, first, the always inspir- ing classic, “Coal and its Topography” (1856), by Lesley, in which the immediate relation of our topography to the under- lying structure is so finely described ; the Geological Map of Pennsylvania (1856), the result of the labors of the first survey of the state ; and the Geological Atlas of Counties, Volume X of the second survey (1885). Besides these, the ponderous volumes of the final report of the first survey and numerous reports on separate counties by the second survey should be examined, as they contain many accounts of the topography although saying very little about its development. If, in addition to all this, the reader has seen the central district of the state and marvelled at its even-crested, straight and zigzag ridges, and walked through its narrow water-gaps into the enclosed coves that they drain, he may then still better follow the considerations here presented. PaRT SECOND. Outline of the geological history of the region. 5. Conditions of formation.—The region in which the Susque- hanna and the neighboring rivers are now located is built in chief part of marine sediments derived in paleozoic time from a large land area to the southeast, whose northwest coast-line probably crossed Pennsylvania somewhere in the southeastern part of the state; doubtless varying its position, however, by many miles as the sea advanced and receded in accordance with the changes in the relative altitudes of the land and water surfaces, such as have been discussed by Newberry and Claypole. The sediments thus accumulated are of enormous thickness, measuring twenty or thirty thousand feet from their crystalline foundation to the uppermost layer now remaining. The whole mass is essentially conformable in the central part of the state. Some of the forma- tions are resistent, and these have determined the position of our ridges ; others are weaker and are chosen as the sites of valleys and lowlands. The first are the Oneida and Medina sandstones, which will be here generally referred to under the latter name alone, the Pocono sandstone and the Pottsville conglomerate ; to these may be added the fundamental crystalline mass on which 192 National Geographic Magazme. the whole series of bedded formations was deposited, and the basal sandstone that is generally associated with it. Wherever we now see these harder rocks, they rise above the surrounding lowland surface. On the other hand, the weaker beds are the Cambrian limestones (Trenton) and slates (Hudson River), all the Silurian except the Medina above named, the whole of the Devonian—in which however there are two hard beds of subordi- nate value, the Oriskany sandstone and a Chemung sandstone and conglomerate, that form low and broken ridges over the softer ground on either side of them—and the Carboniferous (Mauch Chunk) red shales and some of the weaker sandstones (Coal measures). 6. Former extension of strata to the southeast.—We are not much concerned with the conditions under which this great series of beds was formed ; but, as will appear later, it is important for us to recognize that the present southeastern margin of the beds is not by any means their original margin in that direction. It is probable that the whole mass of deposits, with greater or less variations of thickness, extended at least twenty miles southeast of Blue Mountain, and that many of the beds extended much farther. The reason for this conclusion is a simple one. The several resistant beds above-mentioned consist of quartz sand and pebbles that cannot be derived from the underlying beds of limestones and shales ; their only known source lay in the crys- talline rocks of the paleozoic land to the southeast. South Moun- tain may possibly have made part of this paleozoic land ; but it seems more probable that it was land only during the earlier Archean age, and that it was submerged and buried in Cambrian time and not again brought to the light of day until it had been crushed into many local anticlines* whose crests were uncovered by Permian and later erosion. The occurrence of Cambrian limestone on either side of South Mountain, taken with its com- pound anticlinal structure, makes it likely that Medina time found this crystalline area entirely covered by the Cambrian beds ; Medina sands must therefore have come from farther still to the southeast. A similar argument applies to the source of the Pocono and Pottsville beds. The measure of twenty miles as the former southeastern extension of the paleozoic formations there- fore seems to be a moderate one for the average of the whole series ; perhaps forty would be nearer the truth. * Lesley, as below. The Riwers und Valleys of Pennsylvania. 193 7. Cambro-Silurian and Permian deformations.—This great series of once horizontal beds is now wonderfully distorted ; but the distortions follow a general rule of trending northeast and southwest, and of diminishing in intensity from southeast to northwest. In the Hudson Valley, it is well known that a con- siderable disturbance occurred between Cambrian and Silurian time, for there the Medina lies unconformably on the Hudson River shales. It seems likely, for reasons that will be briefly given later on, that the same disturbance extended into Pennsyl- vania and farther southwest, but that it affected only the south- eastern corner of the State; and that the unconformities in evidence of it, which are preserved in the Hudson Valley, are here lost by subsequent erosion. Waste of the ancient land and its Cambro-Silurian annex still continued and furnished vast beds of sandstone and sandy shales to the remaining marine area, until at last the subsiding Paleozoic basin was filled up and the coal marshes extended broadly across it. At this time we may picture the drainage of the southeastern land area wandering rather slowly across the great Carboniferous plains to the still submerged basin far to the west ; a condition of things that is not imperfectly represented, although in a somewhat more advanced stage, by the existing drainage of the mountains of the Carolinas across the more modern coastal plain to the Atlantic. This condition was interrupted by the great Permian deforma- tion that gave rise to the main ranges of the Appalachians in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Tennessee. The Permian name seems appropriate here, for while the deformation may have begun at an earlier date, and may have continued into Triassic time, its culmination seems to have been within Permian limits. It was characterized by a resistless force of compression, exerted in a southeast-northwest line, in obedience to which the whole series of Paleozoic beds, even twenty or more thousand feet in thickness, was crowded gradually into great and small folds, trending north- ' east and southwest. The subjacent Archean terrane doubtless shared more or less in the disturbance: for example, South Mountain is described by Lesley as “not one mountain, but a system of mountains separated by valleys. It is, geologically considered, a system of anticlinals with troughs between. ..... It appears that the South Mountain range ends eastward [in Cumberland and York Counties] in a hand with five [anticlinal | fingers.”* * Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., xiii, 1873, 6. 194 National Geographic Magazine. It may be concluded with fair probability that the folds began to rise in the southeast, where they are crowded closest together, some of them having begun here while coal marshes were still forming farther west ; and that the last folds to be begun were the fainter ones on the plateau, now seen in Negro mountain and Chestnut and Laurel ridges. In consequence of the inequalities in the force of compression or in the resistance of the yielding mass, the folds do not continue indefinitely with horizontal axes, but vary in height, rising or falling away in great variety. Several adjacent folds often follow some general control in this respect, their axes rising and falling together. It is to an unequal yielding of this kind that we owe the location of the Anthracite synclinal basins in eastern Pennsylvania, the Coal Measures being now worn away from the prolongation of the synclines, which rise in either direction. 8. Perm-Triassie denudation.—During and for a long time after this period of mountain growth, the destructive processes of erosion wasted the land and lowered its surface. An enormous amount of material was thus swept away and laid down in some unknown ocean bed. We shall speak of this as the Perm-Triassic period of erosion. A measure of its vast accomplishment is seen when we find that the Newark formation, which is generally cor- related with Triassic or Jurassic time, lies unconformably on the eroded surface of Cambrian and Archean rocks in the southeastern part of the State, where we have concluded that the Paleozoic series once existed ; where the strata must have risen in a great mountain mass as a result of the Appalachian deformations ; and whence they must therefore have been denuded before the depo- sition of the Newark beds. Not only so; the moderate sinuosity of the southeastern or under boundary of the Newark formation indicates clearly enough that the surface on which that portion of the formation lies is one of no great relief or inequality ; and ‘such a surface can be carved out of an elevated iand only after long continued denudation, by which topographic development is carried beyond the time of its greatest strength or maturity into the fainter expression of old age. This is a matter of some importance in our study of the development of the rivers of Pennsylvania ; and it also constitutes a good part of the evidence already referred to as indicating that there must have been some earlier deformations of importance in the southeastern part of the State ; for it is hardly conceivable that the great Paleozoic The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 195 mass could have been so deeply worn off of the Newark belt between the making of the last of the coal beds and the first of the Newark. It seems more in accordance with the facts here recounted and with the teachings of geologicai history in general to suppose, as we have here, that something of the present deformation of the ancient rocks underlying the Newark beds was given at an early date, such as that of the Green Mountain growth ; and that a certain amount of the erosion of the folded beds was thus made possible in middle Paleozoic time; then again at some later date, as Permian, a second period of mountain growth arrived, and further folding was effected, and after this came deeper erosion; thus dividing the destructive work that was done into several parts, instead of crowding it all into the post-Carboniferous time ordinarily assigned to it. It is indeed not impossible that an important share of what we have called the Permian deformation was, as above suggested, accomplished in the southeastern part of the State while the coal beds were yet forming in the west ; many grains of sand in the sandstones of the Coal Measures may have had several temporary halts in other sandstone beds between the time of their first erosion from the Archean rocks and the much later time when they found the resting place that they now occupy.* 9. Newark deposition.—After the great Paleozoic and Perm- Triassic erosions thus indicated, when the southeastern area of ancient mountains had been well worn down and the Permian folds of the central district had acquired a well developed drainage, there appeared an opportunity for local deposition in the slow depression of a northeast-southwest belt of the deeply wasted land, across the southeastern part of the State ; and into this trough-like depression, the waste from the adjacent areas on elther side was carried, building the Newark formation. This may be referred to as the Newark or Trias-Jurassic period of deposition. The volume of this formation is unknown, as its thickness and original area are still undetermined; but it is pretty surely of many thousand feet in vertical measure, and its original area may have been easily a fifth or a quarter in excess of its present area, if not larger yet. So great a local accumula- tion seems to indicate that while the belt of deposition was * These considerations may have value in showing that the time in which the lateral crushing of the Appalachians was accomplished was not so brief as is stated by Reade in a recent article in the American Geologist, iii, 1889, 106. 196 National Geographic Magazme. sinking, the adjacent areas were rising, in order to furnish a con- tinual supply of material ; the occurrence of heavy conglomerates along the margins of the Newark formation confirms this suppo- sition, and the heavy breccias near Reading indicate the occur- rence of a strong topography and a strong transporting agent to the northwest of this part of the Newark belt. It will be neces- sary, when the development of the ancestors of our present rivers is taken up, to consider the effects of the depression that determined the locus of Newark deposition and of the adjacent elevation that maintained a supply of material. 10. Jurassic tilting—Newark deposition was stopped by a gradual reversal of the conditions that introduced it. The depression of the Newark belt was after a time reversed into elevation, accompanied by a peculiar tilting, and again the waste of the region was carried away to some unknown resting place. This disturbance, which may be regarded as a revival of the Permian activity, culminated in Jurassic, or at least in post- Newark time, and resulted in the production of the singular monoclinal attitude of the formation ; and as far as I can cor- relate it with the accompanying change in the underlying struc- tures, it involved there an over-pushing of the closed folds of the Archean and Paleozoic rocks. This is illustrated in figs. 2 and 3, MGs Do. ine, Bs in which the original and disturbed attitudes of the Newark and the underlying formations are roughly shown, the over-pushing of the fundamental folds causing the monoclinal and probably faulted structure in the overlying beds.* If this be true, we might suspect that the unsymmetrical attitude of the Appalachian folds, noted by Rogers as a characteristic of the range, is a feature that was intensified if not originated in Jurassic and not in Permian time. * Amer. Journ. Science, xxxii, 1886, 342; and Seventh Ann. Rept. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1888, 486. The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 197 It is not to be supposed that the Jurassic deformation was limited to the area of the Newark beds ; it may have extended some way on either side; but it presumably faded out at no great distance, for it has not been detected in the history of the Atlantic and Mississippi regions remote from the Newark belt. In the district of the central folds of Pennsylvania, with which we are particularly concerned, this deformation was probably expressed in a further folding and over-pushing of the already partly folded beds, with rapidly decreasing effect to the north- west ; and perhaps also by slip-faults, which at the surface of the ground nearly followed the bedding planes : but this is evidently hypothetical to a high degree. The essential point for our sub- sequent consideration is that the Jurassic deformation was prob- ably accompanied by a moderate elevation, for it allowed the erosion of the Newark beds and of laterally adjacent areas as well. 11. Jura-Cretaceous denudation.—In consequence of this ele- vation, a new cycle of erosion was entered upon, which I shall call the Jura-Cretaceous cycle. It allowed the accomplishment of a vast work, which ended in the preduction of a general lowland of denudation, a wide area of faint relief, whose elevated rem- nants are now to be seen in the even ridge-crests that so strongly characterize the central district, as well as in certain other even uplands, now etched by the erosion of a later cycle of destructive work. I shall not here take space for the deliberate statement of the argument leading to this end, but its elements are as follows : the extraordinarily persistent accordance among the crest-line altitudes of many Medina and Carboniferous ridges in the central district ; the generally corresponding elevation of the western plateau surface, itself a surface of erosion, but now trenched by relatively deep and narrow valleys; the generally uniform and consistent altitude of the uplands in the crystalline highlands of northern New Jersey and in the South Mountains of Pennsyl- vania ; and the extension of the same general surface, descending slowly eastward, over the even crest-lines of the Newark trap ridges. Besides the evidence of less continental elevation thus deduced from the topography, it may be noted that a lower stand of the land in Cretaceous time than now is indicated by the erosion that the Cretaceous beds have suffered in consequence of the elevation that followed their deposition. The Cretaceous transgression in the western states doubtless bears on the problem 198 National Geographic Magazine. also. Finally it may be fairly urged that it is more accordant with what is known about old mountains in general to suppose that their mass has stood at different attitudes with respect to base level during their long period of denudation than to suppose that they have held one attitude through all the time since their. deformation. It is natural enough that the former maintenance of some lower altitude than the present should have expression in the form of the country, if not now extinguished by subsequent erosion. It is simply the reverse of this statement that leads us to the above- stated conclusion. We may be sure that the long maintained period of relative quiet was of great importance in allowing time for the mature adjustment of the rivers of the region, and hence due account must be taken of it in a later section. I say relative quiet, for there were certainly subordinate oscillations of greater or less value ; McGee has detected records of one of these about the beginning of Cretaceous time, but its effects are not now known to be of geographic value ; that is, they do not now mani- fest themselves in the form of the present surface of the land, but only in the manner of deposition and ancient erosion of cer- tain deposits.* Another subordinate oscillation in the sense of a moderate depression seems to have extended through middle and later Cretaceous time, resulting in an inland transgression of the sea and the deposit of the Cretaceous formation unconform- ably on the previous land surface for a considerable distance be- yond the present margin of the formation.t This is important as affecting our rivers. Although these oscillations were of con- siderable geological value, I do not think that for the present purposes they call for any primary division of the Jura-Creta- ceous cycle ; for as the result of this long period of denudation we find but a single record in the great lowland of erosion above described, a record of prime importance in the geographic devel- opment of our region, that will often be referred to. The surface of faint relief then completed may be called the Cretaceous base- . level lowland. It may be pictured as a low, undulating plain of wide extent, with a portion of its Atlantic margin submerged and covered over with a relatively thin marine deposit of sands, marls and clays. * Amer. Jour. Science, xxxv, 1888, 367, 448. +This statement is based on a study of the geographic evolution of northern New Jersey, in preparation for publication. The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 199 12. Tertiary elevation and denudation.—This broad lowland is a lowland no longer. It has been raised over the greater part of its area into a highland, with an elevation of from one to three thousand feet, sloping gently eastward and descending under the Atlantic level near the present margin of the Cretaceous forma- tion. The elevation seems to have taken place early in Tertiary time, and will be referred to as of that date. Opportunity was then given for the revival of the previously exhausted forces of denudation, and as a consequence we now see the formerly even surface of the plain greatly roughened by the incision of deep valleys and the opening of broad lowlands on its softer rocks. Only the harder rocks retain indications of the even surface which once stretched continuously across the whole area. The best indication of the average altitude at which the mass stood through the greater part of post-Cretaceous time is to be found on the weak shales of the Newark formation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and on the weak Cambrian limestones of the great Kittatinny valley; for both of these areas have been actually almost baselevelled again in the Tertiary cycle. They will be referred to as the Tertiary baselevel lowlands ; and the valleys corresponding to them, cut in the harder rocks, as well as the rolling lowlands between the ridges of the central district of Pennsylvania will be regarded as of the same date. Whatever variations of level-occurred in this cycle of development do not seem to have left marks of importance on the inland surface, though they may have had greater significance near the coast. 13. Later changes of level.-—Again at the close of Tertiary time, there was an elevation of moderate amount, and to this niay be referred the trenches that are so distinctly cut across the Ter- tiary baselevel lowland by the larger rivers, as well as the lateral Fe I re aaa PO a 5 Sa oe Rane = ea == Sein os See Sith — Set en ee SSS Uy na ee Se we er — : Nahe Ser ee Sad : AACE ae Se Ble aay we Bae bh ooh BS PGES eT SN Sileth le BS. alder = . fot . A. SS aT Tess ST Fig. 4. shallower channels of the smaller streams. This will be called the Quaternary cycle ; and for the present no further mention of the oscillations known to have occurred in this division of time need be considered ; the reader may find careful discussion of 16 200 PO rere, digy adi EEb anc at se CFA tele 1 \ t # x Sid Aly ducted ae Ree Wes aan | f ia a lu gut =" PKs ~ Ue : ly ie ee — < \ a ‘ ea nr re STS A = Tbs sayenarasnans eee ceiTeN Persea TET, Kaccoes A aoe SG hy the ms \ ‘. “ iy wt COUTPPR TALI WATT te La in iN ‘i £ Ma ( } MTT Testy To ee A: oy it 1 it Renney eat! van heh rather leer wer eincuinc ' Pe ka AM atinsteags Fig. 5. / preserves = Junction. National Geographic Magazine. them in the paper by McGee, above referred to. It is proper that I should add that the suggestion of baselevel- ling both of the crest-lines and of the lowlands, that I have found so profit- able in this and other work, is due largely to personal conference with Messrs. Gilbert and McGee of the Ge- ological Survey ; but it is not desired to make them in any way responsible for the statements here given. 14. Lllustrations of Pennsylvanian topography.—A few sketches made during a recent recess-trip with several students through Pennsylvania may be introduced in this connection. The first, fig. 4, is a view from Jenny %. Jump mountain, on the northwestern side of the New Jersey highlands, looking northwest across the Kitta- tinny valley-lowland to Blue or Kit- tatinny mountain, where it is cut at the Delaware Water-gap. The extra- ordinarily level crest of the mountain record of the Cretaceous baselevel lowland ; since the elevation of this ancient lowland, its softer rocks have, as it were, been etched out, leaving the harder ones in relief ; thus the present valley-lowland is to be ‘explained. In consequence of the still later elevation of less amount, the Delaware has cut a trench in the &. present lowland, which is partly seen to the left in the sketch. Fig. 5 isa general view of the Lehigh plateau “ and cafion, looking south from Bald Mountain just above Penn Haven Blue mountain is the most distant crest, seen for a little space. * The ridges near and above Mauch Chunk form the other outlines; all 201 Before the existing valleys were exca- The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. v rising to an astonishingly even altitude, in spite of their great diversitv of structure. AG res NO Ce Tm fet Se Pree eae 1 GIP ay ley TT WET Th Mgt FP ale en win ame = FP wt Nos ek . ’ - . e = / eg te EY = Py sca at y ct" WW, by Hy, iad Np. 3 ae eae mere pT My : SET PTE Ny oe tN EN AO MPP rego T SNe renmaindate peers Aare iene A — = fel ai : ——— Sot ne ie etek z red, aA AT) ae SS SSS se ss oe Z J 2 = u TTS YY) EES eae SC =f mae lel e LE e-—$—<$— J Stee WN = a SS Si) Wh ASS. ea Sas ———— SR US \ cae ees 4 RH EZ, aS = Sar ps = = FB ge cla SIUUES ONY oe ae ——————— Wa =a) Tm ‘ a SS Ris e= Sy “tom eae 7771/72 (ence ee aD ee sees _ OD) GIP ~. are ay Sie oC ee oo —_ i mn us ae TH s vse pein haps ae SMES HEA ura Est ON UP ATES P wn TABS ey OOH LL aig hegi ges este ot Tug ge OATS The valleys vated, the upland surface must have been an even plain—the Cre- 7 taceous baselevel lowland elevated into a plateau. 202 National Geographic Magazme. cut into the plateau during the Tertiary cycle are narrow here, because the rocks are mostly hard. The steep slopes of the cafion- like valley of the Lehigh and the even crests of the ridges mani- festly belong to different cycles of development. Figs. 6 and 7 are gaps cut in Black Log and Shade mountain, by a small upper branch stream of the Juniata in southeastern Huntingdon county. The stream traverses a breached anticlinal of Medina sandstone, of which these mountains are the lateral members. A long narrow valley is opened on the axial Trenton limestone between the two. The gaps are not opposite to each other, and therefore in looking through either gap from the outer country the even crest of the further ridge is seen beyond the axial valley. The gap in Black Log mountain, fig. 6, is located on a small frac- ture, but in this respect it is unlike most of its fellows.* The striking similarity of the two views illustrates the uniformity that’ so strongly characterizes the Medina ridges of the central district. Fig. 8 is in good part an ideal view, based on sketches on the VAT etn MURTY M64 ty rH anni ue eA ty Wyn iss Fig. 8. upper Susquehanna, and designed to present a typical illustration of the more significant features of the region. It shows the even crest-lines of a high Medina or Pocono ridge in the background, retaining the form given to it in the Cretaceous cycle ; the even lowlands in the foreground, opened on the weaker Siluro-Devo- nian rocks in the Tertiary cycle; and the uneven ridges in the mid- dle distance marking the Oriskany and Chemung beds of inter- mediate hardness that have lost the Cretaceous level and yet have not been reduced to the Tertiary lowland. The Susquehanna flows distinctly below the lowland plain, and the small side streams run in narrow trenches of late Tertiary and Quaternary date. If this interpretation is accepted, and the Permian mountains are seen to have been once greatly reduced and at a later time worn out, while the ridges of to-day are merely the relief left by * Second Geol. Surv. Pa., Report Ts, 19. The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvama. 203 the etching of Tertiary valleys in a Cretaceous baselevelled low- land, then we may well conclude with Powell that “mountains cannot remain long as mountains ; they are ephemeral topographic forms.”* PART THIRD. General conception of the history of a river. 15. The complete cycle of river life: youth, adolescence, matu- rity and old age.—The general outline of an ideal river’s history may be now considered, preparatory to examining the special history of the rivers of Pennsylvania, as controlled by the geo- logical events just narrated. Rivers are so Jong lived and survive with more or less modifi- cation so many changes in the attitude and even in the structure of the land, that the best way of entering on their discussion seems to be to examine the development of an ideal river of sim- ple history, and from the general features thus discovered, it may then be possible to unravel the complex sequence of events that leads to the present condition of actual rivers of complicated his- tory. A river that is established on a new land may be called an ori- ginal river. It must at first be of the kind known as a consequent river, for it has no ancestor from which to be derived. Exam- ples of simple original rivers may be seen in young plains, of which southern New Jersey furnishes a fair illustration. Exam- ples of essentially original rivers may be seen also in regions of recent and rapid displacement, such as the Jura or the broken country of southern Idaho, where the directly consequent charac- ter of the drainage leads us to. conclude that, if any rivers occu- pied these regions before their recent deformation, they were so completely extinguished by the newly made slopes that we see nothing of them now. Once established, an original river advances through its long life, manifesting certain peculiarities of youth, maturity and old age, by which its successive stages of growth may be recognized without much difficulty. For the sake of simplicity, let us sup- pose the land mass, on which an original river has begun its work, stands perfectly still after its first elevation or deformation, and so remains until the river has completed its task of carrying away all the mass of rocks that rise above its baselevel. This lapse of time will be called a cycle in the life of a river. A complete * Geol. Uinta Mountains, 1876, 196. 204 National Geographic Magazine. cycle is a long measure of time in regions of great elevation or of hard rocks ; but whether or not any river ever passed through a single cycle of life without interruption we need not now in- quire. Our purpose is only to learn what changes it would ex- perience if it did thus develop steadily) from infancy to old age without disturbance. In its infancy, the river drains its basin imperfectly ; for it is then embarrassed by the original inequalities of the surface, and lakes collect in all the depressions. At such time, the ratio of evaporation to rainfall is relatively large, and the ratio of trans- ported land waste to rainfall is small. The channels followed by the streams that compose the river as a whole are narrow and shallow, and their number is small compared to that which will be developed at a later stage. The divides by which the side-streams are separated are poorly marked, and in level countries are sur- faces of considerable area and not lines at all. It is only in the later maturity of a system that the divides are reduced to lines by the consumption of the softer rocks on either side. The differ- ence between constructional forms and those forms that are due to the action of denuding forces is in a general way so easily recognized, that immaturity and maturity of a drainage area can be readily discriminated. In the truly infantile drainage system of the Red River of the North, the inter-stream areas are so abso- lutely flat that water collects on them in wet weather, not having either original structural slope or subsequently developed de- nuded slope to lead it to the streams. On the almost equally young lava blocks of southern Oregon, the well-marked slopes are as yet hardly channeled by the flow of rain down them, and the depressions among the tilted blocks are still undrained, un- filled basins. As the river becomes adolescent, its channels are deepened and all the larger ones descend close to baselevel. If local contrasts of hardness allow a quick deepening of the down-stream part of the channel, while the part next up-stream resists erosion, a cas- cade or waterfall results ; but like the lakes of earlier youth, it is evanescent, and endures but a small part of the whole cycle of growth ; but the falls on the small headwater streams of a large river may last into its maturity, just as there are young twigs on the branches of a large tree. With the deepening of the chan- nels, there comes an increase in the number of gulleys on the slopes of the channel; the gulleys grow into ravines and these The Lwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 205 into side valleys, joining their master streams at right angles (La Noé and Margerie). With their continued development, the ma- turity of the system is reached ; it is marked by an almost com- plete acquisition of every part of the original constructional sur- face by erosion under the guidance of the streams, so that every drop of rain that falls finds a. way prepared to lead it to a stream and then to the ocean, its goal. The lakes of initial imperfection have long since disappeared ; the waterfalls of adolescence have been worn back, unless on the still young headwaters. With the increase of the number of side-streams, ramifying into all parts of the drainage basin, there is a proportionate increase in the surface of the valley slopes, and with this comes an increase in the rate of waste under atmospheric forces ; hence it is at maturity that the river receives and carries the greatest load ; indeed, the in- crease may be carried so far that the lower trunk-stream, of gentle slope in its early maturity, is unable to carry the load brought to it by the upper branches, and therefore resorts to the temporary expedient of laying it aside in a flood-plain. The level of the flood-plain is sometimes built up faster than the small side-streams of the lower course can fill their valleys, and hence they are con- verted for a little distance above their mouths into shallow lakes. The growth of the flood-plain also results in carrying the point of junction of tributaries farther and farther down stream, and at last in turning lateral streams aside from the main stream, some- times forcing them to follow independent courses to the sea (Lombardini). But although thus separated from the main trunk, it would be no more rational to regard such streams as independent rivers than it would be to regard the branch of an old tree, now fallen to the ground in the decay of advancing age, as an independent plant ; both are detached portions of a single individual, from which they have been separated in the normal processes of growth and decay. In the later and quieter old age of a river system, the waste of the land is yielded slower by reason of the diminishing slopes of the valley sides ; then the headwater streams deliver less detritus to the main channel, which, thus relieved, turns to its postponed task of carrying its former excess of load to the sea, and cuts ter- races in its flood-plain, preparatory to sweeping it away. It does not always find the buried channel again, and perhaps settling down on a low spur a little to one side of its old line, produces a rapid or a low fall on the lower slope of such an obstruction (Penck). Such courses may be called locally superimposed. 206 National Geographic Magazine. It is only during maturity and for a time before and afterwards that the three divisions of a river, commonly recognized, appear most distinctly ; the torrent portion being the still young head- water branches, growing by gnawing backwards at their sources ; the valley portion proper, where longer time of work has enabled the valley to obtain a greater depth and width ; and the lower flood-plain portion, where the temporary deposition of the excess of load is made until the activity of middle life is past. Maturity seems to be a proper term to apply to this long en- during stage ; for as in organic forms, where the term first came into use, it here also signifies the highest development of all func- tions between a youth of endeavor towards better work and an old age of relinquishment of fullest powers. It is the mature river in which the rainfall is best lead away to the sea, and which carries with it the greatest load of land waste; it is at maturity that the regular descent and steady flow of the river is best de- veloped, being the least delayed in lakes and least overhurried in impetuous falls. Maturity past, and the power of the river is on the decay. The relief of the land diminishes, for the streams no longer deepen their valleys although the hill tops are degraded ; and with the general loss of elevation, there is a failure of rainfall to a certain extent ; for it is well known that up to certain consider- able altitudes rainfall increases with height. A hyetographic and a hypsometric map of a country for this reason show a marked correspondence. The slopes of the headwaters decrease and the valley sides widen so far that the land waste descends from them slower than before. Later, what with failure of rainfall and de- crease of slope, there is perhaps a return to the early imperfection of drainage, and the number of side streams diminishes as branches fall from a dying tree. The flood-plains of maturity are carried down to the sea, and at last the river settles down to an old age of well-earned rest with gentle flow and light load, little work re- maining to be done. The great task that the river entered upon is completed. 16. Mutual adjustment of river courses.—In certain structures, chiefly those of mountainous disorder on which the streams are at first high above baselevel, there is a process of adjustment ex- tremely characteristic of quiet river development, by which the down-hill courses that were chosen in early life, and as we may say unadvisedly and with the heedlessness and little foresight of The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 207 _ youth, are given up for others better fitted for the work of the mature river system. A change of this kind happens when the young stream taking the lowest line for its guide happens to flow on a hard bed at a considerable height above baselevel, while its branches on one side or the other have opened channels on softer beds: a part of the main channel may then be deserted by the withdrawal of its upper waters to a lower course by way of a side stream. The change to better adjustment also happens when the initial course of the main stream is much longer than a course that may be offered to its upper portion by the backward gnaw- ing of an adjacent stream (Léwl, Penck). Sometimes the lateral cutting or planation that characterizes the main trunk of a mature river gives it possession of an adjacent smaller stream whose bed is at a higher level (Gilbert). A general account of these pro- cesses may be found in Phillippson’s serviceable “Studien tiber Wasserscheiden ” (Leipzig, 1886). ‘This whole matter is of much importance and deserves deliberate examination. It should be remembered that changes in river courses of the kind now re- ferred to are unconnected with any external disturbance of the river basin, and are purely normal spontaneous acts during ad- vancing development. Two examples, pertinent to our special study, will be considered. Let AB, fig. 9, be a stream whose initial consequent course led it down the gently sloping axial trough of a syncline. The con- structional surface of the syncline is shown by contours. Let the succession of beds to be discovered by erosion be indicated in a section, laid in proper position on the several diagrams, but revolved into the horizontal plane, the harder beds being dotted and the baselevel standing at 00. Small side streams will soon be developed on the slopes of the syncline, in positions determined by cross-fractures or more often by what we call accident ; the action of streams in similar synclines on the outside of tle. enclosing anticlines will be omitted for the sake of simplicity. In time, the side streams will cut through the harder upper bed M and enter the softer bed N, on which longitudinal channels, indi- cated by hachures, will be extended along the strike, fig. 10 (La Noé and Margerie). Let these be called “subsequent” streams. Consider two side streams of this kind, C and D, heading against each other at E, one joining the main stream lower down the axis of the syncline than the other. The headwaters of C will rob the headwaters of D, because the deepening of the channel 208 National Geographic Magazine. of D is retarded by its having to join the main stream at a point where the hard bed in the axis of the fold holds the main channel \ B HYTGe.. 9: Fig. 10. well above baselevel. The notch cut by D will then be changed from a water-gap to a wind-gap and the upper portion of D will find?exit through the notch cut by C, as in fig. 11. As other sub- sequent headwaters make capture of C, the greater depth to which the lateral valley is cut on the soft rock causes a slow migration of the divides in the abandoned gaps towards the main stream, and before long the upper part of the main stream itself will be led out of the synclinal axis to follow the monoclinal valley at one side for a distance, fig. 12, until the axis can be rejoined through the gap where the axial portion of the controlling hard bed is near or at baselevel. The upper part of the synclinal trough will then be attacked by undercutting on the slope of the quickly deepened channels of the lateral streams, and the hard bed will be worn away in the higher part of the axis before it is The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 209 consumed in the lower part. The location of the successful lateral stream on one or the other side of the syncline may be Lui) (pan en SR Pas mLa ooo Oh Soe ssi) ine}, It ine, MY, We, WB. determined by the dip of the beds, gaps being cut quicker on steep than on gentle dips. If another hard bed is encountered below the soft one, the process will be repeated ; and the mature arrangement of the streams will be as in fig. 13 (on a smaller scale than the preceding), running obliquely off the axis of the fold where a hard bed of the syncline rises above baselevel, and returning to the axis where the hard bed is below or at baselevel ; a monoclinal stream wandering gradually from the axis along the strike of the soft bed, AE, by which the side-valley is located and returning abruptly to the axis by a cataclinal* stream in a * See the terminology suggested by Powell. Expl. Col. R. of the West, 1875, 160. This terminology is applicable only to the most detailed study of our rivers, by reason of their crossing so many folds, and changing so often from longitudinal to transverse courses. 210 National Geographie Mugazime. transverse gap, EB, in the next higher hard bed, and there rejoining the diminished representative or survivor of the original axial or synclinal stream, GB. 17. Terminology of rivers changed by adjustment.—A special terminology is needed for easy reference to the several parts of the streams concerned in such an adjustment. Let AB and CD, fig. 14, be streams of unequal size cutting gaps, H and G, in a ridge that lies transverse to their course. CD being larger than AB will deepen its gap faster. Of two subsequent streams, JH and JF, growing on the up-stream side of the ridge, JE will have the steeper slope, because it joins the deeper master-stream. The divide, J, will therefore be driven towards AB, and if all the conditions concerned conspire favorably, JE will at last tap AB at F, and lead the upper part, AF’, out by the line FEGD, fig. 15, inet “il inv ON INT Ue | Ae Tie sen ul TANNA TAL Fie. 14. Fie. 15. through the deeper gap, G. We may then say that JE becomes the divertor of AF, which is diverted ; and when the process is completed, by the transfer of the divide from J, on the soft rocks, to a stable location, H, on the hard rocks, there will be a short inverted stream, HE ; while HB is the remaining beheaded portion of the original stream, AB, and the water-gap of AB becomes a wind-gap, H. It is very desirable that geographic exploration should discover examples of the process of adjustment in its several stages. The preparatory stage is easily recognized by the difference in the size of the two main streams, the difference in the depth of their gaps, and the unsymmetrical position of the divide, J. The very brief stage of transition gives us the rare examples of bifurcating streams. For a short time after capture of the diverted stream by the divertor, the new divide will lie between F and H, in an unstable position, the duration of this time depending on the energy of the process of capture. The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 211 _ The consequences resulting from readjustments of this kind by which their recent occurrence can be detected are: a relatively sudden increase of volume of the divertor and hence a rapid deepening of the course of the diverting stream, FE, and of the diverted, AF, near the point of capture ; small side-streams of these two being unable to keep pace with this change will join their masters in local rapids, which work up stream gradually and fade away (Léwl, Penck, McGee). The expanded portion, ED, of the larger stream, CD, already of faint slope, may be locally, overcome for a time with the increase of detritus that will be thus delivered to it at the entrance, E, of the divertor ; while the beheaded stream, HB, will find itself embarrassed to live up to the habits of its large valley [Heim]. Geographic exploration i a J A i pugs l nin LASB WALES penne 7 TTT qu A a x mene ARSTBOVARERP EADS EAERE A | Me = == 5 === #8 Bae! = : Eee) S)| |S E SS eS Sy } Sees NS AA Fig. 16. with these matters in attractive discoveries. 18. Heamples of adjustment.— Another case is roughly tigured Fig. 18. mind offers opportunity for the most 212 National Geographic Magazine. in the next three diagrams, figs. 16, 17,18. Two adjacent syn- clinal streams, EA and HB, join a transverse master stream, O, but the synclines are of different forms ; the surface axis of one, EKA, stands at some altitude above baselevel until it nearly reaches the place of the transverse stream ; while the axis of the other, HB, descends near baselevel at a considerable distance from the transverse stream. As lateral valleys, E and D, are opened on the anticline between the synclines by a process similar to that already described, the divide separating them will shift towards the stream of fainter slope, that is, towards the syncline, EA, whose axis holds its hard beds above baselevel ; and in time the upper part of the main stream will be withdrawn from this syn- cline to follow an easier course by crossing to the other, as in fig. 17. If the elevation of the synclinal axis, AES, take the shape of a long flat arch, descending at the further end into a synclinal lake basin, S, whose outlet is along the arching axis, SA, then the mature arrangement of stream courses will lead the lake outlet away from the axis by some gap in the nearer ascending part of the arch where the controlling hard bed falls near to baselevel, as at F, fig. 18,* and will take it by some subsequent course, F'D, across the lowland that is opened on the soft beds between the synclines, and carry it into the lower syncline, HB, at D where the hard beds descend below baselevel. The variety of adjustments following the general principle here indicated is infinite. Changes of greater or less value are thus introduced in the initial drainage areas, until, after attaining an attitude of equilibrium, further change is arrested, or if occur- ring, is relatively insignificant. It should be noticed that the new stream courses thus chosen are not named by any of the terms now current to express the relation of stream and land his- tory ; they are neither consequent, antecedent nor superimposed. The stream is truly still an original stream, although no longer * young ; but its channel is not in all parts strictly consequent on the initial constructional form of the land that it drains. Streams thus re-arranged may therefore be named original streams of mature adjustment. It should be clearly recognized that the process of adjustment is a very slow one, unless measured in the extremely long units * This figure would be improved if a greater amount of wasting around the margin of the hard bed were indicated in comparison with the preceding figure. The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylwania. 213 of a river’s life. It progresses no faster than the weathering away of the slopes of a divide, and here as a rule weathering is deliberate to say the least, unless accelerated by a fortunate com- bination of favoring conditions. Among these conditions, great altitude of the mass exposed to erosion stands first, and deep channeling of streams below the surface—that is, the adolescent stage of drainage development—stands second. The opportunity for the lateral migration of a divide will depend on the inequality of the slopes on its two sides, and here the most important fac- tors are length of the two opposite stream courses from the water parting to the common baselevel of the two, and inequality of structure by which one stream may have an easy course and the other a hard one. It is manifest that all these conditions for active shifting of divides are best united in young and high mountain ranges, and hence it is that river adjustments have been found and studied more in the Alps than elsewhere. 19. Revival of rivers by elevation and drowning by depression. —I make no contention that any river in the world ever passed through a simple uninterrupted cycle of the orderly kind here described. But by examining many rivers, some young and some old, I do not doubt that this portrayal of the ideal would be found to be fairly correct if opportunity were offered for its development. The intention of the sketch is simply to prepare the way for the better understanding of our actual rivers of more complicated history. At the close or at any time during the passage of an initial cycle such as the one just considered, the drainage area of a river system may be bodily elevated. The river is then turned back to anew youth and enters a new cycle of development. This is an extremely common occurrence with rivers, whose life is so long that they commonly outlive the duration of a quiescent stage in the history of the land. Such rivers may be called revived. Examples may be given in which streams are now in their second or third period of revival, the elevations that separate their cycles following so soon that but little work was accomplished in the quiescent intervals. The antithesis of this is the effect of depression, by which the lower course may be drowned, flooded or fjorded. This change is, if slow, favorable to the. development of flood-plains in the lower course ; but it is not essential to their production. If the change is more rapid, open estuaries are formed, to be trans- formed to delta-lowlands later on. 214 National Geographic Magazine. 20. Opportunity for new adjustments with revival.—One of the most common effects of the revival of a river by general ele- vation is a new adjustment of its course to-a greater or less extent, as a result of the new relation of baselevel to the hard and soft beds on which the streams had adjusted themselves in the previous cycle. Synclinal mountains are most easily ex- plained as results of drainage changes of this kind [Science, Dec. 21st, 1888]. Streams thus rearranged may be said to be adjusted through elevation or revival. It is to be hoped that, as our study advances, single names of brief and appropriate form may replace these paraphrases ; but at present it seems advisable to keep the desired idea before the mind by a descriptive phrase, even at the sacrifice of brevity. A significant example may be described. Let it be supposed that an originally consequent river system has lived into advanced maturity on a surface whose structure is, like that of Pennsylvania, composed of closely adjacent anticlinal and synclinal folds with rising and falling axes, and that a series of particularly resistant beds composes the upper members of the folded mass. The master stream, A, fig. 19, at maturity still resides where the original folds were lowest, but the side streams have departed more less from the axes of the synclinals that they first followed, in accordance with the principles of adjustment presented above. The relief of the surface is moderate, except around the synclinal troughs, where the rising margins of the hard beds still appear as ridges of more or less prominence. The minute hachures in figure 19 are drawn on the outcrop side of these ridges. Now suppose a general elevation of the region, lifting the synclinal troughs of the hard beds up to baselevel or even somewhat above it. The deepening of the revived master- stream will be greatly retarded by reason of its having to cross so many outcrops of the hard beds, and thus excellent opportunity will be given for readjustment by the growth of some diverting stream, B, whose beginning on adjacent softer rocks was already made in the previous cycle. This will capture the main river at some up-stream point, and draw it nearly all away from its hard path across the synclinal troughs to an easier path across the low- lands that had been opened on the underlying softer beds, leaving only asmall beheaded remnant in the lower course. The final re-arrangement may be indicated in fig. 20. It should be noted that every capture of branches of the initial main stream made The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylwania. 215 by the diverting stream adds to its ability for further encroach- ments, for with increase of volume the channel is deepened and a Fig. 19. : Fig. 20. flatter slope is assumed, and the whole process of pushing away the divides is thereby accelerated. In general it may be said that the larger the stream and the less its elevation above base- level, the less likely is it to be diverted, for with large volume and small elevation it will early cut down its channel so close to baselevel that no other stream can offer it a better course to the sea ; it may also be said that, as a rule, of two equal streams, the headwaters of the one having a longer or a harder course will be diverted by a branch of the stream on the shorter or easier course. Every case must therefore be examined for itself before the kind of re-arrangement that may be expected or that may have already taken place can be discovered. 21. Antecedent and superimposed rivers.—It not infrequently happens that the surface, on which a drainage system is more or less fully developed, suffers deformation by tilting, folding or faulting. ‘Then, in accordance with the rate of disturbance, and 17 216 National Geographic Magazime. dependent on the size and slope of the streams and the resistance of the rocks, the streams will be more or less re-arranged, some of the larger ones persisting in their courses and cutting their channels down almost as fast as the mass below them is raised and offered to their action. It is manifest that streams of large volume and considerable slope are the ones most likely to per- severe in this way, while small streams and large ones of mod- erate slope may be turned from their former courses to new courses consequent on the new constructional form of the land. Hence, after a disturbance, we may expect to find the smaller streams of the former cycle pretty completely destroyed, while some of the larger ones may still persist; these would then be called antecedent streams in accordance with the nomenclature introduced by Powell.* A fuller acquaintance with the develop- ment of our rivers will probably give us examples of river sys- tems of all degrees of extinction or persistence at times of dis- turbance. Since Powell introduced the idea of antecedent valleys and “Tietze, Medlicott and others showed the validity of the explana- tion in other regions than the one for which it was first proposed, it has found much acceptance. Loéwl’s objection to it does not seem to me to be nearly so well founded as his suggestion of an additional method of river development by means of backward headwater erosion and subsequent capture of other streams, as already described. And yet I cannot help thinking that the ex- planation of transverse valleys as antecedent courses savors of the Gordian method of explaining a difficult matter. The case of the Green river, to which Powell first gave this explanation, seems well supported ; the examples given by Medlicott in the Himalayas are as good: but still it does not seem advisable to explain all transverse streams in this way, merely because they are transverse. Perhaps one reason why the explanation has become so popular is that it furnishes an escape from the old catastrophic idea that fractures control the location of valleys, and is at the same time fully accordant with the ideas of the uniform- itarian school that have become current in this half of our cen- tury. But when it is remembered that most of the streams of a region are extinguished at the time of mountain growth, that only a few of the larger ones can survive, and that there are other ways in which transverse streams may originate, it is evi- * Exploration of the Colorada River of the West, 1870, 153, 163-166. + Hilber, Pet. Mitth., xxxv, 1889, 13. The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 217 dent that the possibility of any given transverse stream being antecedent must be regarded only as a suggestion, until some inde- pendent evidence is introduced in its favor. This may be difficult to find, but it certainly must be searched for; if not then forth- coming, the best conclusion may be to leave the case open until the evidence appears. Certainly, if we find a river course that is accordant in its location with the complicated results of other methods of origin, then the burden of proof may be said to lie with those who would maintain that an antecedent origin would locate the river in so specialized a manner. Even if a river per- sist for a time in an antecedent course, this may not prevent its being afterwards affected by the various adjustments and revi- vals that have been explained above: rivers so distinctly ante- cedent as the Green and the Sutlej may hereafter be more or less affected by processes of adjustment, which they are not yet old enough to experience. Hence in mountains as old as the Appala- chians the courses of the present rivers need not coincide with the location of the pre-Permian rivers, even if the latter per- sisted in their courses through the growth of the Permian fold- ing ; subsequent elevations and adjustments to hard beds, at first buried and unseen, may have greatly displaced them, in accord- ance with Léwl’s principle. When the deeper channelling of a stream discovers an uncon- formable subjacent terrane, the streams persist at least for a time in the courses that were determined in the overlying mass ; they are then called superimposed (Powell), inherited (Shaler), or epigenetic (Richthofen). Such streams are particularly liable to readjustment by transfer of channels from courses that lead them over hard beds to others on which the hard beds are avoided ; for the first choice of channels, when the unconformable cover was still present, was made without any knowledge of the buried rock structure or of the difficulties in which the streams would be involved when they encountered it. The examples of falls produced when streams terrace their flood-plains and run on buried spurs has already been referred to as superimposed ; and the rivers of Minnesota now disclosing half-buried ledges here and there may be instanced as illustrating the transition stage between simple consequent courses, determined by the form of the drift sheet on which their flow began, and the fully inconse- quent courses that will be developed there in the future. 22. Simple, compound, conyosite and complex rivers.—We 218 National Geographic Magazme. have thus far considered an ideal river. It now seems advisable to introduce a few terms with which to indicate concisely certain well marked peculiarities in the history of actual rivers. An original river has already been defined as one which first takes possession of a land area, or which replaces a completely extinguished river on a surface of rapid deformation. A river may be simple, if its drainage area is of practically one kind of structure and of one age; like the rivers of southern New Jersey. Such rivers are generally small. It may be com- posite, when drainage areas of different structure are included in the basin of a single stream. ‘This is the usual case. A compound river is one which is of different ages in its differ- ent parts ; as certain rivers of North Carolina, which have old headwaters rising in the mountains, and young lower courses traversing the coastal plain. A river is complex when it has entered a second or later cycle of development ; the headwaters of a compound river are there- fore complex, while the lower course may be simple, in its first cycle. The degree of complexity measures the number of cycles that the river has entered. When the study of rivers is thus attempted, its necessary com- plications may at first seem so great as to render it of no value; but in answer to this I believe that it may be fairly urged that, although complicated, the results are true to nature, and if so, we can have no ground of complaint against them. Moreover, while it is desirable to reduce the study of the development of rivers to its simplest form, in order to make it available for in- struction and investigation, it must be remembered that this can- not be done by neglecting to investigate the whole truth in the hope of avoiding too great complexity, but that simplicity can be reached safely only through fullness of knowledge, if at all. It is with these points in mind that I have attempted to decipher the history of the rivers of Pennsylvania. We find in the Sus- quehauna, which drains a great area in the central part of the state, an example of a river which is at once composite, com- pound and highly complex. It drains districts of divers struc- ture ; it traverses districts of different ages; and it is at present in its fourth or fifth degree of complexity, its fourth or fifth cycle of development at least. In unravelling its history and search- ing out the earlier courses of streams which may have long since been abandoned in the processes of mature adjustment, it will be The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 219 seen that the size of the present streams is not always a measure of their previous importance, and to this we may ascribe the difficulty that attends the attempt to decipher a river’s history from general maps of its stream lines. Nothing but a detailed examination of geological structure and history suffices to detect facts and conditions that are essential to the understanding of the result. If the postulates that I shall use seem unsound and the argu- ments seem overdrawn, error may at least be avoided by not holding fast to the conclusions that are presented, for they are presented only tentatively. I do not feel by any means abso- lutely persuaded of the correctness of the results, but at the same time deem them worth giving out for discussion. The whole investigation was undertaken as an experiment to see where it might lead, and with the hope that it might lead at least to a serious study of our river problems. Part FourtH. The development of the rivers of Pennsylvania. 23. Means of distinguishing between antecedent and adjusted consequent rivers.—The outline of the geological history of Penn- sylvania given above affords means of dividing the long progress of the development of our rivers into the several cycles which make up their complete life. We must go far back into the past and imagine ancient streams flowing down from the Archean land towards the paleozoic sea; gaining length by addition to their lower portions as the land grew with the building on of successive mountain ranges; for example, if there were a Cam- bro-Silurian deformation, a continuation of the Green Mountains into Pennsylvania, we suppose that the pre-existent streams must in some manner have found their way westward to the new coast- line ; and from the date of this mountain growth, it is apparent that any streams then born must have advanced far in their history before the greater Appalachian disturbance began. At the beginning of the latter, as of the former, there must have been streams running from the land into the sea, and at times of temporary elevation of the broad sand-flats of the coal measures, such streams must have had considerable additions to their lower length ; rising in long-growing Archean highlands or mountains, snow-capped and drained by glaciers for all we can say to the contrary, descending across. the Green Mountain belt, by that time worn to moderate relief in the far advanced stage of its 220 National Geographic Magazine. topographic development, and finally flowing across the coal- measure lowlands of recent appearance. It was across the lower courses of such rivers that the Appalachian folds were formed, and the first step in our problem consists in deciding if possible whether the streams held their courses after the antecedent fash- ion, or whether they were thrown into new courses by the grow- ing folds, so that a new drainage systen would be formed. Possi- bly both conditions prevailed ; the larger streams holding their courses little disturbed, and the smaller ones disappearing, to be replaced by others as the slopes of the growing surface should demand. It is not easy to make choice in this matter. To de- cide that the larger streams persisted and are still to be seen in the greater rivers of to-day, only reversed in direction of flow, is certainly a simple method of treating the problem, but unless some independent reasons are found for this choice, it savors of assumption. Moreover, it is difficult to believe that any streams, even if antecedent and more or less persistent for a time during the mountain growth, could preserve till now their pre-Appa- lachain courses through all the varying conditions presented by the alternations of hard and soft rocks through which they have had to cut, and at all the different altitudes above baselevel in which they have stood. A better means of deciding the question will be to admit provisionally the occurrence of a completely original system of consequent drainage, located in perfect accord with the slopes of the growing mountains; to study out the changes of stream-courses that would result from later disturb- ances and from the mutual adjustments of the several members of such a system in the different cycles of its history ; and finally to compare the courses thus deduced with those now seen. If there be no accord, either the method is wrong or the streams are not consequent but of some other origin, such as antecedent ; if the accord between deduction and fact be well marked, varying only where no definite location can be given to the deduced streams, but agreeing where they can be located more precisely, then it seems to me that the best conclusion is distinctly in favor of the correctness of the deductions. For it is not likely, even if it be possible, that antecedent streams should have accident- ally taken, before the mountains were formed, just such locations as would have resulted from the subsequent growth of the moun- tains and from the complex changes in the initial river courses due to later adjustments. I shall therefore follow the deductive The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 221 method thus indicated and attempt to trace out the history of a completely original, consequent system of drainage accordant with the growth of the central mountain district. In doing this, it is first necessary to restore the constructional topography of the region; that is, the form that the surface would have had if no erosion had accompanied its deformation. This involves certain postulates which must be clearly conceived if any measure of confidence is to be gained in the results based upon them. 24. Postulates of the aryument.—In the first place, I assume an essential constancy in the thickness of the paleozoic sediments over the entire area in question. ‘This is warranted here because the known variations of thickness are relatively of a second order, and will not affect the distribution of high and low ground as produced by the intense Permian folding. The reasons for maintaining that the whole series had a considerable extension southeast cf the present margin of the Medina sandstone have already been presented. In the second place, I shall assume that the dips and folds of the beds now exposed at the surface of the ground may be pro- jected upwards into the air in order to restore the form of the eroded beds. This is certainly inadmissible in detail, for it can- not be assumed that the folded slates and limestones of the Nittany valley, for instance, give any close indication of the form that the coal measures would have taken, had they extended over this district, unworn. But in a general way, the Nittany massif was a complex arch in the coal measures as well as in the Cambrian beds ; for our purpose and in view of the moderate relief of the existing topography, it suffices to say that wherever the lower rocks are now revealed in anticlinal structure, there was a great upfolding and elevation of the original surface ; and _ wherever the higher rocks are still preserved, there was a relatively small elevation. In the third place, I assume that by reconstructing from the completed folds the form which the country would have had if unworn, we gain a sufficiently definite picture of the form through which it actually passed at the time of initial and progressive folding. The difference between the form of the folds com- pletely restored and the form that the surface actually reached is rather one of degree than of kind; the two must correspond in the general distribution of high and low ground and this is the 222 National Geographic Magazine. chief consideration in our problem. When we remember how accurately water finds its level, it will be clearer that what is needed in the discussion is the location of the regions that were relatively raised and lowered, as we shall then have marked out the general course of the consequent water ways and the trend of the intervening constructional ridges. Accepting these postulates, it may be said in brief that the outlines of the formations as at present exposed are in effect so many contour lines of the old constructional surface, on which the Permian rivers took their consequent courses. Where the Trenton limestone is now seen, the greatest amount of overlying strata must have been removed ; hence the outline of the Trenton formation is our highest contour line. Where the Helderberg limestone appears, there has been a less amount of material removed ; hence the Helderberg outcrop is a contour of less elevation. Where the coal beds still are preserved, there has been least wasting, and these beds therefore mark the lowest contour of the early surface. It is manifest that this method assumes that the present outcrops are on a level surface ; this is not true, for the ridges through the State rise a thousand feet more or less over the intervening valley lowlands, and yet the existing relief does not count for much in discussing the enormous relief of the Permian surface that must have been measured in tens of thousands of feet at the time of its greatest strength. 25. Constructional Permian topography and consequent arain- age.—A rough restoration of the early constructional topography is given in fig. 21 for the central part of the State, the closest shading being the area of the Trenton limestone, indicating the highest ground, or better, the places of greatest elevation, while the Carboniferous area is unshaded, indicating the early lowlands. The prevalence of northeast and southwest trends was then even more pronounced than now. Several of the stronger elements of form deserve names, for convenient reference. Thus we have the great Kittatinny or Cumberland highland, C, C, on the south- east, backed by the older mountains of Cambrian and Archean rocks, falling by the Kittatinny slope to the synclinal lowland troughs of the central district. In this lower ground lay the synclinal troughs of the eastern coal regions, and the more local Broad Top basin, BT, on the southwest, then better than now deserving the name of basins. Beyond the corrugated area that connected the coal basins rose the great Nittany highland, N, ‘eruvaAlAsuueg Jo Aydvisodo} uvimieg [vUOtoNsUOY “TZ “DIA ! fea —— * —— = = * 4 eee oie y, » RNORS ran =f —— =~ ot 223 The Rwers wand Valleys of Pennsylvania. \ \\ we : “ 224 National Geographic. Magazine. and its southwest extension in the Bedford range, with the less conspicuous Kishicoquilas highland, K, in the foreground. Beyond all stretched the great Alleghany lowland plains. The names thus suggested are compounded of the local names of to- day and the morphological names of Permian time. What would be the drainage of such a country? Deductively we are led to believe that it consisted of numerous streams as marked in full lines on the figure, following synclinal axes until some master streams led them across the intervening anticlinal ridges at the lowest points of their crests and away into the open country to the northwest. All the enclosed basins would hold lakes, overflowing at the lowest part of the rim. The general discharge of the whole system would be to the northwest. Here again we must resort to special names for the easy indication of these well-marked features of the ancient and now apparently lost drainage system. The master stream of the region is the great Anthracite river, carrying the overflow of the Anthracite lakes off to the northwest and there perhaps turning along one of the faintly marked synclines of the plateau and joining the original Ohio, which was thus confirmed in its previous location across the Carboniferous marshes. The synclinal streams that entered the Anthracite lakes from the southwest may be named, beginning on the south, the Swatara, S, fig. 21, the Wiconisco, Wo, the Tus- carora-Mahanoy, M, the Juniata-Catawissa, C, and the Wyoming, Wy. One of these, probably the fourth, led the overflow from the Broad Top lake into the Catawissa lake on the middle Anthra- cite river. The Nittany highland formed a strong divide between the central and northwestern rivers, and on its outer slope there must have been streams descending to the Alleghany lowlands ; and some of these may be regarded as the lower courses of Car- boniferous rivers, that once rose in the Archean mountains, now beheaded by the growth of mountain ranges across their middle. 26. The Jura mountains homologous with the Permian Alle- ghanies.—However willing one may be to grant the former existence of such a drainage system as the above, an example of a similar one still in existence would be acceptable as a witness to the possibilities of the past. Therefore we turn for a moment to the Jura. mountains, always compared to the Appalachians on account of the regular series of folds by which the two are char- acterized. But while the initial topography is long lost in our old mountains, it is still clearly perceptible in the young Jura, The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 225 _ where the anticlines are still ridges and the longitudinal streams still follow the synclinal troughs ; while the transverse streams cross from one synclinal valley to another at points where the intervening anticlinal arches are lowest.* We could hardly ask for better illustration of the deductive drainage system of our early Appalachians than is here presented. 27. Development and adjustent of the Permian drainage.—: The problem is now before us. Can the normal sequence of changes in the regular course of river development, aided by the post-Permian deformations and elevations, evolve the existing rivers out of the ancient ones? In order to note the degree of comparison that exists between the two, several of the larger rivers of to-day are dotted on the figure. The points of agreement are indeed few and small. Perhaps the most important ones are that the Broad Top region is drained by a stream, the Juniata, which for a short distance follows near the course predicted for it; and that the Nittany district, then a highland, is still a well-marked divide although now a lowland. But there is no Anthracite river, and the region of the ancient coal-basin lakes is now avoided by large streams ; con- versely, a great river—the Susquehanna—appears where no con- sequent river ran in Permian time, and the early synclinal streams frequently turn from the structural troughs to valleys located on the structural arches. 28. Lateral water gaps near the apex of synclinal ridges.—One of the most frequent discrepancies between the hypothetical and actual streams is that the latter never follow the axis of a descend- ing syncline along its whole length, as the original streams must have done, but depart for a time from the axis and then return to it, notching the ridge formed on any hard bed at the side instead of at the apex of its curve across the axis of the syncline. There is not a single case in the state of a stream cutting a gap at the apex of such a synclinal curve, but there are perhaps hun- dreds of cases where the streams notch the curve to one side of the apex. This, however, is precisely the arrangement attained by spontaneous adjustment from an initial axial course, as indi- cated in figure 13, The gaps may be located on small transverse faults, but as a rule they seem to have no such guidance. It is true that most of our streams now run out of and not into the * This is beautifully illustrated in the recent monograph by La Noé and Margerie on ‘‘ Les Formes du Terrain.” 226 National Geographic Magazine. synclinal basins, but a reason for this will be found later ; for the present we look only at the location of the streams, not at their direction of flow. As far as this illustration goes, it gives evidence that the smaller streams at least possess certain peculiarities that could not be derived from persistence in a previous accidental lo- cation, but which would be necessarily derived from a process of adjustment following the original establishment of strictly conse- quent streams. Hence the hypothesis that these smaller streams were long ago consequent on the Permian folding receives con- firmation ; but this says nothing as to the origin of the larger rivers, which might at the same time be antecedent. 29. Departure of the Juniata from the Juniata- Catawissa syn- cline.—It may be next noted that the drainage of the Broad Top region does not follow a single syncline to the Anthracite region, as it should have in the initial stage of the consequent Permian drainage, but soon turns aside from the syncline in which it starts and runs across country to the Susquehanna. It is true that in its upper course the.Juniata departs from the Broad Top region by one of the two synclines that were indicated as the probable line of discharge of the ancient Broad Top lake in our restoration of the constructional topography of the State ; there does not appear to be any significant difference between the summit altitudes of the Tuscarora-Mahanoy and the Juniata-Catawissa synclinal axes and hence the choice must have been made for reasons that cannot be detected ; or it may be that the syncline lying more to the northwest was raised last, and for this reason was taken as the line of overflow. The beginning of the river is therefore not discordant with the hypothesis of consequent drainage, but the southward departure from the Catawissa syncline at Lewistown remains to be explained. It seems to me - that some reason for the departure may be found by likening it: to the case already given in figs. 16-18. The several synclines with which the Juniata is concerned have precisely the relative attitudes that are there discussed. The Juniata-Catawissa syn- cline has parallel sides for many miles about its middle, and hence must have long maintained the initial Juniata well above baselevel over all this distance ; the progress of cutting down a channel through all the hard Carboniferous standstones for so great a distance along the axis must have been exceedingly slow. But the synclines next south, the Tuscarora-Mahanoy and the Wiconisco, plunge to the northeast more rapidly, as the rapid The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 227 divergence of their margins demonstrates, and must for this reason have carried the hard sandstones below baselevel in a shorter distance and on a steeper slope than in the Catawissa syncline. The further southwestward extension of the Pocono sandstone ridges in the southern than in the northern syncline gives further illustration of this peculiarity of form. Lateral capture of the Juniata by a branch of the initial Tuscarora, and of the latter by a branch of the Wiconisco therefore seems pos- sible, and the accordance of the facts with so highly specialized an arrangement is certainly again indicative of the correctness of the hypothesis of consequent drainage, and this time in a larger stream than before. At first sight, it appears that an easier lateral capture might have been made by some of the streams flowing from the outer slope of the Nittany highland ; but this becomes improbable when it is perceived that the heavy Medina sandstone would here have to be worn through as well as the repeated arches of the Carboniferous beds in the many high folds of the Seven Mountains. Again, as far as present appear- ances go, we can give no sufficient reason to explain why posses- sion of the headwaters of the Juniata was not gained by some subsequent stream of its own, such as G, fig. 18, instead of by a side-stream of the river in the neighboring syncline ; but it may be admitted, on the other hand, that as far as we can estimate the chances for conquest, there was nothing distinctly in favor of one or the other of the side-streams concerned ; and as long as the problem is solved indifferently in favor of one or the other, we may accept the lead of the facts and say that some control not now apparent determined that the diversion should be, as drawn, through D and not through G. The detailed location of the Juniata in its middle course below Lewistown will be con- sidered in a later section. ; 30. Avoidance of the Broad Top basin by the Juniata head- waters.—Another highly characteristic change that the Juniata has suffered is revealed by examining the adjustments that would have taken place in the general topography of the Broad Top district during the Perm-Triassic cycle of erosion. When the basin, BT, fig. 22, was first outlined, centripetal streams descended its slopes from all sides and their waters accumu- lated as a lake in the center, overflowing to the east into the subordinate basin, A, in the Juniata syncline along side of the larger basin, and thence escaping northeast. In due time, the 228 . National Geographic Magazine. breaching of the slopes opened the softer Devonian rocks beneath and peripheral lowlands were opened on them. The process by which the Juniata departed from its original axial location, J, fig. 22, to a parallel course on the southeastern side of the syn- cline, J, fig. 23, has been described (fig. 18). The subsequent changes are manifest. Some lateral branch of the Juniata, like N, fig. 23, would work its way around the northern end of the Broad Top canoe on the soft underlying rocks and capture the axial stream, C, that came from the depression between Nittany and Kishicoquillas highlands; thus reénforced, capture would be made of a radial stream from the west, Tn, the existing Tyrone branch of the Juniata ; in a later stage the other streams of the western side of the basin would be acquired, their divertor con- stituting the Little Juniata of to-day; and the end would be when the original Juniata, A, fig. 22, that once issued from the subordinate synclinal as a large stream, had lost all its western tributaries, and was but a shrunken beheaded remnant of a river, now seen in Aughwick creek, A, fig. 24. In the meantime, the BiG. 22. Fie. 23. ; Fig. 24. former lake basin was fast becoming a synclinal mountain of diminishing perimeter. The only really mysterious courses of the present streams are where the Little Juniata runs in and out of the western border of the Broad Top synclinal, and where the Frankstown (FT) branch of the Juniata maintains its independ- ent gap across Tussey’s mountain (Medina), although diverted to the Tyrone or main Juniata (Tn) by Warrior’s ridge (Oriskany) just below. At the time of the early predatory growth of the ini- tial divertor, N, its course lay by the very conditions of its growth The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 229 on only the weakest rocks ; but after this little stream had grown to a good-sized river, further rising of the land, probably in the time of the Jurassic elevation, allowed the river to sink its channel to a greater depth, and in doing so, it encountered the hard Medina anticline of Jack’s mountain; here it has since persisted, because, as we may suppose, there has been no stream able to divert the course of so large a river from its crossing of a single hard anticlinal. The doubt that one must feel as to the possibility of the pro- cesses just outlined arises, if I may gauge it by my own feeling, rather from incredulity than from direct objections. It seems incredible that the waste of the valley slopes should allow the backward growth of N at such a rate as to enable it to capture the heads of C, Tn, F, and so on, before they had cut their beds down close enough to the baselevel of the time to be safe from capture. But it is difficult to urge explict objections against the process or to show its quantitative insufficiency. It must be re- membered that when these adjustments were going on, the region was one of great altitude, its rocks then had the same strong contrasts of strength and weakness that are so apparent in the present relief of the surface and the streams concerned were of moderate size; less than now, for at the time, the Tyrone, Frankstown and Bedford head branches of the Juniata had not acquired drainage west of the great Nittany-Bedford anticlinal axis, but were supplied only by the rainfall on its eastern slope (see section 39)—and all these conditions conspired to favor the adjustment. Finally, while apparently extraordinary and difficult of demonstration, the explanation if applicable at all certainly gives rational correlation to a number of peculiar and special stream courses in the upper Juniata district that are meaningless under any other theory that has come to my notice. It is chiefly for this reason that I am inclined to accept the explanation. 31. Reversal of larger rivers to southeast courses.—Our large rivers at present flow to the southeast, not to the northwest. It is difficult to find any precise date for this reversal of flow from the initial hypothetical direction, but it may be suggested that it occurred about the time of the Triassic depression of the Newark belt. We have been persuaded that much time elapsed between the Permian folding and the Newark deposition, even under the most liberal allowance for pre-Permian erosion in the Newark belt ; hence when the depression began, the rivers must 230 National Geographic Magazine. have had but moderate northwestward declivity. The depres- sion and submergence of the broad Newark belt may at this time have broken the continuity of the streams that once flowed across it. The headwater streams from the ancient Archean country maintained their courses to the depression ; the lower portions of the rivers may also have gone on as before ; but the middle courses were perhaps turned from the central part of the state back of the Newark belt. No change of attitude gives so fitting a cause of the southeastward flow of our rivers as this. The only test that I have been able to devise for the suggestion is one that is derived from the relation that exists between the loca- tion of the Newark belt along the Atlantic slope and the course of the neighboring transverse rivers. In Pennsylvania, where the belt reaches somewhat beyond the northwestern margin of the crystalline rocks in South mountain, the streams are reversed, as above stated ; but in the Carolinas where the Newark belt lies far to the east of the boundary between the Cambrian and crystal- line rocks, the Tennessee streams persevere in what we suppose to have been their original direction of flow. This may be interpreted as meaning that in the latter region, the Newark depression was not felt distinctly enough, if at all, within the Alleghany belt to reverse the flow of the streams ; while in the former region, it was nearer to these streams and determined a change in their courses. The original Anthracite river ran to the northwest, but its middle course was afterwards turned to the southeast. Iam free to allow that this has the appearance of heaping hypothesis on hypothesis ; but in no other way does the analysis of the history of our streams seem possible, and the success of the experiment can be judged only after making it. At the same time, I am constrained to admit that this is tomy own view the least satisfactory of the suggestions here presented. It may be correct, but there seems to be no sufficient exclusion of other possibilities. For example, it must not be overlooked that, if the Anthracite river ran southeast during Newark deposition, the formation of the Newark northwestward .monocline by the Jurassic tilting would have had a tendency to turn the river back again to its northwest flow. But as the drainage of the region is still southeastward, I am tempted to think that the Jurassic tilting was not here strong enough to reverse the flow of so strong and mature a river as the Anthracite had by that time The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 231 - come to be; and that the elevation that accompanied the tilting was not so powerful in reversing the river to a northwest course as the previous depression of the Newark basin had been in turning it to the southeast. If the Anthracite did continue to flow to the southeast, it may be added that the down-cutting of its upper branches was greatly retarded by the decrease of slope in its lower course when the monocline was formed. The only other method of reversing the original northwest- ward flow of the streams that I have imagined is by capture of their headwaters by Atlantic rivers. This seems to me less effec- tive than the method just considered ; but they are not mutu- ally exclusive and the actual result may be the sum of the two processes. The outline of the idea is as follows. The long con- tinued supply of sedimentary material from the Archean land on the southeast implies that it was as continually elevated. But there came atime when there is no record of further supply of material, and when we may therefore suppose the elevation was no longer maintained. From that time onward, the Archean range must have dwindled away, what with the encroachment of the Atlantic on its eastern shore and the general action of denud- ing forces on its surface. The Newark depression was an effec- tive aid to the same end, as has been stated above, and for a moderate distance westward of the depressed belt, the former direction of the streams must certainly have been reversed ; but the question remains whether this reversal extended as far as the Wyoming basin, and whether the subsequent formation of the Newark monocline did not undo the effect of the Newark depres- sion. It is manifest that as far as our limited knowledge goes, it is impossible to estimate these matters quantitatively, and hence the importance of looking for additional processes that may sup- plement the effect of the Newark depression and counteract the effect of the Newark uplift in changing the course of the rivers. - Let it be supposed for the moment that at the end of the Jurassic uplift by which the Newark monocline was formed, the divide between the Ohio and the Atlantic drainage lay about the middle of the Newark belt. There was a long gentle descent westward from this watershed and a shorter and hence steeper descent east- ward. Under such conditions, the divide must have been pushed westward, and as long as the rocks were so exposed as to open areas of weak sediments on which capture by the Atlantic streams could go on with relative rapidity, the westward migration of the 18 232 National Geographic Magazme. divide would be important. For this reason, it might be carried from the Newark belt as far as the present Alleghany front, beyond which further pushing would be slow, on account of the broad stretch of country there covered by hard horizontal beds. The end of this is that, under any of the circumstances here detailed, there would be early in the Jurassic-Cretaceous cycle a distinct tendency to a westward migration of the Atlantic-Ohio divide ; it is the consequences of this that have now to be examined. 32. Oapture of the Anthracite headwaters by the growing Sus- quehanna.—Throughout the Perm-Triassic period of denudation, a great work was done in wearing down the original Alleghanies. Anticlines of hard sandstone were breached, and broad lowlands were opened on the softer rocks beneath. Little semblance of the early constructional topography remained when the period of Newark depression was brought to a close ; and all the while the headwater streams of the region were gnawing at the divides, seeking to develop the most perfect arrangement of waterways. Several adjustments have taken place, and the larger streams have been reversed in the direction of their flow; but a more serious problem is found in the disappearance of the original master stream, the great Anthracite river, which must have at first led away the water from all the lateral synclinal streams. Being a large river, it could not have been easily diverted from its course, unless it was greatly retarded in cutting down its channel by the presence of many beds of hard rocks on its way. The following considerations may perhaps throw some light on this obscure point. It may be assumed that the whole group of mountains formed by the Permian deformation had been reduced to a moderate relief when the Newark deposition was stopped by the Jurassic * elevation. The harder ribs of rock doubtless remained as ridges projecting above the intervening lowlands, but the strength of relief that had been given by the constructional forces had been lost. The general distribution of residual elevations then remaining unsubdued is indicated in fig. 25, in which the Crystalline, the Medina, and the two Carboniferous sandstone ridges are denoted by appropriate symbols. In restoring this phase of the surface form, when the country stood lower than now, I have reduced the anticlines from their present outlines and increased the synclines, the change of area being made The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 233 ‘OmT} OISsBIN( ATAVO UI OsULBIp PUL PUL, MOT paw YZIY JO oINqIASIp [eIoNey Gz “HLT Noell ‘ Paar!” Xow / / / / ie rae 3 i/ oy : Pe if is // He \ a) y 7 \ LF LEA, tf] en “ Ah ALA 4 BUI ISHLD Aamir» Sen mye eZ | a 2 ya tp DISS iD iL \ \ Se | gee” wt) oe ts wy iN 4 ‘ ME Ci a 9 UIpaw Be ELE FS wn Oa Og Ce y eee % — eelau27NO afJJAS}2%d LH — ld s are 1 234 National Geographic Magazine. greatest where the dips are least, and hence most apparent at the ends of the plunging anticlines and synclines. Some of the Medina anticlines of Perry and Juniata counties are not indi- cated because they were not then uncovered. The country between the residual ridges of Jurassic time was chiefly Cam- brian limestone and Siluro-Devonian shales and soft sandstones. The moderate ridges developed on the Oriskany and Chemung sandstones are not represented. The drainage of this stage retained the original courses of the streams, except for the adjustments that have been described, but the great Anthracite river is drawn as if it had been controlled by the Newark depres- sion and reversed in the direction of its flow, so that its former upper course on the Cambrian rocks was replaced by a superim- posed Newark lower course. Fig. 25 therefore represents the streams for the most part still following near their synclinal axes, although departing from them where they have to enter a syneli- nal cove-mountain ridge; the headwaters of the Juniata avoid the mass of hard sandstones discovered in the bottom of old ‘Broad ‘Top lake, and flow around them to the north, and then by a cross-country course to the Wiconisco synclinal, as already described in detail. Several streams come from the northeast, entering the Anthracite district after the fashion generalized in fig. 13. Three of the many streams that were developed on the great Kittatinny slope are located, with their direction of flow reversed; these are marked Sq, L and D, and are intended to represent the ancestors of the existing Susquehanna, Lehigh and Delaware. We have now to examine the opportunities offered to these small streams to increase their drainage areas. The Jurassic elevation, by which the Newark deposition was stopped, restored to activity all the streams that had in the previous cycle sought and found a course close to baselevel. They now all set to work again deepening their channels. But in this restoration of lost activity with reference to a new base- level, there came the best possible chance for numerous re-arrange- ments of drainage areas by mutual adjustment into which we must inquire. I have already illustrated what seems to me to be the type of the conditions involved at this time in figs. 19 and 20. The master stream, A, traversing the synclines, corresponds to the reversed Anthracite river; the lowlands at the top are those that have been opened out on the Siluro-Devonian beds of the The Riwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 235 _ present Susquehanna middle course between the Pocono and the Medina ridges. The small stream, B, that is gaining drainage area in these lowlands, corresponds to the embryo of the present Susquehanna, Sq, fig. 25, this having been itself once a branch on the south side of the Swatara synclinal stream, fig. 21, from which it was first turned by the change of slope accompanying the Newark depression ; but it is located a little farther west than the actual Susquehanna, so as to avoid the two synclinal cove mountains of Pocono sandstone that the Susquehanna now traverses, for reasons to be stated below (section 35). This stream had to cross only one bed of hard rock, the outer wall of Medina sandstone, between the broad inner lowlands of the rela- tively weak Siluro-Devonian rocks and the great valley lowlands on the still weaker Cambrian limestones. Step by step it must have pushed its headwater divide northward, and from time to time it would have thus captured a subsequent stream, that crossed the lowlands eastward, and entered a Carboniferous syncline by one of the lateral gaps already described. With every such capture, the power of the growing stream to capture others was increased. Fig. 19 represents a stage after the streams in the Swatara and Wiconisco synclines (the latter then having gained the Juniata) had been turned aside on their way to the Carbon- iferous basins. On the other hand, the Anthracite river, rising somewhere on the plains north of the Wyoming syncline and pursuing an irregular course from one coal basin to another, found an extremely difficult task in cutting down its channel across the numerous hard beds of the Carboniferous sandstones, so often repeated in the rolling folds of the coal fields. It is also important to remember that an aid to other conditions concerned in the diversion of the upper Anthracite is found in the decrease of slope that its lower course suffered in crossing the coal fields, if that area took any part in the deformation that produced the Newark monocline—whichever theory prove true in regard to the origin of the southeastward flow of the rivers—for loss of slope in the middle course, where the river had to cross many reefs of hard sandstone, would have been very effective in length- ening the time allowed for the diversion of the headwaters. The question is, therefore, whether the retardation of down- cutting here experienced by the Anthracite was sufficient to allow the capture of its headwaters by the Susquehanna. ‘There can be little doubt as to the correct quality of the process, but 236 National Geographic Magazine. whether it was quantitatively sufficient is another matter. In the absence of any means of testing its sufficiency, may the result not be taken as the test? Is not the correspondence between deduc- tion and fact close enough to prove the correctness of the deduc- tion ? 33. Present outward drainage of the Anthracite basins.—The Lehigh, like the Susquehanna, made an attempt to capture the headwaters of adjacent streams, but failed to acquire much terri- tory from the Anthracite because the Carboniferous sandstones spread out between the two in a broad plateau of hard rocks, across which the divide made little movement. The plateau area that its upper branches drain is, I think, the conquest of a later _eycle of growth. The Delaware had little success, except as against certain eastern synclinal branches of the Anthracite, for the same reason. The ancestor of the Swatara of to-day made little progress in extending its headwaters because its point of attack was against the repeated Carboniferous sandstones in the Swatara synclinal. One early stream alone found a favorable opportunity for conquest, and thus grew to be the master river— the Susquehanna of to-day. The head of the Anthracite was carried away by this captor, and its beheaded lower portion remains in our Schuylkill. The Anthracite coal basins, formerly drained by the single master stream, have since been apportioned to the surrounding rivers. As the Siluro-Devonian lowlands were opened around the coal-basins, especially on the north and west, the streams that formerly flowed into the basins were gradually inverted and flowed out of them, as they still do. The extent of the inversion seems to be in a general way proportionate to its opportunity. The most considerable conquests were made in the upper basins, where the Catawissa and Nescopec streams of to- day drain many square miles of wide valleys opened on the Mauch Chunk red shale between the Pocono and Pottsville.sand- stone ridges ; the ancient middle waters of the Anthracite here being inverted to the Susquehanna tributaries, because the northern coal basins were degraded very slowly after the upper Anthracite had been diverted. The Schuylkill as the modern representative of the Anthracite retains only certain streams south of a medial divide between Nescopec and Blue mountains, The only considerable part of the old Anthracite river that still re- tains a course along the axis of a synclinal trough seems to be that part which follows the Wyoming basin ; none of the many other The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 237 - coal basins are now occupied by the large stream that originally followed them. The reason for this is manifestly to be found in the great depth of the Wyoming basin, whereby the axial portion of its hard sandstones are even now below baselevel, and hence have never yet acted to throw the river from its axial course. Indeed, during the early cycles of denudation, this basin must have been changed from a deep lake to a lacustrine plain by the accumulation in it of waste from the surrounding highlands, and for a time the streams that entered it may have flowed in mean- dering courses across the ancient alluvial surface ; the lacustrine and alluvial condition may have been temporarily revived at the time of the Jurassic elevation. It is perhaps as an inheritance from a course thus locally superimposed that we may come to regard the deflection of the river at Nanticoke from the axis of the syncline to a narrow shale valley on its northern side, before turning south again and leaving the basin altogether. But like certain other suggestions, this can only be regarded as an open hypothesis, to be tested by some better method of river analysis than we now possess ; like several of the other explanations here offered, it is presented more as a possibility to be discussed than as a conclusion to be accepted. I believe that it was during the earlier part of the great Jura- Cretaceous cycle of denudation that the Susquehanna thus be- came the master stream of the central district of the state. For the rest of the cycle, it was occupied in carrying off the waste and reducing the surface to a well finished baselevel lowland that characterized the end of Cretaceous time. From an active youth of conquest, the Susquehanna advanced into an old age of estab- lished boundaries ; and in later times, its area of drainage does not seem to have been greatly altered from that so long ago defined ; except perhaps in the districts drained by the West and North Branch headwaters. 34. Homologies of the Susquehanna and Juniata.—Looking at the change from the Anthracite to the Susquehanna in a broad way, one may perceive that it is an effect of the same order as the peripheral diversion of the Broad Top drainage, illustrated in figures 22, 23 and 24; another example of a similar change is seen in the lateral diversion of the Juniata above Lewistown and its rectilinear continuation in Aughwick creek, from their original axial location when they formed the initial Broad Top outlet. They have departed from the axis of their syncline to 238 National Geographic Magazine. the softer beds on its southern side; FE of fig. 17 has been diverted to FD of fig. 18. All of these examples are truly only special cases of the one already described in which the Juniata left its original syncline for others to the south. The general case may be stated in a few words. A stream flowing along a syncline of hard beds (Carbon- iferous sandstones) developes side streams which breach the adja- cent anticlines and open lowlands in the underlying softer beds (Devonian and Silurian). On these lowlands, the headwaters of side streams from other synclines are encountered and a contest ensues as to possession of the drainage territory. "The divides are pushed away from those headwaters whose lower course leads them over the fewest hard barriers ; this conquest goes on until the upper course of the initial main stream is diverted to a new and easier path than the one it chose in its youth in obedience to the first deformation of the region. Thus the Juniata now avoids the center and once deepest part of the old Broad Top lake, because in the general progress of erosion, lowlands on soft Devonian beds were opened all around the edge of the great mass of sandstones that held the lake; the original drainage across the lake, from its western slopes to its outlet just south of the Jack’s mountain anticline, has now taken an easier path along the Devonian beds to the west of the old lake basin, and is seen in the Little Juniata, flowing along the outer side of Terrace mountain and rounding the northern synclinal point where Terrace mountain joins Sideling hill. It then crosses Jack’s mountain at a point where the hard Medina sandstones of the mountain were still buried at the time of the choice of this channel. In the same way, the drainage of the subordinate basin, through which the main lake discharged eastward, is now not along the axis of the Juniata-Catawissa syncline, but on the softer beds along one side of it ; and along the southern side because the easier escape that was provided for it lay on that side, namely, via the Tus- carora and Wiconisco synclines, as already described. The much broader change from the Anthracite to the Susquehanna was only another form of the same process. Taking a transverse view of the whole system of central, folds, it is perceived that their axes descend into the Anthracite district from the east and rise west- ward therefrom ; it is as if the whole region had received a slight transverse folding, and the transverse axis of depression thus formed defined the initial course of the first master stream. The Rwers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. — 289 _ But this master stream deserted its original course on the trans- verse axis of depression because a lateral course across lowlands on softer beds was opened by its side streams ; and in the contest on these lowlands with an external stream, the Susquehanna, the upper portion of the Anthracite was diverted from the hard rocks that had appeared on the transverse axis. The distance of diversion from the axial to the lateral course in this case was great because of the gentle quality of the transverse folding ; or, better said, because of the gentle dips of the axes of the longi- tudinal folds. This appearance of systematic re-arrangement in the several river courses where none was expected is to my mind a strong argument in favor of the originally consequent location of the rivers and their later mutual adjustment. It may perhaps be conceived that antecedent streams might imitate one another roughly in the attitude that they prophetically chose with regard to folds subsequently formed, but no reason has been suggested for the imitation being carried to so remarkable and definite a degree as that here outlined. 35. Superimposition of the Susquehanna on two synclinal ridges.—There is however one apparently venturesome postulate that may have been already noted as such by the reader ; unless it can be reasonably accounted for and shown to be a natural result of the long sequence of changes here considered, it will seriously militate against the validity of the whole argument. The present course of the middle Susquehanna leads it through the apical curves of two Pocono synclinal ridges, which were disregarded in the statement given above. It was then assumed that the embryonic Susquehanna gained possession of the Siluro-. Devonian lowland drainage by gnawing out a course to the west of these synclinal points ; for it is not to be thought of that any conquest of the headwaters of the Anthracite river could have been made by the Susquehanna if it had had to gnaw out the existing four traverses of the Pocono sandstones before securing the drainage of the lowlands above them. The backward pro- egress of the Susquehanna could not in that case have been nearly fast enough to reach the Anthracite before the latter had sunk its channel to a safe depth. It is therefore important to justify the assumption as to the more westerly location of the embryonic Susquehanna ; and afterwards to explain how it should have since then been transferred to its present course. A short cut through all this round-about method is open to those who adopt 240 National Geographic Magazine. in the beginning the theory that the Susquehanna was an antece- dent river; but as I have said at the outset of this inquiry, it seems to me that such a method is not freer from assumption, even though shorter than the one here adopted; and it has the demerit of not considering all the curious details that follow the examination of consequent and adjusted courses. The sufficient reason for the assumption that the embryonic Susquehanna lay farther west than the present one in the neigh- borhood of the Pocono synclinals is simply that—in the absence of any antecedent stream—it must have lain there. The whole explanation of the development of the Siluro-Devonian lowlands between the Pocono and Medina ridges depends simply on their being weathered out where the rocks are weak enough to waste faster than the enclosing harder ridges through which the streams escape. In this process, the streams exercise no control whatever over the direction in which their headwaters shall grow ; they leave this entirely to the structure of the district that they drain. It thus appears that, under the postulate as to the initial location of the Susquehanna as one of the many streams descending the great slope of the Kittatinny (Cumberland) highland into the Swatara syncline, its course being reversed from northward to southward by the Newark depression, we are required to suppose that its headwater (northward) growth at the time of the Jurassic elevation must have been on the Siluro-Devonian beds, so as to avoid the harder rocks on either side. Many streams competed for the distinction of becoming the master, and that one gained its ambition whose initial location gave it the best subsequent opportunity. It remains then to consider the means by which the course of the conquering Susquehanna may have been subse- quently changed from the lowlands on to the two Pocono synclines that it now traverses. Some departure from its early location may have been due to eastward planation in its advanced age, when it had large volume and gentle slope and was therefore swinging and cutting laterally in its lower course. This may have had a share in the result, but there is another process that seems to me more effective. In the latter part of the Jura-Cretaceous cycle, the whole country hereabout suffered a moderate depression, by which the Atlantic transgressed many miles inland from its former shore- line, across the lowlands of erosion that had been developed on the litoral belt. Such a depression must have had a distinct effect The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 241 on the lower courses of the larger rivers, which having already cut their channels down close to baselevel and opened their valleys wide on the softer rocks, were then “estuaried,” or at least so far checked as to build wide flood-plains over their lower stretches. Indeed, the flood-plains may have been begun at an earlier date, and have been confirmed and extended in the later time of depression. Is it possible that in the latest stage of this process, the almost baselevelled remnants of Blue mountain and the Pocono ridges could have been buried under the flood-plain in the neighborhood of the river ? If this be admitted, it is then natural for the river to depart from the line of its buried channel and cross the buried ridges on which it might settle down as a superimposed river in the next eycle of elevation. It is difficult to decide such general questions as these; and it may be difficult for the reader to gain much confidence in the efficacy of the processes suggested ; but there are certain features in the side streams of the Susquehanna that lend some color of probability to the explanation as offered. Admit, for the moment, that the aged Susquehanna, in the later part of the Jura-Cretaceous cycle, did change its channel some- what by cutting to one side, or by planation, as it is called. Admit, also, that in the natural progress of its growth it had built a broad flood plain over the Siluro-Devonian lowlands, and that the depth of this deposit was increased by the formation of an estuarine delta upon it when the country sank at the time of the mid-Cretaceous transgression of the sea. It is manifest that one of the consequences of all this might be the peculiar course of the river that is to be explained, namely, its superimposition on the two Pocono synclinal ridges in the next cycle of its history, after the Tertiary elevation had given it opportunity to re-discover them. It remains to inquire what other consequences should follow from the same conditions, and from these to devise tests of the hypothesis. . 36. Evidence of superimposition in the Susquehanna tributa- ries.—One of the peculiarities of flood-plained rivers is that the lateral streams shift their points of union with the main stream farther and farther down the valley, as Lombardini has shown in the case of the Po. If the Susquehanna were heavily flood- plained at the close of the Jura-Cretaceous cycle, some of its tributaries should manifest signs of this kind of deflection from their structural courses along the strike of the rocks. Side 249 National Geographic Magazine. streams that once joined the main stream on the line of some of the softer northeast-southwest beds, leaving the stronger beds as faint hills on either side, must have forgotten. such control after it was baselevelled and buried; as the flood plain grew, they properly took more and more distinctly downward deflected courses, and these deflections should be maintained in subsequent cycles as superimposed courses independent of structural guid- ance. Such I believe to be the fact. The downstream deflection is so distinctly a peculiarity of a number of tributaries that join the Susquehanna on the west side (see figure 1) that it cannot be ascribed to accident, but must be referred to some systematic cause. Examples of deflection are found in Penn’s creek, Middle creek and North Mahantango creek in Snyder county ; West Mahantango between the latter and Juniata county ; and in the Juniata and Little Juniata rivers of Perry county. On the other side of the Susquehanna, the examples are not so distinct, but the following may be mentioned: Delaware and Warrior runs, Chil- lisquaque creek and Little Shamokin creek, all in Northumberland county. It may be remarked that it does not seem impossible that the reason for the more distinct deflection of the western streams may be that the Susquehanna is at present east of its old course, and hence towards the eastern margin of its flood plain, as, indeed its position on the Pocono synclinals implies. A reason for the final location of the superimposed river on the eastern side of the old flood plain may perhaps be found in the eastward tilting that is known to have accompanied the elevation of the Cretace- ous lowland. ; It follows from the foregoing that the present lower course of the Susquehanna must also be of superimposed origin ; for the flood plain of the middle course must have extended down stream to its delta, and there have become confluent with the sheet of Cretaceous sediments that covered all the southeastern lowland, over which the sea had transgressed. McGee has already pointed out indications of superimposed stream courses in the south- eastern part of the State ;* but I am not sure that he would regard them as of the date here referred to. The theory of the location of the Susquehanna on the Pocono synclinal ridges therefore stands as follows. The general position of the river indicates that it has been located by some process of slow self-adjusting development and that it is not a persistent * Amer. Journ. Science, xxxv, 1888, 121, 134. The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 243 antecedent river ; and yet there is no reason to think that it could have been brought into its present special position by any process of shifting divides. The processes that have been suggested to account for its special location, as departing slightly from a loca- tion due to slow adjustments following an ancient consequent origin, call for the occurrence of certain additional peculiarities in the courses of its tributary streams, entirely unforeseen and unnoticed until this point in the inquiry is reached; and on looking at the map to see if they occur, they are found with perfect distinctness. The hypothesis of superimposition may therefore be regarded as having advanced beyond the stage of mere suggestion and as having gained some degree of confirmation from the correlations that it detects and explains. It only remains to ask if these correlations might have originated in any other way, and if the answer to this is in the negative, the vase may be looked upon as having a fair measure of evidence in its favor. The remaining consideration may be taken up at once as the first point to be examined in the Tertiary cycle of development. 37. Hvents of the Tertiary cycle.—The elevation given to the region by which Cretaceous baselevelling was terminated, and which I have called the early Tertiary elevation, offered oppor- tunity for the streams to deepen their channels once more. In doing so, certain adjustments of moderate amount occurred, which will be soon examined. As time went on, much denudation was effected, but no wide-spread baselevelling was reached, for the Cretaceous crest lines of the hard sandstone ridges still exist. The Tertiary cycle was an incomplete one. At its close, lowlands had been opened only on the weaker rocks between the hard beds. Is it not possible that the flood-plaining of the Susquehanna and the down-stream deflection of its branches took place in the closing stages of this cycle, instead of at the end of the previous cycle? If so, the deflection might appear on the branches, but the main river would not be transferred to the Pocono ridges. This question may be safely answered in the negative ; for the Tertiary lowland is by no means well enough baselevelled to permit such an event. The beds of intermediate resistance, the Oriskany and certain Chemung sandstones, had not been worn down to baselevel at the close of the Tertiary cycle; they had indeed lost much of the height that they possessed at the close of the previous cycle, but they had not been reduced as low as the softer beds on either side. They were only reduced to ridges of 244 National Geographic Magazime. moderate and unequal height over the general plain of the Siluro- Devonian low country, without great strength of relief but quite strong enough to call for obedience from the streams along side of them. And yet near Selin’s Grove, for example, in Snyder county, Penn’s and Middle creeks depart most distinctly from the strike of the local rocks as they near the Susquehanna, and traverse certain well-marked ridges on their way to the main river. Such aberrant streams cannot be regarded as superimposed at the close of the incomplete Tertiary cycle; they cannot be explained by any process of spontaneous adjustment yet described, nor can they be regarded as vastly ancient streams of antecedent courses ; Iam therefore much tempted to consider them as of superimposed origin, inheriting their present courses from the flood-plain cover of the Susquehanna in the latest stage of the Jura-Cretaceous cycle. With this tentative conclusion in mind as to the final events of Jura-Cretaceous time, we may take up the more deliberate consideration of the work of the Tertiary cycle. The chief work of the Tertiary cycle was merely the opening of the valley lowlands ; little opportunity for river adjustment occurred except on a small scale. The most evident cases of adjustment have resulted in the change of water-gaps into wind- gaps, of which several examples can be given, the one best known being the Delaware wind-gap between the Lehigh and Delaware water-gaps in Blue mountain. The wind-gap marks the unfinished notch of some stream that once crossed the ridge here and whose headwaters have since then been diverted, probably to the Lehigh. The difficulty in the case is not at all how the stream that once flowed here was diverted, but how a stream that could be diverted in the Tertiary cycle could have escaped diversion at some earlier date. The relative rarity of wind-gaps indicates that nearly all of the initial lateral streams, which may have crossed the ridges at an early epoch in the history of the rivers, have been beheaded in some cycle earlier than the Tertiary and their gaps thereafter obliterated. Why the Delaware wind-gap stream should have endured into a later cycle does not at present appear. Other wind-gaps of appar- ently similar origin may be found in Blue mountain west of the Schuylkill and east of the Susquehanna. It is noteworthy that if any small streams still persevere in their gaps across a hard ridge, they are not very close to any large river-gap ; hence it is only at the very headwaters of Conedogwinet creek, in the The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 245 northern part of Franklin county, that any water is still drawn from the back of Blue mountain. Again, these small stream gaps do not le between large river-gaps and wind-gaps, but wind-gaps lie between the gaps of large rivers and those of small streams that are not yet diverted. Excellent illustration of this is found on the “ Piedmont sheet ” of the contoured maps issued by the United States Geological Survey. The sheet covers part of Maryland and West Virginia, near where the North Branch of the Potomac comes out of the plateau and crosses New Creek - mountain. Eleven miles south of the Potomac gap there is a deep wind-gap; but further on, at twenty, twenty-five and twenty-nine miles from the river-gap are three fine water-gaps occupied by small streams. This example merely shows how many important points in the history of our rivers will be made clear when the country is properly portrayed on contoured maps. A few lines may be given to the general absence of gaps in Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania. When the initial consequent drainage was established, many streams must have been located on the northward slope of the great Cumberland highland, C, C, fig. 21; they must have gullied the slope to great depths and carried away great volumes of the weak Cambrian beds that lay deep within the hard outer casings of the mass. Minor adjust- ments served to diminish the number of these streams, but the more effective cause of their present rarity lay in the natural selec- tion of certain of them to become large streams ; the smaller ones were generally beheaded by these. The only examples of streams that still cross this ridge with their initial Permian direction of flow to the northwest are found in two southern branches of Tuscarora creek at the southern point of Juniata county ; and these survive because of their obscure location among the many Medina ridges of that district, where they were not easily acces- sible to capture by other streams. : 38. Tertiary adjustment of the Juniata on the Medina anti- clines.—The lower course of the Juniata presents several examples of adjustment referable to the last part of the Jura-Cretaceous cycle and to the Tertiary cycle. The explanation offered for the escape of this river from its initial syncline did not show any reason for its peculiar position with respect to the several Medina anticlines that it now borders, because at the time when it was led across country to the Wiconisco syncline, the hard Medina beds of these anticlines were not discovered. It is therefore # 246 National Geographic Magazme. hardly to be thought that the location of the Juniata in the Narrows below Lewistown between Blue Ridge and Shade moun- tain and its avoidance of Tuscarora mountain could have been defined at that early date. But all these Medina anticlines rise more or less above the Cretaceous baselevel, and must have had some effect on the position taken by the river about the middle of that cycle when its channel sank upon them. Blue Ridge and Black Log anticlines rise highest. The first location of the cross- country stream that led the early Juniata away from its initial syncline probably traversed the Blue Ridge and Black Log anti- clines while they were yet buried ; but its channel-cutting was much retarded on encountering them, and some branch stream working around from the lower side of the obstructions may have diverted the river to an easier path. The only path of the kind is the narrow one between the overlapping anticlines of Blue Ridge and Shade mountains, and there the Juniata now flows. If another elevation should occur in the future, it might happen that the slow deepening of the channel in the hard Medina beds which now floor the Narrows would allow Middle creek of Snyder county to tap the Juniata at Lewistown and lead it by direct course past Middleburgh to the Susquehanna; thus it would return to the path of its youth. The location of the Juniata at the end of Tuscarora mountain is again so definite that it can hardly be referred to a time when the mountain had not been revealed. The most likely position of the original cross-country stream which brought the Juniata into the Wiconisco syncline was somewhere on the line of the existing mountain, and assuming it to have been there, we must question how it has been displaced. The process seems to have been of the same kind as that just given; the retardation of channel- cutting in the late Cretaceous cycle, when the Medina beds of Tuscarora anticline were discovered, allowed a branch from the lower part of the river to work around the end of the mountain and lead the river out that way. ‘The occurrence of a shallow depression across the summit of the otherwise remarkably even crest of Tuscarora mountain suggests that this diversion was not finally accomplished until shortly after the Tertiary elevation of the country ; but at whatever date the adjustment occurred, it is natural that it should pass around the eastern end of the mountain and not around the western end, where the course would have been much longer, and therefore not successfully to be taken by a diverting stream. | + The Livers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 247 While the quality of these processes appears satisfactory, I am not satisfied as to the sufficiency of their quantity. If diversion was successfully practiced at the crossing of the Tuscarora anti- cline, why not also at the crossing of Jack’s mountain anticline, on which the river still perseveres. It is difficult here to decide how much confidence may be placed in the explanation, because of its giving reason for the location of certain streams, and how much doubt must be cast upon it, because it seems impossible and is not of universal application. 39, Migration of the Atlantic- Ohio divide.—There are certain shifted courses which cannot be definitely referred to any particu- lar cycle, and which may therefore be mentioned now. Among the greatest are those by which the divide between the Atlantic and the Ohio streams has been changed from its initial position on the great constructional Nittany highland and Bedford range. ‘There was probably no significant change until after Newark depression, for the branches of the Anthracite river could not have begun to push the divide westward till after the eastward flow of the river was determined ; until then, there does not seem to have been any marked advantage possessed by the eastward streams over the westward. But with the eastward escape of the Anthracite, it probably found a shorter course to the sea and one that. led it over alternately soft and hard rocks, instead of the longer course followed by the Ohio streams over continuous sandstones. The advantage given by the greater extent of soft beds is indicated by the great breadth of the existing valleys in the central district compared with the less breadth of those in the plateau to the west. Consider the effect of this advantage at the time of the Jurassic elevation. As the streams on the eastern slope of the Nittany divide had the shortest and steepest courses to the sea, they deepened their valleys faster than those on the west and acquired drainage area from them; hence we find reason for the drainage of the entire Nittany and Bedford district by the Atlantic streams at present. Various branches of what are now the Alleghany and Monongahela originally rose on the western slope of the dividing range. ‘These probably reached much farther east in pre-Permian time, but had their headwaters turned another way by the growth of the great anticlinal divide ; but the smaller anticlines of Laurel ridge and Negro mountain farther west do not seem to have been strong enough to form a divide, for the rivers still traverse them. Now as the headwaters 19 248 National Geographic Magazine. of the Juniata breached the eastern slope of the Nittany-Bedford range and pushed the divide westward, they at last gained pos- session of the Siluro-Devonian monocline on its western slope ; but beyond this it has not been possible for them yet to go. As the streams cut down deeper and encountered the Medina anti- cline near the core of the ridge, they sawed a passage through it ; the Cambrian beds were discovered below and a valley was opened on them as the Medina cover wore away. The most important point about this is that we find in it an adequate explanation of the opposite location of water-gaps in pairs, such as characterize the branches of the Juniata below Tyrone and again below Bedford. This opposite location has been held to indicate an antecedent origin of the river that passes through the gaps, while gaps formed by self-developed streams are not thought to present such correspondence (Hilber). Yet this special case of paired gaps in the opposite walls of a breached anticline is manifestly a direct sequence of the development of the Juniata headwaters. The settling down of the main Juniata on Jack’s mountain anticline below Huntingdon is another case of the same kind, in which the relatively low anticlinal crest is as yet not widely breached ; the gaps below Bedford stand apart, as the crest is there higher, and hence wider opened ; and the gaps below Tyrone are separated by some ten or twelve miles. When the headwater streams captured the drainage of the Siluro-Devonian monocline on the western side of the ancient dividing anticline, they developed subsequent rectangular branches growing like a well-trained grape vine. Most of this valley has been acquired by the west branch of the Susquehanna, probably because it traversed the Medina beds less often than the Juniata. For the same reason, it may be, the West Branch has captured a considerable area of plateau drainage that must have once belonged to the Ohio, while the Juniata has none of it ; but if so, the capture must have been before the Tertiary cycle, for since that time the ability of the West Branch and of the Juniata as regards such capture appears about alike. On the other hand, Castleman’s river, a branch of the Monongahela, still retains the. drainage of a small bit of the Siluro-Devonian monocline, at the southern border of the State, where the Juniata headwaters had the least opportunity to capture it; but the change here is probably only retarded, not prevented entirely ; the Juniata will some day push the divide even here back to the Alleghany Front, the frontal bluff of the plateau. The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 249 40. Other examples of adjustments.—Other examples of small adjustments are found around the Wyoming basin, fig. 26. Fig. 26. Originally all these streams ran centripetally down the enclosing slopes, and in such locations they must have cut gullies and breaches in the hard Carboniferous beds and opened low back country on the weaker Devonians. Some of the existing streams still do so, and these are precisely the ones that are not easily reached by divertors. The Susquehanna in its course outside of the basin has sent out branches that have beheaded all the centri- petal streams within reach; where the same river enters the basin, the centripetal streams have been shortened if not com- pletely beheaded. A branch of the Delaware has captured the heads of some of the streams near the eastern end of the basin. Elsewhere, the centripetal streams still exist of good length. The contrast between the persistence of some of the centripetal streams here and their peripheral diversion around Broad Top is a consequence of the difference of altitude of the old lake bottoms in the two cases. It is not to be doubted that we shall become acquainted with many examples of this kind as our intimacy with rivers increases. ; 41. Events of the Quaternary cycle.——The brief quaternary cycle does not offer many examples of the kind that we have considered, and all that are found are of small dimensions. The only capturing stream that need be mentioned has lately been described as a “river pirate ;”* but its conquest is only a Schles- * Science, xiii, 1889, 108. 250 National Geographic Magazine. wig-Holstein affair compared to the Goth- and Hun-like depreda- tions of the greater streams in earlier cycles. The character of the streams and their valleys as they now exist is strikingly dependent in many ways on the relation of the incipient quaternary cycle to the longer cycles of the past. No lakes occur, exception being made only of the relatively small ponds due to drift obstruction within the glaciated area. Water- falls are found only at the headwaters of small streams in the plateau district, exception again being made only for certain cases | of larger streams that have been thrown from their pre-glacial courses by drift barriers, and which are now in a very immature state on their new lines of flow. The small valleys of this cycle are shallow and narrow, always of a size strictly proportional to the volume of the stream and the hardness of the enclosing rocks, exception being made only in the case of post-glacial gorges whose streams have been displaced from their pre-glacial channels. The terraces that are seen, especially on the streams that flow in or from the glaciated district, are merely a temporary and subor- dinate complication of the general development of the valleys. In the region that has been here considered, the streams have been seldom much displaced from their pre-glacial channels ; but in the northwestern part of the State, where the drift in the valleys seems to be heavier, more serious disturbance of pre- glacial courses is reported. The facts here referred to in regard to lakes, falls, gorges, terraces and displaced streams are to be found in the various volumes of the Second Geological Survey of the State ;* in regard to the terraces and the estuarine deflections of the Delaware and Susquehanna, reference should be made also to McGee’s studies. 42. Doubtful cases.—It is hardly necessary to state that there are many facts for which no satisfactory explanation is fonnd under the theory of adjustments that we have been considering. Some will certainly include the location of the Susquehanna on - the points of the Pocono synclines under this category ; all must feel that such a location savors of an antecedent origin. The same is true of the examples of the alignment of water-gaps found on certain streams ; for example, the four gaps cut in the * Especially Carll, Reports I:, L; White, Reports G;, Ges; Lewis, Report Z. + Amer. Journ. Science, xxxv, 1888, 367, 448; Seventh Annual Rep. U.S. G. S., 1888, 545. The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 251 two pairs of Pocono and Pottsville outcrops at the west end of the Wyoming syncline, and the three gaps where the Little Schuylkill crosses the coal basin at Tamaqua; the opposite gaps in pairs at Tyrone and Bedford have already been sufficiently explained. The location of the upper North Branch of the Sus- quehanna is also unrelated to processes of adjustment as far as I can see them, and the great area of plateau drainage that is now possessed by the West Branch is certainly difficult to understand as the result of conquest. ‘The two independent gaps in Tussey’s mountain, maintained by the Juniata and its Frankstown branch below Tyrone are curious, especially in view of the apparent diversion of the branch to the main stream on the upper side of Warrior’s ridge (Oriskany), just east of Tussey’s mountain. 43. Complicated history of our actual rivers.—If this theory of the history of our rivers is correct, it follows that any one river as it now exists is of so complicated an origin that its development cannot become a matter of general study and must unhappily remain only a subject for special investigation for some time to come. It was my hope on beginning this essay to find some teachable sequence of facts that would serve to relieve the usual routine of statistical and descriptive geography, but this is not the result that has been attained. The history of the Susquehanna, the Juniata, or the Schuylkill, is too involved with complex changes, if not enshrouded in mystery, to become intel- ligible to any but advanced students ; only the simplest cases of river development can be introduced into the narrow limits of ordinary instruction. The single course of an ancient stream is now broken into several independent parts ; witness the disjoint- ing and diversion of the original Juniata, which, as I have sup- posed, once extended from Broad Top lake to the Catawissa basin. Now the upper part of the stream, representing the early Broad Top outlet, is reduced to small volume in Aughwick creek ; the continuation of the stream to Lewistown is first set to one side of its original axial location and is then diverted to another syncline ; the beheaded portion now represented by Middle creek is diverted from its course to the Catawissa basin by the Susquehanna ; perhaps the Catawissa of the present day represents the reversed course of the lower Juniata where it joined the Anthracite. This unserviceably complicated statement is not much simplified if instead of beginning with an original stream and searching out its present disjointed parts, we trace the composition of a single 252 National Geographic Magazine. existing stream from its once independent parts. The Juniata of to-day consists of headwaters acquired from Ohio streams ; the lake in which the river once gathered its upper branches is now drained and the lake bottom has become a mountain top; the streams flow around the margin of the lake, not across its basin ; a short course towards Lewistown nearly coincides with the original location of the stream, but to confound this with a precise agreement is to lose the true significance of river history ; the lower course is the product of diversion at least at two epochs and certainly in several places ; and where the river now joins the Susquehanna, it is suspected of having a superimposed course unlike any of the rest of the stream. This is too complicated, even if it should ever be demonstrated to be wholly true, to serve as material for ordinary study ; but as long as it has a savor of truth, and as long as we are ignorant of the whole history of our rivers, through which alone their present features can be right- fully understood, we must continue to’ search after the natural processes of their development as carefully and thoroughly as the biologist searches for the links missing from his scheme of classification. 44, Provisonal Conclusion.—It is in view of these doubts and complications that I feel that the history of our rivers is not yet settled ; but yet the numerous accordances of actual and deduc- tive locations appear so definite and in some cases so remarkable that they cannot be neglected, as they must be if we should adhere to the antecedent origin of the river courses. The method adopted on an early page therefore seems to be justified. The provisional system of ancient consequent drainage, illustrated on fig. 21, does appear to be sufticiently related to the streams of to-day to warrant the belief that most of our rivers took their first courses between the primitive folds of our moun- tains, and that from that distant time to the present the changes they have suffered are due to their own interaction—to their own mutual adjustment more than to any other cause. The Susque- hanna, Schuylkill, Lehigh and Delaware are compound, composite and highly complex rivers, of repeated mature adjustment. The middle Susquehanna and its branches and the upper portions of the Schuylkill and Lehigh aré descendants of original Permian rivers consequent on the constructional topography of that time ; Newark depression reversed the flow of some of the transverse streams, and the spontaneous changes or adjustments from imma- The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania. 253 ture to mature courses in the several cycles of development are so numerous and extensive that, as Léwl truly says, the initial drainage has almost disappeared. The larger westward-flowing streams of the plateau are of earlier, Carboniferous birth, and have suffered little subsequent change beyond a loss of head- waters. The lower courses of the Atlantic rivers are younger, having been much shifted from their Permian or pre-Permian courses by Newark and Cretaceous superimposition, as well as by recent downward deformation of the surface in their existing estu- aries. No recognizable remnant of rivers antecedent to the Per- mian deformation are found in the central part of the State ; and with the exception of parts of the upper Schuylkill and of the Sus- quehanna near Wilkes-Barre, there are no large survivors of Per- mian consequent streams in the ordinary meaning of the term “consequent.” The shifting of courses in the progress of mature adjustment has had more to do with determining the actual loca- tion of our rivers and streams than any other process. Harvard College, June, 1889. a 254: National Geographic Magazine. TOPOGRAPHIC MODELS. By Cosmos MINDELEFF. Or the many methods by which it has been sought to represent the relief of a country or district, only two have been at all widely used. These methods are, in the order of their development, by hachured and by contoured maps. Both have advantages and both have serious disadvantages. Without entering into the controversy that is even yet raging over the relative merits of the two systems, some slight notice of what each claims to accomplish is necessary. The representation of relief by hachures is a graphic system, and in the best examples we have is an attempt to show, upon a plane surface, the actual appearance of a given area under given conditions of lighting,—as in the Dufour map of the Alps. Of course certain details that would really disappear if the assumed conditions were actual ones, must be shown upon the map,—so that it is, after all, but a conventional representation. The very best examples are, for this and other reasons, unsatisfactory, and far more so is this the case in the vastly larger class of medium grade and poor work. : The contour system represents relief by a series of lines, each of which is, at every point throughout its length, at a certain stated elevation above sea-level, or some other datum-plane ; in other words, each contour line represents what would be the water’s edge, if the sea were to rise to that elevation. It pos- sesses the advantage of great clearness, but fails to a large degree in the representation of surface detail; moreover, one must have considerable knowledge of topography, in order to read the map correctly.* To those who must give first place to the quantity of relief rather than the quality, as, for example, the geologist or the engineer, a contoured map is now considered essential. On the other hand, where quality of relief is the prime consideration and the quantity a secondary one, as, for example, for the use of the army, a hachured map is considered the best. The method *For specimens of representation of the same subject on different scales, in both the hachure and contour systems, see plate from ‘‘ Enth- offer’s Topographical Atlas.” : Topographic Models. 255. of hachures may be roughly characterized as a graphic system with a conventional element, and the contour method as a con- ventional system with a graphic element,—for if the contour interval is small enough a sort of shading is produced which helps considerably the idea of relief. In addition to these two great systems, with which everyone is more or less familiar, there is another method of representing a country or district,—a method that succeeds where others fail, and which although by no means new, has not received the atten- tion it deserves: this is the representation of a country by a. model in relief. Certain striking advantages of models over maps of all kinds are, indeed, so apparent that one almost loses sight of such slight disadvantages as can, of course, be urged against them. In the graphic representation of the surface they are far superior to the hachured map, and they have the further advantage of expressing the relative relief, which the hachured map fails to do, except in a very general way. They have also the advantage of showing actual shadows, exactly as they would be seen in a bird’s-eye view of the district, instead of more or less conventional ones, and are, consequently, more easily com- prehended by the layman, without becoming any less valuable to the skilled topographer. In short, they combine all the graphic features of a hachured map with all the advantages of the best class of contoured maps, and in addition they show more of the surface detail, upon which so much of the character of the country depends and which is very inadequately expressed by hachures and almost completely ignored in a contoured map of large interval. The contours themselves can be made to appear upon the model very easily and without interfering with other features. The uses of models are many and various. Within the past few years their usefulness has been much extended, and, now that they are becoming better known, will probably receive a still further extension. To the geologist they are often of great value in working out the structure of complicated districts, for the reason that so many important structural relations can be presented to the eye at a single glance. Similarly, for the graphic presentation of results there is no better method, as the topography, the surface geology, and any number of sections can be shown together and seen in their proper relationship. To the engineer an accurate model is often of the greatest assistance 256 National Geographic Magazine. in working out his problems, and it is simply invaluable to ex- plain the details of a plan to anyone who has little or no tech- — nical training ; for, as has been stated, a model is easily compre- hended by anyone, while more or less technical knowledge is required for the proper understanding of even the best maps. I might go on cataloguing in detail the many uses to which — models may be put, but shall now mention only one more—per- haps the most important of all—their use in the education of the young. No method has yet been devised that is capable of giving so clear and accurate a conception of the principles of physical geography as a series of well selected models; models have, indeed, already been used for this purpose, but unfor- tunately their great cost has prevented their general use in schools. Since, however, the study of geography has been placed upon a new basis and a new life has been infused into it, many men have given their attention to the subject of models, and have experimented with a view to cheapen the cost of reproduction, which has hitherto prevented their wide distribution; and prob- ably this objection will soon be remedied. The ability to read a map correctly,—to obtain from a study of the map a clear con- ception of the country represented,—is more uncommon than is usually supposed. Some of the recent methods of teaching geography are intended to cultivate this very faculty, but it is doubtful whether there is any better method than that which consists in the study of a series of good models in conjunction with a series of maps, all on the same scale and of the same areas. The value of a series of good models in teaching geology Is so apparent that it need only be mentioned. It is often, for reasons stated above, far more valuable even; than field instruc- tion. For the construction of a good relief map the first requisite is a good contoured map. To this should be added, when possible, a good hachured map, upon which the elevations of the principal points are stated,—if the interval in the contoured map is a large one,—and as much material in the way of photographs and sketches as it is possible to procure. The modeler should, more- over, have some personal acquaintance with the region to be represented, or, failing that, a general knowledge of topographic forms, and at least a clear conception of the general character of the country which he seeks to represent. This is very important, for it is here that many modelers fail: the mechanical portion of Topographic Models. 257 the work any ordinarily intelligent person can do. A model may be as accurate as the map from which it is made, every contour may be placed exactly where it belongs, and yet the resulting model may be,—indeed, often is—“ flat,” expressionless, and un- satisfactory. Every topographer in drawing his map is compelled to generalize more or less, and it is fortunate: for the map if this be done in the field instead of in the draughtsman’s office. But topographers differ among themselves: there may be, and often is, considerable difference in two maps of the same region made by different men; in other words, the “ personal equation” is a larger element in a map than is usually supposed. This being the case, there is something more required in a modeler than the mere transferring of the matter in the map,—giving it three dimensions instead of two: he must supply through his special knowledge of the region (or, failing that through his general ‘knowledge) certain characteristics that do not appear upon the map, and undo, so far as it is necessary, certain generalizations of the topographer and draughtsman. ‘This artistic or technical skill required correctly to represent the individuality of a given district is especially important in the modeler; it is more impor- tant, perhaps, in small-scale maps of large districts than in large- scale maps of small ones,—for in the latter the generalizing pro- cess has not been carried so far, and the smaller interval of the contour lines preserves much of the detail. The methods by which relief maps are made haye always re- ceived more attention than would, at first sight, appear to be their proper proportion. It may be due, however, to the difficulty of applying any test to determine the accuracy of the finished model, and perhaps also to the general impression that any one can make a relief map, —and so he can, though of course there will be a wide difference in the value of the results. Some, indeed, have devoted their attention to methods exclusively, letting the result take care of itself,--and the models show it. There is no more reason why a modeler should tie himself down to one method of work, than that a Water-colorist, or a chemist, or anyone engaged in technical work, should do so; though in some cases he might be required, as the chemist is, to show his methods as well as his results. 2 One of the earliest methods, with any pretension to what we may term mechanical control, is that described by the Messrs. Harden in a paper on “The construction of maps in relief,” read 258 National Geographic Magazine. before the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1887; The method was published in 1838. Upon a contoured map as a basis cross-section lines are drawn at small and regular intervals, and, if the topography be intricate, corresponding lines at right angles. The sections thus secured are transferred to thin strips of some suitable material, such as cardboard or metal, and cut down to the surface line,—the strips themselves thus forming the cross- sections. These cross-sections are mounted upon a suitable base- board, and the cavities or boxes are then filled up with some easily carved material, such as plaster or wax. The top is then carved down to the form of the country or district,—the neces- sary guidance being obtained by the upper edges of the strips that form the cross-sections. It will be readily seen that this method is a very crude and laborious one. It necessitates in the first place a good contoured map upon which to draw the sections, but sacrifices much of the advantage thus gained because only a number of points on each contour line are used, instead of the entire line. It is no better, although actually more laborious, than the later method of driving contour pins (whose height above a base-board may be accurately measured,) along the contour lines, and then filling in. A slight modification of the latter method can be used to advantage when no contoured map is available, and when the points whose elevation is known are not numerous enough to permit the construction of one. In this case the only control that can be secured is by means of a num- ber of pins driven into the base-board at those points whose » elevation is known. The remainder of the map is then sketched in. This method is perhaps as satisfactory as any, when the material upon the map is scanty. Another method, however, growing out of the same scantiness of material, is in some cases to be preferred, especially for large models. The map is enlarged to the required size, and a tracing of it is mounted upon a frame. Another deep frame, just large enough to contain the mounted tracing, is made, and laid upon a suitable base-board upon which a - copy of the map has been mounted. Upon this base-board the model is then commenced, in clay or wax. The low areas are modeled first,—horizontal control being obtained by pricking through the mounted tracing of the map with a needle point, and vertical control by measuring down from a straight edge sliding on the top of the deep frame. This system is rather crude, and only useful where the material upon the map is very scanty, but it gives excellent control. Topographic Models. 259 A method used by Mr. F. H. King in the preparation of his large map of the United States is described by him in a letter to Messrs. Harden, and published by them in the place mentioned. A solid block of plaster is used,—the contoured map being trans- ferred to it—and the plaster is carved down to produce a series of steps like those made by building up the contours. The shoulders are then carved down to produce a continuous surface. This method is one of the best of those that require carving instead of modeling. Many other methods of producing relief maps might be men- tioned, but, as most of them have been used only to make special models, they need not be described. The method that has been more used than any other still remains to be described. It is that which the writer has used almost exclusively, and consists in building up the model and modeling the detail, instead of carv- ing it. It isa maxim of the modeler that the subject should be built up as far as possible, should be produced by adding bits of clay or wax, or other material, and not by carving away what is already on,—by addition and not by subtraction. This may be illustrated by a reference to the methods of the sculptor. The bust, or figure, or whatever the subject may be, is first modeled in clay or wax; from this model a plaster mould is made, and from this mould a plaster cast is taken. This cast is called the original, and the finished production, whether in marble, bronze, or any other hard substance, is simply a copy of this original. No one ever attempts to produce the finished bust or figure directly from the object itself. Hven where the artist has for a guide a death mask, the procedure does not change. The bust is first made in clay, and this clay model, as a rule, contains all the detail which subsequently appears in the finished bust. It seems strange, therefore, that the relief map maker should use a method which the sculptor, with infinitely more skill and judg- ment, is afraid to use; and this on subjects that do not differ as much as might be imagined. The contour interval to be used depends on the use to which the model is to be put. It is not always necessary to carry into the model all the contour lines upon the map: I may go further and say, that it is not always desirable to do so. The number to be used depends to some extent on the skill of the modeler. As already stated, the contours are only a means of control, and one modeler requires more than another. To build into a model every 260 National Geographic Magazine. contour in a contoured map of ten foot interval is a very labori- ous proceeding, and not worth the time it takes, as in nine out of ten maps of such interval only the fifty-foot or the one hundred- foot curves are definitely fixed, the intermediate lines being merely filled in. This filling in can be done as well, or better, by the modeler. The question as to the proper amount of exaggeration to be given the vertical scale, as compared with the horizontal, is the question about which has raged most of the controversy con- nected with relief map making. ‘This controversy has been rather bitter; some of the opponents of vertical exaggeration going to the length of saying that no exaggeration is necessary, and that “ he that will distort or exaggerate the scale of anything will lie.” On the other hand the great majority of those who have made relief maps insist upon the necessity of more or less exaggeration of the vertical scale—generally more than seems to me necessary, however. An increase of angle of slope accompanies all vertical exagger- ation, and this is apparent even in models in which the vertical element is only very slightly exaggerated. It produces a false effect by diminishing the proportionate width of the valleys, and by making the country seem much more rugged and mountainous than it really is. A secondary effect is to make the region rep- resented look very small—all idea of the extent of the country being lost. This can be illustrated better than described. The King model of the United States is an example of one extreme ; it is worthy of note that no examples of the other extreme—too little exaggeration—are known. In small-scale models of large districts some exaggeration of the vertical scale is necessary in order to make the relief appar- ent, but the amount of this exaggeration is often increased much beyond what is essential. The proportion of scales must depend to a large extent on the character of the country represented, and on the purposes for which the model is made. It has been sug- gested by a writer, quoted by the Messrs. Harden, that the following exaggeration would afford a pleasing relief : “For a map, scale 6 inches to | mile: if mountainous, 1:3; if only hilly, 1:2; if gently undulating, 2:3. For smaller scales, except for very rugged tracts, the exaggeration should be correspondingly increased. For a tract consisting wholly of mountains no exag- geration is necessary.” I know of no country of such a charac- Topographic Models. 261 ter that its relief, in all its detail, cannot be shown upon a scale _ of 6 inches to 1 mile without any exaggeration at all. It seems to me that the absolute and not the relative amount of relief is the desideratum, and I have always used this as my guiding principle. For small scale models I have found half an inch of relief ample. It may be worth while to state that ina model of the United States made for the Messrs. Butler, of Phil- adelphia, the horizontal scale was 77 miles to 1 inch, the vertical scale 40,000 feet to 1 inch, and the proportion of scales as 1 to 10. This proportion could have been brought down as low as 1:6 with advantage. One-fortieth of an inch to a thousand feet seems a very small vertical scale, but it sufficed to show all the important features of the relief. It should be stated, moreover, that the model in question was very hurriedly made—in fact, was hardly more than a sketch-model—and that more care and more minute work would have brought out many details that do not now appear. This amount of care was not considered necessary in this instance, as the model was made to be photographed and published as a photo-engraving, and was to suffer an enormous reduction—coming down to five by seven inches.* It has been frequently urged by the advocates of large exag- geration that the details of a country cannot be shown unless the vertical scale is exaggerated ; that hills 200, 300, or even 500 feet high—depending of course upon the scale—flatten out or dis- appear entirely. This seems plausible, but the advantanges of great exaggeration are more apparent than real. Its effect upon the model has already been mentioned ; it should be added that, with the proper amount of care in finishing the model, exceed- ingly small relief can be so brought out as to be readily seen. With ordinary care, one-fortieth of an inch can be easily shown, and with great care and skill certainly one-eightieth and probably one-hundredth of an inch. Another plausible argument that has been advanced in favor of vertical exaggeration as a princi- ple, is well stated by Mr. A. E. Lehman, of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, in a paper on “ Topographical Models,” read before the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1885. ‘A perfectly natural expression is of course desired ; and to cause this the features of the topography should be distorted and exag- gerated in vertical scale just enough to. produce the same effect on the beholder or student of the district of country exhibited * See plate from ‘‘ Butler’s Complete Geography.” 262 National Geographic Magazine. as his idea of it would be if he were on the real ground itself. Care should be taken, however, not to make the scales so dispro- portionate as to do violence to mental impressions. Often, in- deed, prominent or important features, when they will bear it, may be still more effectively shown by additional exaggeration in the vertical scale.” The fallacy of this argument is obvious. It assumes that the object of a model is to show the country as it appears to one passing through it, and not as it really is—and there is often a very wide difference between the two. The im- pression derived from passing through a country is, if I may use the term, a very large-scale impression, as any one who has tried it can certify ; it is certainly a mistake to attempt to reproduce this impression in a small-scale model, with the help of vertical exaggeration. Even if the principle were a good one, its applica- tion would be very limited. It could only be used in large-scale models; to apply it to a model of a large area—the United States, for example—is obviously absurd. The method referred to as being now generally in use may be briefly described as follows: requisites, a good contoured map ; a hachured map in addition, if possible; a clear conception on the part of the modeler of the country to be represented ; and a fair amount of skill. Materials: a base-board of wood or other suitable material ; card-board or wood of the thickness required by the contour interval and the scale ; and modeling wax or clay. Procedure : reproduce the contours in the wood or other mate- rial ; mount these upon the base-board in their proper relation- ship ; then fill in the intervening spaces, and the space above the topmost contour, with the modeling material. In a series of models of the Grand Divisions of the earth, made about a year and a half ago, the contours of card-board were made as follows: the map was photographed up to the required scale, and as many prints were made as there were contour inter- vals to be represented—in a model of the United States of 1,000 feet contour interval there were fourteen prints. Thirteen of these were mounted upon card-board of the exact thickness re- quired by the vertical scale, and one upon the base-board. All large paper companies use a micrometer gauge, and card-board can easily be obtained of the exact thickness required—even to less than the thousandth part of an inch. The lowest contour was then sawed out upon a scroll saw, and placed upon the cor- responding line of the map mounted upon the base-board. This Topographic Models. 263 _ process was repeated with each of the succeeding contours until all were placed and glued into their proper positions. At this stage the model presents the relief in a series of steps, each step representing a rise corresponding to the contour interval. The disadvantages of the method lie in the fact that unless the great- est care is exercised in making the photographic prints there will be considerable distortion, owing to the stretching of the paper in different directions, and consequently much trouble in fitting the contours. If care be exercised in having*the grain of the paper run in the same direction in all the prints, trouble in fitting the contours will be much reduced, but the distortion in one direction will remain. In our experience this distortion amounts to about two per cent.; in other words, a model that should be fifty inches long will in reality be fifty-one inches ; but, as this error is distributed over the whole fifty inches, it is not too great for an ordinary model. If greater accuracy be required, it can be secured by transferring the contours to the card-board by means of tracing or transfer paper. The great advantage of the photographic method lies in the fact that when the model has been built up, with all the contours in position, it presents a copy of the map itself, with all the details, drainage, etc., in position, instead of blank intervals between the contours. . Such details and drainage are a great help in the subsequent modeling. The next step in the process is to fill in with clay or wax the intervals between the contours. I have always found wax more convenient than clay for this purpose as, unless the surface coat- ing is a thick one, the clay is difficult to keep moist. To obviate this difficulty, some modelers have used clay mixed with glycerine instead of water ; this, of course, does not become dry, but the material is, at its best, unsatisfactory. The filling-in process is the most important one in relief map making, for it is here that the modeler must show his knowledge of, and feeling for, topo- graphic forms. Some models seem to have been constructed with the idea that when the contours have been accurately placed the work of the modeller is practically done. This is a great mistake. The card-board contours are only a means of control, occupying somewhat the same relation to the relief map that a core or base of bricks, or a frame of wood, does to other con- structions as, for example, an architectural ornament or a bust. It is sometimes necessary to cut away the contour card ; for, as has been already explained, a map is more or less generalized, and 20 264 National Geographic Magazine. a contour is frequently carried across a ravine, instead of follow- ing it up, as it wonld do if the map were on a larger scale. Such generalizing is of course perfectly proper in a map, but, with the same scale, we expect more detail in a model. The modeler must have judgment enough and skill enough to read between the lines, and to undo the generalizing of the topographer and draughtsman, thus supplying the material omitted from the map. This can be done without materially affecting the accuracy of the model, considered even as a copy of the contoured map. The contours of card board or other material are, let me repeat, only a means of control. The perfect modeler—a variety, by the way, yet to be evolved—would be able to make an accu- rate relief map without them, in the same way that other subjects are made; as, for example, a flower panel, an architectural orna- ment, or any other subject in low relief, where the object sought is artistic effect and great accuracy is not a desideratum. It is the converse of this idea that has produced the numerous models that one sees ; accurate enough, perhaps, but wholly expression- less and absolutely without feeling. This is the great fault of nearly all models made by building up the contours in wood and then carving down the shoulders. It is then necessary to sand- paper them, and what little character they might otherwise have had is completely obliterated by the sand-paper. Such models almost invariably look wooden. Let the modeler, then, have aclear . conception of his subject and not depend wholly on the contours, and let him work out that conception in his model, “ controlled” and helped by the contours, but not bound by them ; the result- ing model will thus be far more satisfactory and a far better rep- resentation of his subject, in other words, it will be more life-lhke— more nearly true to nature. The model, provided it be not of clay, is sometimes used in the state in which it is left when finished. It is much more common, however, to make a plaster mould, and from this a plaster cast. For this purpose a moulder is usually called in ; but moulders as a rule are ignorant men, accustomed to one line of work only, and the result is not always satisfactory. It is much better for the modeler himself to do this work, though to obtain good results from plaster it is necessary to know the material thoroughly, and this knowledge comes only from experience. The mould is gen- erally made quite heavy, in order to stand the ‘subsequent hard treatment that it may receive, and should be retouched and thor- Topographic Models. 265 oughly dried before being prepared for the cast. The method used by some modelers of placing a frame about the model and pouring in the plaster, filling the frame to the top, is a crude and very wasteful one and not at all to be recommended. In a model of large size—say seven or eight feet square—it would require a derrick to move the mould. It is wholly unnecessary, as, with a small amount of care, a good mould can be made not more than an inch thick, or, at most, an inch anda half. The drying of the mould before use can sometimes be dispensed with, but is always desirable. Nearly all American moulders (as distinguished from French and Italian ones) varnish the mould, and thus lose some of the finest detail and sharpness. This is unnecessary. The mould can be easily prepared with a solution of soap so as to leave nothing on the surface but a very thin coating of oil, which is taken up and replaced by the plaster of the cast. Of course, if the model has been sand-papered, no fine work in moulding or casting is necessary, as there is nothing to save. If the subject is a very intricate one, with “undercuts” (as they are called), it is custom- ary to make a waste mould ; as this is very seldom necessary in relief map work, however, the process need not be described. To make the cast it is only necessary to repeat the processes used in making the mould. With great care and some skill a cast can be produced but little inferior in point of sharpness and detail to the original model. It is customary to make the cast very thick, and, consequently, very heavy ; this is unnecessary. In our work we seldom make a cast thicker than one inch, and yet are never troubled with changes in the model after it is finished. Even in a very large cast (now in the National Mu- seum), weighing nearly 1,500 pounds and presenting a surface of over 160 square feet, the average thickness is less than one inch, although it required over five barrels of plaster to make it. The cast, after being thoroughly dried, should be finished—all its imperfections being carefully repaired. The surface, however, should be touched as little as possible, as the slight roughness of surface that comes from the original model, through the mould, is removed by any tooling. This roughness adds much to the effect of the model ; in fact, where the scale is large enough, it is sometimes desirable to emphasize it. The proper way to paint a model is a matter that must rest principally upon the judgment of the modeler, depending to some 266 National Geographic Magazine. extent, also, on the use to which the model is to be put. The plain cast is sometimes used, drainage, lettering, etc., being put directly upon it. This has the advantage of preserving all the detail that comes from the mould, but it has also the disadvan- tage of a surface easily soiled and impossible to clean. If the model is to be photographed, the surface should be nearly white— in our practice we use a small amount of yellow with the white. This yellow is hardly appreciable by the eye, but its effect upon the photographic negative is quite marked. Yellow becomes grey in a photograph, and, in a photograph of a model colored as described, a grey tint is given to the whole surface. The high lights are not pure white, and there is no harsh contrast between light and shade. There is another point of great importance in photographing models: the surface should have a dead finish— that is, should have no gloss, or, at most, should have only what is known among painters as an egg-shell gloss. It is almost impossible satisfactorily to photograph a model that has a shiny surface. Any portion of a model that it is desired to separate from the rest should be paintéd a different color—the water, for example, should be painted a light blue ; not a blue composed of indigo, however, or any of the grey blues, as these produce in the photograph a dead grey, and are not pleasant to the eye. The most satisfactory color that we have used is a mixture of cobalt—the purest of the blues—with Antwerp blue—which is quite green—and white. This gives a color that is pleasant to the eye, has the retreating quality to perfection, and photographs well. Models intended for exhibition as such should be painted real- istically. There is room here for an immense improvement in the usual practice, which is to paint the model either in some conventional scheme of light and shade, or else to put a single flat tint upon it. If the model is to be colored conventionally it is, in my opinion, much better to use a flat tint, light in tone, and with a dead surface. The use of a variety of colors upon the face of a model interferes materially with the relief, especially if the relief is finely modeled. For this reason models colored to indicate geologic formations should always be accompanied by duplicates representing topography only, colored realistically, if possible, and without lettermg. Well-defined lines other than those pertaining to the model itself, such, for example, as those used to define the boundaries of geologic formations, should not Topographic Models. 267 be allowed upon a model when it is desired to bring out all the relief. The lettering on such models should be kept down as small as possible, or wholly dispensed with. The latter is much the better method. The cheap reproduction of models is the most important problem connected with the art, and the one that is attracting most attention among those engaged in it ; as, until models can be reproduced cheaply, they will never have any wide distribu- tion and there will be far less incentive to the modeler. Various materials have been suggested and experimented on, but nine- tenths of the models that are made to-day are made of plaster of Paris. Although this material was the first to be used for this purpose, it has not yet been superseded. A plaster cast is heavy, expensive and easily injured; but plaster gives an accurate copy of the original, retains permanently the form given it, and is easily finished and repaired. The weight is an obstacle that can be easily overcome. By the incorporation in the plaster of fine tow, or of bagging or netting of various kinds, the cast can be made very light and at the same time strong, but the expense is increased rather than diminished by this method. Models made in this way, however, have the advantage that when broken the pieces do not fall out, they are, however, fully as liable to surface injury as the other kind. The large cast in the National Museum, before referred to, was made in this way. It weighed nearly 2,000 pounds when boxed—not an easy thing to handle—but it stood shipment to New Orleans and back without suffering any material injury. This would hardly have been possible had the cast been made from plaster alone. Paper seems, at first sight, to be the material best adapted for the reproduction of models; but no one has succeeded well enough with it to bring it inte use. Like nearly all those who have given this subject attention, I have experimented with paper, but the only positive result has been a loss of a large part of the confidence that I once had in the suitability of the material. Paper has been used extensively for large scale models of pueblos, ruins, etc., but I have never obtained a satisfactory result with subjects in low relief and fine detail. A paper cast may look well when first made, but it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, and contracts and expands with the weather. The contraction is apt to flatten out the model and the expansion to make it buckle up. Casts of models have been made in iron ; but this, while suitable 268 National Geographie Magazine. perhaps for models of mounds and subjects of like character, would hardly be applicable to small scale models with fine detail ; such casts require too much surface finishing. The material known as Lincrusta-Walton seems to me to be the ideal material. for this purpose. It is tougher than rubber, will take the finest detail, and its surface can be treated.in any way desired. Unfor- tunately the manufacture of models in this material would require expensive machinery, and is outside the scope of a modeling room. Should it ever become commercially advantageous, how- ever, casts of a model of ordinary size, in every way equal to the original, can be turned out in this material at a very small cost. It remains to speak of the reproduction of models by process- engravings—a method that will probably receive much more attention in the future than it has in the past. It is perhaps along this line that the cheap reproduction of models will develop ; but the subject is too large a one to be adequately treated here, and must be postponed until some future occasion. Scale, linch - 4 miles. a = Hachure Contour- interval 200 ft. 500 ft. Scale, 1 inch-1 mile Hachure. Contour-interval: 40 ft. Contour-interval:80O ft. Contour- interval: 120 ft. HACHURED AND CONTOURED MAPS REPRESENTATION OF A HILL ACCORDING TO THE TWO SYSTEMS AND ON DIFFERENT SCALES. From Supplement to Enthoffer’s Topographical Atlas by permission of Mr. Enthoffer. By SR poh ro = tk ints mehep RIT ROME SU we EakyS COMP Will GEOG RAP EY: COPYRIGHT, 1888, By H. H. BurLER & Co. Printed by permission. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. ABSTRACT OF MINUTES. 4 October 5, 1888, Ninth Meeting. A paper was read entitled, “Topographic Models,” by Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff. Published in the “‘ National Geographic Mag- azine,” Vol. I, No. 3. October 19, 1888, Tenth Meeting. The attendance being very small, no paper was read. November 2, 1888, Eleventh Meeting. The paper of the evening was entitled, “Surveys, their Kinds and Purposes,” by Mr. Marcus Baker. The paper was discussed by Messrs. Ogden, Goodfellow, Gannett and Baker. Published in “Science,” Vol. XII, No. 304. November 16, 1888, Twelfth Meeting. A paper was read by Mr. Henry Gannett, giving certain “Physical Statistics Relating to Massachusetts,” derived from the map of that State recently prepared by the United States Geological Survey. A discussion followed which was partici- pated in by Messrs. Baker, Kenaston, Fernow, Weed, and the author. A second paper entitled, “Something about Tornadoes,” was read by Lieut. J. P. Finley, U. 8. Signal Corps. November 30, 1888, Thirteenth Meeting. The annual reports of vice-Presidents Herbert G. Ogden and Gen. A. W. Greely were delivered. Published in the “ National Geographic Magazine,” Vol. I, No. 2.. December 20, 1888, Fourteenth Meeting. Held in the Law Lecture Room of the Columbian University. The President delivered his Annual Address, entitled, “Africa.” . Published in the “ National Geographic Magazine,” Vol. I, No. 2. 270 National Geographic Magazine. December 28, 1888, Lifteenth Meeting. The Society met in the Society Hall of the Cosmos Club, President Hubbard in the chair. Owing to the absence from the city of the Secretaries, Mr. O. H. Tittmann was requested to act as Secretary of the meeting. The minutes of the first and fourteenth meetings were read and approved. The report of the Secretaries was read, in their absence, by the temporary Secre- retary, and was approved. The Treasurer’s report, showing a balance on hand of $626.70, was read and approved, as was also that of the auditing committee. The President announced that vacancies caused by the resigna- tion of two of the managers, Messrs. W. D. Johnson and Henry Mitchell, had been filled by the Board on the 15th of November, by the election of Messrs. O. H. Tittmann and C. A. Kenaston ; and that a vacancy caused by the resignation of Vice-President John R. Bartlett, had been filled by the election of Lieut. George L. Dyer, on November 30th. The Society then proceeded to the election of officers, with fol- lowing result : President—GARDINER G. HUBBARD. Vice-Presidents—HERBERT G. OGDEN, [land]; GEORGE L. DYER, [sea]; A. W. GREELY, [air]; C. Hart MrRR1AM, [life]; A. H. THompson, [art]; Treasurer—CHARLES J. BELL. Recording Secretary—HENRY GANNETT. Corresponding Secretary—GEORGE KENNAN. Managers—CLEVELAND ABBE, MarcUS BAKER, ROGERS BIRNIE, JR., G. BRowNE GoopE, W. B. PowELu, J. C. WELLING, C. A. KENASTON, O. H. TITTMANN. January 11, 1889, Sixteenth Meeting. The paper of the evening was entitled, “The Great Plains of Canada,” and was presented by Professor C. A. Kenaston, of Howard University. January 25, 1889, Seventeenth Meeting. The paper of the evening was entitled, “Irrigation in Cali- fornia,” by Mr. William Hammond Hall, State Engineer of California. To be published in the “ National Geographic Mag- azine,” Vol. I, No. 4. Abstract of Minutes. 271 February 8, 1889, Highteenth Meeting. The following papers were read by Prof. W. M. Davis, of Harvard University: ‘Topographic Models,” and ‘Certain Peculiarities of the Rivers of Pennsylvania.” Published in the “National Geographic Magazine,” Vol. I, No. 3. February 22, 1889, Nineteenth Meeting. The paper of the evening was entitled, “Round about Ashe- ville, N. C.,” by Mr. Bailey Willis. The paper was illustrated by charcoal sketches and lantern slides. Discussion followed, which was participated in by Messrs. Baker, Merriam and McGee. To be published in the “ National Geographic Magazine,” Vol. I, No. 4. March 8, 1889, Twentieth Meeting. The following amendments to the By-Laws were adopted. [For Article VI substitute the following] : ARTICLE VI. MEETINGS. ‘Regular meetings of the Society shall be held on alternate Fridays, from November until May, and excepting the annual meeting, they shall be devoted to communications. The Board of Managers shall, however, have power to postpone or omit meetings, when deemed desirable. Special meetings may be called by the President. ‘*The annual meeting for the election of officers shall be the last reg- ular meeting in December. ‘The meeting preceding the annual meeting shall be devoted to the President’s annual address. ‘‘The reports of the retiring Vice-Presidents shall be presented at the meetings in January. ‘‘A quorum for the transaction of business shall consist of twenty- five active members.” In Article V, the following paragraph was introduced immedi- ately after the first paragraph of the article : “The dues of members elected in November and December shall be credited to the succeeding year.” The following papers were then presented: “A Trip to Panama and Darien,” by Mr. R. U. Goode, and “Survey of Mason and Dixon’s Line,” by Mr. Mark B. Kerr. A Trip to Panama and Darien, to be published in the “ Na- tional Geographic Magazine,” Vol. I, No. 4. 272 National Geographic Magazine. March 22, 1889, Twenty-first Meeting. The paper of the evening was entitled, ‘“ Recent Events in the U.S. of Columbia,” by Mr. W. E. Curtis. The discussion which followed was participated in by Messrs. Baker, Gannett, and others. April 5, 1889, Twenty-second Meeting. The paper of the evening was entitled, “ House Life in Mexico,” by Mr. A. B. Johnson. April 19, 1889, Twenty-third Meeting. This meeting was devoted to papers upon the Samoan Islands. The following programme was presented : “Samoa; the General Geography and Hydrography of the Islands and Adjacent Seas,” by Mr. Everett Hayden. “ Climate,” by Prof. Cleveland Abbe. “Narrative of a Cruise Among the Islands,” by Capt. R. W. Meade, U.S. N. “The Home Life of the Samoans and the Botany of the Isl- ands,” by Mr. W. E. Safford, U.S. N. May 3, 1889, Twenty-fourth Meeting. The paper of the evening was entitled, “ Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte,” by Mr. R. E. Peary, U.S. N. To be published in the “ National Geographic Magazine,” Vol. I, No. 4. May 17, 1889, Twenty-fifth Meeting. The paper of the evening was entitled, “The Krakatoa Erup- tion,” by Dr. A. Graham Bell. The paper was discussed by Captain C. E. Dutton. International Literary Contest. 273 (Translated by Mr. R. L. Lerch.) INTERNATIONAL LITERARY CONTEST To be held at Madrid, Spain, under the auspices of the Commission in charge of the celebration of the Fourth Centennial Anniversary of the Discovery of America. PROGRAM. The work for which a prize is offered is to be a prose essay, a true historic picture giving a just estimate of the grandeur of the occasion to be celebrated. So much has been written on this subject since the opening of the XVIth century that it would seem difficult to say anything new and good. Perhaps the details, perhaps the circumstances in the life and acts of Columbus are worthy of no little research ; but already the Royal Academy of History is engaged in the erudite and diligent task of bringing together and publishing the un-edited or little known papers bearing on this question. The book required by this contest must be of a different nature : it must be comprehensive and synoptic, and must be sufficiently concise without being either obscure or dry. Although there is an abundance of histories of America, of voyages and discoveries, of geographic science, and of the estab- lishment of Europeans in remote regions of the earth, there is no book that sets forth as it can be done the combined efforts of the nations of the Iberian peninsula, who, since the commencement of the XVth century, have, with a fixity of purpose and marvelous tenacity, in almost a single century of silent efforts brought about the exploration of vast continents and islands, traversed seas never before cut by Christian prows, and in emulous strife obtained almost a complete knowledge of the planet on which we live. There is a growing interest and manifest unity in all those more important events ; not to mention the circumstantial evidence borne by the charts of 1375 and the semi-fabulous voyages, such as that of Doria y Vivaldi and others less apocryphal though isolated and barren of results, like that of Ferrer, begun in 1434, when Gil Eannes doubled Cape Bojador, discovered Guinea, and 274 National Geographic Magazine. dispelled the terror inspired by the unknown ocean, and ended in 1522 with Elcano’s arrival at Sanlucar after circumnavigating the globe. In all this activity very little occurs by chance. The pro- gressive series of geographic discoveries, due to persistent pre- meditation and not to accident, was inaugurated at Sagres by the Infante D. Enrique and his illustrious pilot Jaime de Mal- lorea. Well might Pedro Nufies exclaim that from that time forth until the form and size of the terraqueous globe were thoroughly known, the most to be obtained would not be firmly established, “unless our mariners sailed away better instructed and provided with better instruments and rules of Astronomy and Geography than the things with which cosmographers supplied them.” The culmination in the progress of that beautiful history falls on the 12th of October, 1492, when Columbus was the first Euro- pean to set foot upon the intertropical shores of the New World. But this act, considered apart from its intrinsic value, as purely the individual inspiration of a mariner and the generous enthu- siasm of a patron Queen, derives a higher value when regarded as part of a summation of efforts, a grand development of an idea, a purpose to explore and know the whole globe, to spread the name and the law of Christ together with the civilization of Europe, and to reap a harvest of gold, spices, and all the riches of which costly samples and exaggerated reports were furnished by the traffic of the Venetians, Genoese and Catalonians, who in turn got them from Mussulmans. Doubtless the moving cause, whose gorgeous banner so many men of our peninsula followed, was clothed in great sentiments, good or bad ; their hearts were filled with religious fervor, thirst for glory, ambition, Christian love, cupidity, curiosity, and vio- lent dissatisfaction (even during the Renaissance), to seek and undergo real adventures that should surpass the vain, fruitless, and fanciful adventures of chivalry ; and to make voyages and conquests eclipsing these of the Greeks and Romans, many of which, recorded in classic histories and fables, were now dis- interred by the learned. What must be described is the complete picture in all its sumptuousness so that its magnificent meaning may stand out distinctly, without which the conviction would be lacking that the studies, voyages, and happy audacity of Bartolomé Diaz, Gama, International Literary Contest. 275 _ Alburquerque, Cabral, Balboa, Magallanes, Cortes, Pizarro, Orel- lana, and a host of others, do not dim the glory of the hero whose centennary is to be celebrated, even though it heighten and add ereater luster to the work of civilization begun by Portugal... . The book here vaguely outlined must also contain a compendi- ous introduction, notices of voyages, ideas, and geographic progress up to the date of D. Enrique’s establishment at Sagres, and an epilogue or conclusion of greater extent, in which are examined and weighed the changes and progress that our sub- ject has made, collectively, in the civilization of the world—in the commerce, economics and politics of the peoples, in regard to the broad field opened to the intelligent activity of Europe, over which it could spread and dominate; the abundance of data, sunken hopes, and more secure basis lent to the studious and wise for the extension of our knowledge of Nature, the unraveling of her laws, and penetration of her mysteries. The vast, elevated argument of the book requires it be a finished work of art, not in fullness and richness of diction, but in plan and order, in sobriety and unity of style, whose nobility and beauty must lie in simplicity of phrase, correctness of judg- ment and richness of thought. There may enter into this contest any unpublished work written to this end in Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, French or Italian. cs The tribunal that is to award the prize will be composed of two members of the R. Acad. of History, and one member from each of the Spanish R. Academies of Moral Sciences and Politics, and Exact and Natural Sciences—all to be chosen by the Acade- mies themselves. Furthermore, there will be included in the tribunal the diplo- matic representative of every power whose subject or subjects wish to enter the contest, which is to be done through said repre- sentative or some person duly appointed to act in his place. The tribunal will elect its presiding officer and will decide on the best works by an absolute majority of all the jurors who take part in the vote. Each work submitted in this contest must be neatly copied, in legible writing, on good paper, without the author’s name but with a quotation to identify him afterwards. Each author will inclose a separate folded sheet on whose exterior 1s written the quotation he has chosen and the opening 276 National Geographic Magazine. sentence of his work ; within, he will write his name and residence. The folded sheets corresponding to the works that did not get a prize will be burnt publicly without being opened. Though it is difficult to set a limit as to size, the works should not have more reading matter than is contained in two volumes of the shape and size of the complete works of Cervantes issued by Rivadeneyra in 1863-4. If the plan or purpose of any of the works require it, there may be added another volume of documents, maps, or other illustrations. As it will take time to examine and judge the works, they should be sent to the Secretary of the R. Acad. of Hist. prior to January 1, 1892. There will be first prize of 30,000 pesetas ($5,790) and a second of 15,000 pesetas ($2,895). Besides this, each of the two successful authors will receive 500 copies of the printed edition of his work. It rests with the Centennial Commission to determine the num- ber of copies in the edition of each of the two prize works, and what disposition is to be made of the copies that are not given to the authors. These (the authors) keep the right to re-print and to sell their works, and to translate them into other tongues. The Commission, however, will have the right, if either or both prize works are in a foreign tongue, to have them translated and published in Castilian. The Commission affix their seal to the preceding directions for the information of the public and government of those persons who desire to participate in the contest. Madrid, June 19, 1889. The Vice President, DuKkr or VERAGUA. Secretaries, Juan VatEera, Juan F. Rrano. A ig ae | ‘No, 4. THE MAGAZINE. INCORPORATED A.D.1888. PUBLISHED BY THE "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON, D. C. Price 50 cents. CO NTN Page Irrigation in California, by Wm. Hammond Hall, State pga of California, : : : . i A ; ; ; eon ar Round about Asheville, by Bailey Willis, } F ‘ Bape Ee (Illustrated by one Map and Profile. . A Trip to Panama and Darien, by Richard U. Goode, . : et ab | (Illustrated by one Map and Profile.) Across Nicaragua with Transit and ee - R. H. Peary, Civil Engineer, U. 8. N., . ; ; . 3815 (Illustrated by one Map oe Shik Views. ; OcTOBER, 1889. PRESS OF TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, NEW HAVEN, CONN. THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Wwrol.: J. IStexe No. 4. IRRIGATION IN CALIFORNIA. By Wm. HAMMOND HALL. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Society : Wuen I was invited to address this society I had no mate- rial at hand on the subject. I have come to the east with- out any notes or memoranda whatever, from which to prepare a lecture or address, no statistical data which would make a paper valuable, no notes of characteristic facts to render an address interesting, and no time to write anything to guide me in any way to a proper treatment of the subject. Some of your members have thought that I have written something worthy of being read, and hence this invitation to address you. But, even if they are right, people who can write cannot always talk, so if I fail in this address, I shall hope, on the basis of their opinion, that you will find in the reports I have written something worthy of read- ing. The subject has been announced as the “ Problems of Irri- gation in the United States.” I should like very much to speak broadly on that subject, but I am unable to do so, for the reasons I have given, and shall have to speak rather of irrigation in Cali- ‘fornia, trusting that something which is said, may, perchance, be valuable in relation to the subject at large. Irrigation in the far west, generally, is attracting a vast deal of attention. This is particularly the case on the Pacific Coast—the field with which VOL, I, 21 278 National Geographic Magazine. I am specially acquainted. I apprehend that although many gen- tlemen present have a far-reaching and definite appreciation of the subject at large, many others do not appreciate the value and importance of irrigation. Jn the arid parts of California (for we do not admit that California is as a whole arid) it is a vital mat- ter. There it is a question of life, for the people. Not more than one-sixth of the tillable area in the State can sustain a really dense population, without irrigation; two thirds of it will not sustain even a moderate population, without irrigation ; while one third will not sustain even a sparse population, without such artificial watering. Think well over these facts. They are very significant. I doubt whether they are generally appreciated in California itself. I have no doubt many persons are familiar with the geography of the State, but, doubtless, some are not. California has a coast line of 800 miles and a width of from 140 to 240 miles. It is traversed almost throughout its length by a great mountain chain extending along near the eastern boundary, which is called the Sierra Nevada, and by a lesser range, more broken and less unified, running parallel to the coast, called the Coast Range, the south- ern extension of which, after joining the Sierra Nevada, is called the Sierra Madre, and at the further extremity, the San Jacinto and San Diego mountains. Within the interior of the State, looked down upon by the Sierra Nevada on the east, and closed in by the Coast Range on the west, is the great interior basin— the valley of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers—forming a plain 450 miles long, with an average width of from 40 to 60 miles. Outside of the Sierra Madre in the southern part of the State, and within the Coast Range, is another interior valley, nearly 100 miles in length and from 20 to 30 miles in width, and . outside of the Coast Range, and lying next to the ocean, is a plain whose length is from 60 to 70 miles, and width 15 to 20 miles. These three areas—-the great interior valley, the southern interior valley, and the coast plain of the south—are the principal irrigation regions of the State. Numbers of smaller areas, as those in San Diego county, come in as irrigation regions of less importance, and the scattering valleys along the Coast Range farther north, as the Salinas, etc., will come forward in the future as important irrigable districts of the State. Still further north, in the interior, there are the great plains of Lassen and Mono counties, and some scattering valleys in Shasta county, where Lrrigation in California. 279 irrigation is also practiced or is being introduced, and these are on a par with the districts of San Diego county, in the matter of rank as irrigation regions. Hast of the Sierra Nevada, and at their base, lies the Owen’s river country, an area suitable for irrigation, where irrigation is necessary and where it is being introduced. Upon the great Mojave desert and the Colorado desert, there is at present no irrigation. The water supply is very scanty. This is an irrigation region of the future, but it is not regarded by Californians as a practicable one at present. With this general idea of the State, we will now look at the rainfall and water supply. The State contains 157,440 square miles of territory, of which 17,747 drain into the ocean north of the Golden Gate, 21,665 drain into the ocean south of the Golden Gate, 55,942 drain into the interior basins, and 62,086 drain out at the Golden Gate. Of this territory which drains out by the Golden Gate, 26,187 square miles comprise the Sacramento valley, 31,895 square miles the San Joaquin valley, and 4,004 the country draining directly to the bays, making the 62,086 given above as the whole area. The necessity for irrigation in California, and the relative necessity in different parts of the State, are shown by the distri- bution of rainfall. The San Joaquin valley has an average of less than 10 inches of rainfall, the Sacramento has an average of between 10 and 20 inches. he great deserts of the Mojave and Colorado have an average of less than 10 inches, and in certain localities only 3 to 6 inches. The Salinas valley, a small portion of the coast above Los Angeles, and a portion of the interior valley of the south, have also an average of less than 10 inches. So, we may say, that the great irrigation regions of California have average amounts of rainfall varying from about 6 up to 20, but generally less than 10 inches. This rain is distributed in four or five months of each year, with some slight showers in one or two months other than these ; the remainder of the year being absolutely dry, with no rainfall whatever. Hence, you will see at once, the necessity for the artificial application of water in California. In the older countries of Europe, where irrigation has been practiced for centuries, for instance, in Spain, where water is used more extensively than in California, the annual mean rainfall ranges between 10 and 25 inches. In the irriga- tion regions of France, the mean rainfall ranges from 10 to 40 inches ; in the irrigation regions of Italy, the rainfall is between 280 National Geographic Magazine. 20 and 35 inches—for instance, in the valley of the Po, the classic land of irrigation, the annual precipitation is from 25 to 35 inches. There are none of these European irrigation regions where the rainfall is less than 10, and generally it is over 20 inches. But you will see that the most of the Californian irrigation regions have less than 15 inches, some less than 10, and the greatest rain- fall of any large irrigable region in California is 18 inches, or, exceptionally, for smaller regions, 25 inches; while in Europe, the maxima are from 25 to 40 inches in countries where irriga- tion has long been practiced. It follows, then, that there is no place in Europe where it is so much needed as over a large part of California. Another reason why the necessity is felt in our Pacific Coast State, is found in the character of our soils; and — not alone the surface soils, but the base of the soil—the deep subsoils. We have soils exceptionally deep ; soils which extend below the surface to 50 feet, underlaid by loose sand and open gravels, so that the rainfall of winter is lost in them. The annual rain seldom runs from the surface. It follows that these lands are generally barren of vegetation without the artificial applica- tion of water. Considering now the sources of water-supply : we have in the southern part of the State many streams which flow only for a few weeks after rainfall, and other streams which run two or three months after the rainy season. But there is not a stream in all California south of the Sierra Madre (except the Colorado, which has it sources of supply outside of the State) which flows during the summer with a greater volume than about 70 to 80 cubic feet per second—a stream 15 feet in width, 2 feet deep, and flowing at the rate of 24 to 3 feet per second—a little stream that, in the eastern part of the continent, would be thought insignifi- cant. The largest stream for six months in the year, in all south- ern California, is the Los Angeles river. The Santa Afa river, the next largest, flows from two sevenths to one third as much ; the San Gabriel, the next largest, has perhaps two thirds or three fourths as much as the Santa Afia; and so, a stream which will deliver as much water as will flow in a box 4. feet wide and 15 feet deep, at a moderate speed, during summer months, would be regarded as a good-sized irrigation feeder in that southern country. In the greater interior basin or central valley, we find other con- ditions. Here we have a different class of streams. The great Sierra Nevada receives snow upon its summits, which does not Irrigation in California. 281 melt till May or June and July. The melting of these snows is the source of ‘supply of the streams ; so that, while in far southern California, with two or three exceptions, the greater flow of water in the streams is almost gone by June, in this central region it is the period of the height of irrigation, and the streams are flowing at their maximum. Kern river presents about 2000 to 3000 cubic feet of water per second ; King’s river presents in the maximum flow of the season about twice to three times as much as Kern river ; the Tuolumne river about as much as King’s. As we go farther north, the Sacramento river presents more than three times as much as the Tuolumne, so that in the northern part of the great valley, where the rainfall on the valley itself is greatest, and, consequently, the necessity for irrigation is least, the irriga- tion supply increases ; and conversely, the greatest area of irriga- tion in the valley and the greatest necessity for it, is, in general, where the water supply is least. | About 100 years ago irrigation was commenced in California. The Roman Catholic priests, coming from Mexico where irriga- tion had long been practiced, introduced it. They established missions among the Indians, started cultivation, and by the labor of these Indians built the original irrigation works. The practice of irrigation was extended in San Diego county, as far as we are able to trace, to several thousand acres ; in San Bernardino county in the southern interior valley, they thus cultivated and watered, perhaps 2000 acres; and in Los Angeles county there were pos- sibly 3000 acres irrigated under Mexican rule. Traces of the old mission works are found in San Diego, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, and as far north as Monterey county. Then came the gold fever, when canals were dug throughout the foot-hills of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, for the supply of water for the mining of gold; and these canals have since, in many instances, been turned into feeders for irrigation. Several thousand miles of irrigation ditches have thus been created from old mining ditches. In 1852, a band of Mormons came from Salt Lake into the San Bernardino valley ; they bought a Mexican grant rancho there, took possession of some old mission works, constructed others and started irrigating. That was probably the first irrigation colony, on a large scale, composed of others than Mexicans, in California. In 1856, some Missouri settlers went into the valley of Kern river, diverted water from that stream, and commenced irrigation upon a small scale. In 1858, the waters 282 National Geographic Magazine. of Cache creek, in the Sacramento valley, were taken out for irri- gation. In 1859, the waters of King’s river were taken out and utilized for irrigation. These instances represent in general out- line the commencement of irrigation in the State. Now we have in the neighborhood of 750,000 or 800,000 acres actually irrigated each year, and that represents what would ordinarily be called an irrigation area of 1,200,000 acres ; and there are commanded by the works—reasonably within the reach of existing canals—an area of about 2,500,000 acres. In the organization of irrigation enterprises there is great diversity. Commencing with the simplest form, we have a ditch constructed by the individual irrigator for his own use; we have then successively ditches constructed by associated irrigators without a definite organization, for the service of their own land only ; ditches constructed by regularly organized associations of farmers, with elected officers ; works constructed by farmers who have incorporated under the general laws of the State and issued stock certificates of ownership in the properties, for the service of the stockholders only ; works where incorporations have been formed for the purpose of attaching water stock to lands that are to be sold, bringing in the element of speculation ; then works where the organization has been effected with a view of selling water-rights ; and finally, organizations that are incorporated for the purpose of selling water. There is a great difference between the principles of these methods of organization, and the practical outcome is a great difference in the service of water and in the duty of water furnished by them. In selling water, measurement of volume is made by modules—the actual amount of water delivered is measured—or it is sold by the acre served, or in pro- portional parts of the total available flow of the season. The general character of the irrigation works of the State varies very much with the varying conditions under which it is prac- ticed. In the San Joaquin valley, King’s river, for instance, comes out of the mountains nearly on a levei with the surface of the plain, cutting down not more than a few feet below its banks ; and hence but little labor is required to divert its waters out upon the lands to be irrigated ; but farther north, the Tuolumne, as another example, comes out of the mountains in a deep cafion, and the foot-hills extend far down the plain on each side. It is easily seen, then, that it will require a million or more dollars to divert from the latter stream the amount of water diverted from Irrigation in California. 283 King’s river by the expenditure of a few months’ work, by a small force of the farmers themselves. On King’s river, individual and simple codperative effort is sufficient to bring water enough upon the plains to irrigate thousands of acres, while in the case of the Tuolumne river it is absolutely necessary to have associated capital in large amount—an entirely different principle of organi- zation from that which was originally applied on King’s river and the Kern and other rivers in the southern part of the great central valley. In discussions on the subject of irrigation some people have advanced the idea that the works should be undertaken by the farmers, and that capital should have nothing to do with them. That may do very well where the physical conditions will admit of such a course, and where nothing but the farmers’ own service depends upon it; but the great majority of the streams of California are of such a character that the work of the farmers can avail nothing. ‘There must be strong associations and large capital. For this purpose special laws are required. On the Santa Afia, in San Bernardino county, water has been easily diverted, and such is the case with every stream in the interior valley of San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. Capital for the first works was not required. The water was procured by primitive methods and the works were simple. But in San Diego, an entirely different condition of affairs prevailed. There the waters are back in the mountains, twenty or twenty- five miles from the coast, and the irrigable lands are close along the coast, or within ten or twelve miles of it. To bring the water out of these mountains requires the construction of ditches following the mountain sides for 20 to 35 miles. But simple ditches do not answer, because of the great quantity of water lost from them. So the companies have resorted to fluming, and even to lining the ditches with cement. Thus in San Diego, individual effort is out of the question. Farther north again, in the great interior valley, King’s river is a stream where coéperative and individual effort have been efficient, although it requires a greater amount of capital there than in the southern interior valley. In the southern interior valley, perhaps, $10,000 would often build a ditch and divert all the water that the supply would furnish. On King’s river the works have cost from $15,000 to $80,000 each ; on Kern river the works have cost from $15,000 to $250,000 each; and on the Tuolumne they will cost from $1,000,000 to $1,200,000 apiece. On Merced river, the cost has 284. National Geographic Magazine. been $800,000 for one work. Taking the streams from San Joaquin river north, that come out of the Sierra Nevada, up to the northern end of the valley where the Sacramento river enters it, every important stream comes into the valley within a deep gorge, The beds of several of the northern streams are so filled up with mining debris that diversion from them would be comparatively easy, but in their natural state there is not an important stream north of the San Joaquin which could be utilized for irrigation by any other means than through the agency of capital in large amount. On the west side of this great valley the tillable strip is comparatively narrow. It is on the lee side of the coast range of mountains. Precipitation is made first on the seaward face of the Coast Range, and then crosses the valley, dropping upon the inland face of the outer range very little more than upon the valley itself, where the precipitation is only about 10 inches. So that we have no streams coming out of the Coast Range into the southern part of the interior valley specially noteworthy as irriga- tion feeders. But as we go northward the Coast Range becomes wider, and the big mountain basin containing Clear Lake fur- nishes a large supply of water to Cache Creek, probably enough for 10,000 acres. Stony Creek flows between two ridges of the Coast Range, and out on to the plains, furnishing about the same amount of water; but still there are no streams from the Coast Range into the valley that are comparable with those of the Sierra Nevada. In the northeastern corner of the State, on the great plains of Modoc, we have the Pitt river, a stream of very considerable volume, but its waters are in comparatively deep channels, not very well adapted to diversion, and the.consequence is, they have been utilized to a very small extent, only on small bottom-land farms. The whole stream can be utilized, however, and the country is thirsting for water. The practice of irrigation in California is as diverse as it could well be. California, as you know, covers a very large range in latitude, but a greater range in the matter of climate and adapta- bility to the cultivation of crops. In the southern portion of the State, the orange and the banana and many other semi-tropical fruits flourish. In some localities along the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, also, those fruits flourish, particularly the orange and the lemon. In the valley of San Joaquin, wheat is grown by irriga- tion, and in some places profitably, and in Kern county quite profitably (were it not for high transportation charges), because Irrigation in California. 285 the cost of distributing and applying water has been reduced to a minimum. There the lands have been laid out with as much care and precision as the architect would lay out the stones in a build- ing and the mason would place them. Irrigation is conducted in some Kern river districts with the greatest ease, scarcely requir- ing the use of the shovel. The lands are so laid off with the check levels that by simply opening gates in the proper order, as the irrigation superintendents know how, the waters flow out and cover the successive plats or ‘“‘checks” in their order, without leaving any standing water, and finally flowing off without mate- rial waste. This is the perfection of irrigation by the broad or submerging system,—a method wherein the slope of the ground is first ascertained, platted by contours, and the checks to hold the water, constructed with scrapers, are then run out on slight grade contours—not perfectly level, but on very gentle slopes. There is no portion of the far southern part of the State where the check method is applied as it is in Kern county. The practice in San Bernardino is to irrigate entirely by running water in rills between the rows of plants. Orange trees planted 24 to 30 feet apart are irrigated by rills in plough furrows, 5 to 8 between rows, down the slope of the orchard, which slope varies from about 1 foot in a hundred to 4 or 5 inahundred. In Los Angeles county they make banks about a foot high around each individual tree, forming basins 5 or 6 to 10 or 12 feet in diameter according to the size of the tree. Into these the water is conducted by a ditch, and the basin being filled, the water is allowed to remain and soak away. ‘The low, nearly flat valley lands, when irrigated, are generally divided into square “checks,” without respect to the slope of the ground, and the surface is simply flooded in water standing 6 inches to a foot in depth. In the northern part of the State, in Placer and Yuba counties, clover is grown on hills having side slopes of 10 to 15 feet in a hundred, and irrigated in plough furrows cut around on contours —which furrows are about 5 to 10 feet apart horizontally—and the water is allowed to soak into the ground from each such furrow. These are the five principal methods of applying water: by the check system ; by rills; by the basin method ; by the basin method as applied to low valleys; and by contour ditches on hill sides. The method selected for any particular locality is determined not alone by the crop to be cultivated, but also 286 National Geographic Magazine. by the slope of the land and the character of the soil. For instance, on lands where oranges are cultivated, in the southern part of the State, where rills are most generally used, water cannot be applied by the flooding system, for the reason that irrigation would be followed by cracking of the soil, so that the trees would be killed. It is necessary on such land to cultivate immediately after irrigation, and the method of applica- tion is governed more by the soil than by the character of the crop. We find in California very marked and important effects fol- lowing irrigation. For instance, taking the great plains of Fresno, in the San Joaquin valley: when irrigation commenced there twenty years ago, it was 70 to 80 feet down to soil water—abso- lutely dry soil for nearly 80 feet—and it was the rule throughout the great plain, 20 miles in width and 25 miles in length, that soil water was beyond the reach of the suction pump; now, in places, water stands on the surface, rushes grow, mosquitos breed, malarial fevers abound, and the people are crying for drainage; and lands, whose owners paid from five to twenty dollars per acre for the right to receive water, now need drainage, and irrigation is considered unnecessary. The amount of water taken from King’s river which was, a few years ago, regarded as not more than sufficient for one tenth of the land immediately commanded and that seemed to require it, is now applied to a fourth of the whole area ; so that if irrigation keeps on, the time will come when the whole country will require draining. In a district, where water is applied by the broad method, I saw in 1877 enough water, by actual measurement of flow, put on 20 acres of land to cover it 18 feet deep, in one season, could it all have been retained upon it. It simply soaked into the ground, or flowed out under the great plain. Taking cross sec- tions of this country, north and south and east and west, I found that where the depth to soil water had, before irrigation, been about 80 feet, it was then 20, 30, 40 or 60 and more feet down to it. The soil water stood under the plain in the form of a moun- tain, the slope running down 40 to 50 feet in a few miles on the west and north. On the south and southwest the surface of this water-mountain was much more steep. In the Kern river country, we have a somewhat similar phenomenon. Irrigation, in the upper portion of the Kern delta, affects the water in the wells 6 or 8 miles away. As I remember the effect is felt at the rate of Irrigation in California. 287 about a mile a day, that is to say, when water is used in irriga- ting the upper portion of the delta, or of Kern island, as it is called, the wells commence to rise a mile away in twenty-four hours, and five miles away in perhaps five days. In the southern portion of the State, in San Bernardino county, at Riverside, we find no such effect at all. There it was 70 to 90 feet to soil water before irrigation and it is, as a general rule, 70 to 90 feet still. Water applied on the surface in some places has never even wet the soil all the way down, and wells dug there, after irrigation had been practiced for years, have pierced dry ground for 25 or 30 feet before getting down to where soil waters have wetted it from below. The consequences of these phenom- ena are twofold. In the first place, in the country that fills up with water, the duty of water—the quantity of land which a given amount of water will irrigate—has increased. Starting with a duty of not more than 25 acres to a cubic foot of water per second, we now find that, in some localities, this amount irrigates from 100. to 160 acres; and that some lands no longer require irrigating. In the southern portion of the State, how- ever, the cubic foot of water irrigates no more than at first, and it is scarcely possible that it will ever irrigate much more. The saving, as irrigation goes on in the far southern portion of the State, will be effected chiefly through the better construc- tion of canals and irrigation works of delivery and distribution. In Tulare valley, the duty of water will increase as the ground fills up. In Fresno, a county which was regarded as phenomenally healthy, malarial fevers now are found, while in San Bernar- dino, at Riverside, such a thing is rarely known. Coming to Bakersfield, a region which before irrigation commenced was famed for its malarial fevers—known as unhealthful throughout all the State—where soil water was originally within 15 feet of the surface, irrigation has almost entirely rid it of the malarial effects. Chills and fever are rare now, where before irrigation they were prevalent. What is the reason that where chills and fever pre- vailed, irrigation has made a healthful country, while where chills and fevers were not known, irrigation has made it unhealthful ? I account for it in this way: in the Kern river country before irrigation was extensively introduced, there were many old abandoned river channels and sloughs, overgrown with swamp vegetation and overhung by dense masses of rank-growing foliage. 288 National Geographic Magazine. Adjacent lands were in a more or less swampy condition ; ground waters stood within 10 or 20 feet of the surface, and there was no hard-pan or impermeable stratum between such surface and these waters. In other words, general swampy conditions prevailed, and malarial influences followed by, chills and fevers were the result. Irrigation brought about the clearing out of many of these old channel ways, and their use as irrigating canals. The lands were cleared off and cultivated, fresh water was introduced through these channels from the main river throughout the hot months, and the swamp-like condition of the country was changed to one of a well-tilled agricultural neighborhood with streams of fresh water flowing through it; and the result, as I have said, was one happy in its effect of making the climate salubrious and healthful. Considering now the case of the King’s river or the Fresno country, the lands there were a rich alluvial deposit, abounding in vegetable matter which for long ages perhaps had been, except as wetted by the rains of winter, dry and dessicated. Soil water was deep below the surface. Then irrigation came. Owing to the nature. of the soil, the whole country filled up with the water. Its absorptive qualities being great and its natural drainage defective, the vegetable matter in the soil, subjected to more or less continued excessive moisture, has decayed. The fluctu- ation of the surface of the ground waters at different seasons of the vear—such surface being at times very near to the ground surface, and at other times 5 or 6 feet lower—has contributed to the decaying influences which the presence of the waters engen- dered. The result has been, when taken with the general over- growth of the country with vegetation due to irrigation, a vitia- tion of the atmosphere by malarious outpourings from the soil. The advantage of the pure atmosphere of a wide and dry plain has been lost by the miasmatic poisonings arising from an over- wet and ill-drained neighborhood, with the results, as affecting human healthfulness, of which I have already spoken. The remedy is of course to drain the country. The example is but a repetition of experiences had in other countries. The energy and pluck of Californians will soon correct the matter. George P. Marsh, in his “‘Man and Nature,” laid it down as a rule that an effect of irrigation was to concentrate land holdings in a few hands, and he wrote an article, which was published in ‘one of our Agricultural Department reports, in which he rather Irrigation in California. oe O88 deprecates the introduction of irrigation into the United States, or says that on this account it should be surrounded by great safeguards. He cited instances in Europe, as in the valley of the Po, where the tendency of irrigation had been to wipe out small land holdings, and bring the lands into the hands of a few of the nobility. He cited but one country where the reverse had been the rule, which was in the south and east of Spain, and pointed out the reason, as he conceived it, that in south and south- eastern Spain the ownership of the water went with the land and was inseparable from it, under ancient Moorish rights. It is a fact, that where the ownership of water goes with the land, it prevents centering of land ownership into few hands, after that ownership is once divided among many persons, in irrigated regions. But Mr. Marsh overlooked one thing in predicting harm in our country ; that is, that it will be many years before we will get such a surplus of poor as to bring about the result he feared. In California, the effect of irrigation has not been to center the land in the hands of a few. On the contrary, the tendency has been just the other way. When irrigation was introduced it became possible for small land holders to live. In Fresno county, there are many people making a living for a family, each on 20 acres of irrigated land, and the country is divided into 20 and 40-acre tracts and owned in that way. In San Bernardino the same state of things prevails. Before irrigation, these lands were owned in large tracts, and it was not an uncommon thing for one owner to have 10,000 to 20,000 acres of land. So that the rule in California, which is the effect of irrigation, is to divide land holdings into small tracts, and in this respect, also, irrigation is a blessing to the country. It enables large owners to cut up their lands and sell out to the many. Land values have advanced from $1.25 in this great valley to $50, $150 and even $250 per acre, simply by attaching to the land the right to take or use water, paying in addition an annual rental: in the southern portion of the State, they have advanced from $5 and $10 to $500 and even. $1000 an acre, where the land has the right to water ; and many calculations have been made and examples cited by intelligent and prominent people, to show that good orange land or good raisin- grape land with sufficient water supply is well worth $1000 an acre. Water rights run up proportionately in value. A little stream flowing an inch of water—an amount that will flow through an inch square opening under four inches of pressure—in the 290 National Geographic Magazine. southern part of the State, is held at values ranging from $500 to $5000. Such a little stream has changed hands at $5000, and not at boom prices either. In the interior prices are much less, being from about a quarter to a tenth of those in the far southern part of the State. Fully one fourth of the United States requires irrigation. When I say that, I mean that fully one fourth the tillable area of our country requires irrigation, in order to support such a population as, for instance, Indiana has. The irrigated regions of Italy support populations of from 250 to 300 people to the square mile ; of south France, from 150 to 250 people to the square mile ; of southeast Spain, from 200 to 300. When we have 50 to 100 to the square mile in an agricultural region we think we have a great population. The great interior valley of California will not support, with- out irrigation, an average of more than 15 to 20 people per square mile. Irrigate it and it will support as many as any other portion of the country—reasonably it will support 200 to the square mile. I have no doubt that the population will run up to ten or twelve millions in that one valley, and there are regions over this country from the Mississippi to the Pacific, millions of acres, that can be made to support a teeming population by the artificial application of water. And why has it not been done before? Simply for the reason that there is a lack of knowledge of what can be done and a lack of organization and capital to carry out the enterprises. The government has recently placed at the disposal of the United States Geological Survey an appropriation for the inves- — tigation of this subject, to ascertain how irrigation can be secured, the cost of irrigation works, and point out the means for irriga- tion, in the arid regions. It is one of the wisest things Congress ever did ; wise in the time and in the subject. The time will soon come when the question would have been forced upon the country, and the wisdom of preparing for that time cannot be too highly commended. US. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Z NORTH CAROLINA-TENNESSEE _ JW. POWELL, DIRECTOR ASHEVILLE SHEET WSS : aye Ue, AKA RANGE ASHEVILLE a WPMITMEATRE Round about Asheville. 291 ROUND ABOUT ASHEVILLE. By BAILEY WILLIS. A BROAD amphitheatre lies in the heart of the North Carolina mountains which form its encircling walls; its length is forty miles from north to south and its width ten to twenty miles. At its southern gate the French Broad river enters ; through the northern gate the same river flows out, augmented by the many streams of its extensive watershed. From these water-courses the even arena once arose with gentle slope to the surrounding heights and that surface, did it now exist, would make this region a very garden, marked by its genial climate and adequate rainfall. But that level floor exists no longer; in it the rivers first sunk their channels, their tributaries followed, the gullies by which the waters gathered deepened, and the old plain was thus dissected. It is now only visible from those points of view from which remnants of its surface fall into a common plane of vision. This is the case whenever the observer stands upon the level of the old arena; he may then sweep with a glance the profile of a geographic condition which has long since passed away. Asheville is built upon a bit of this plain between the ravines | of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, now flowing 380 feet below the level, and at the foot of the Beau-catcher hills; toward which the ground rises gently. The position is a com- manding one, not only for the far reaching view, but also as the meeting place df lines of travel from north, south, east, and west. Thus Asheville became a town of local importance long before railroads were projected along the lines of the old turnpikes. The village was the center of western North Carolina, as well of the county of Buncombe, and was therefore appropriately the home of the district Federal court. A May session of the court was In progress nine years ago when I rode up the muddy street from the Swannanoa valley. Several well-known moonshiners were on trial, and the town street was crowded with their sym- pathizers, lean mountaineers in blue and butternut homespun. Horses were hitched at every available rack and fence, and horse 292 National Geographic Maguzine. trading was aetive. Whiskey was on trial at other bars than that of the court, and the long rifle, powder-horn and pouch had not been left in the mountains. To a “tenderfoot” (who had the day before been mistaken forsa rabbit or a revenue officer !) the attentions of the crowd were not reassuring. The general opinion was, I felt, akin to that long afterward expressed by Groundhog Cayce: “It air an awful thing ter kill a man by accident;” and I staid but a very short time in Asheville. Riding away toward the sunset, I traversed the old plain without seeing that it had had a continuous surface. I noted the many gullies, and I lost in the multitude of details the wide level from which they were carved. That the broader fact should be obscured by the many lesser ones is no rare experience, and perhaps there is no class of observations of which this has been more generally true than of those involved in landscape study. But when once the Asheville plain has been recognized, it can never again be ignored. It enters into every view, both as an element of beauty and as evidence of change in the conditions which determine topographic forms. Seldom in the mountains can one get that distance of wooded level, rarely is the fore- ground so like a gem proportioned to its setting; all about Ashe- ville one meets with glimpses of river and valley, sunken in reach beyond reach of woodland which stretch away to the blue mountains. The even ridges form natural roadsites, and in driving one comes ever and anon upon a fresh view down upon the stream far across the plain and up to the heights. And to the student of Appalachian history, the dissected plain is a sig- nificant contradiction of the time honored phrase, “the everlast- ing hills.” That plain was a fact, the result of definite conditions of erosion; it exists no more in consequence of changes. What were the original conditions? In what manner have they changed? Let us take account of certain other facts before suggesting an answer. Of the mountains which wall the Ashe- ville amphitheatre, the Blue Ridge on the east and the Unaka chain on the west are the two important ranges. The Blue Ridge forms the divide between the tributaries of the Atlantic and those of the Gulf of Mexico, and the streams which flow westward from it all pass through the Unaka chain. It would be reasonable to suppose that the rivers rose in the higher and flowed through the lower of the two ranges, but, they do not. The Blue Ridge is an irregular, inconspicuous elevation but little Round about Asheville. 298 over 4000 feet above the sea; the Unaka mountains form a mas- sive chain from 5000 to 6500 feet in height. That streams should thus flow through mountains higher than their source was once explained by the assumption that they found passage through rents produced by earth convulsions ; but that vague guess marked the early and insufficient appreciation of the power of streams as channel cutters, and it has passed discredited into the history of our knowledge of valley-formation. That rivers carve out the deepest cafions, as well as the broadest valleys, is now a truism which we must accept in framing hypotheses to account for the courses of the French Broad and other similar streams. Moreover, since waters from a lower Blue Ridge could never of their own impulse have flowed over the higher Unaka, we are brought to the question, was the Blue Ridge once the higher, or have streams working on the western slope of the Unaka range (when it was a main divide), worn it through from west to east, capturing all that broad watershed between the two mountain ranges? Hither hypothesis is within the possibility of well established river action, and both suggest: the possibility of infinite change in mountain forms and river systems. Without attempting here to discriminate between these two hypotheses, for which a broader foundation of facts is needed, let us look at the channel of the French Broad below Asheville, in the river’s course through the range that is higher than its source. Descend- ing from the old plain into the river’s ravine, we at once lose all extended views and are closely shut in by wooded slopes and rocky bluffs. The river falls the more rapidly as we descend, and its tributaries leap to join it, the railroad scarce finding room between the rocks and the brawling current. The way is into a rugged and inhospitable gorge whose walls rise at last on either hand into mountains that culminate some thirty miles below Asheville. At Mountain Island the waters dash beauti- fully over a ledge of conglomerate and rush out from a long series of rapids into the deep water above Hot Springs. Beyond the limestone cove in which the springs occur, the valley, though narrow still, is wider and bottom lands appear. Thus the water gap of the French Broad through the Unakas is narrow and rugged, the river itself a tossing torrent; but had we passed down other streams of similar course, we should have found them even more turbulent, their channels even more sharply carved in the hard rocks. On Pigeon river there are many cliffs of polished 22 294 National Geographic Magazine. quartzite, and on the Nolichucky river a V-shaped gorge some eight miles long is terraced where the ledges of quartzite are horizontal and is turreted with fantastic forms where the strata are vertical. Where the river valleys are of this sharp cut char- acter in high mountains, the abrupt slopes, cliffs and rocky pin- nacles are commonly still more sharply accented in the heights. The Alpine tourist or the mountaineer of the Sierras would ex- pect to climb from these cafions to ragged combs or to scarcely accessible needle-like peaks. But how different from the heights of the Jungfrau are the “balds” of the Unakas! like the ice- worn granite domes of New England, the massive balds present a rounded profile against the sky. Although composed of the hardest rock, they yet resemble in their contours, the low relief of a limestone area. Broad, even surfaces, on which rocky out- crops are few and over which a deep loam prevails, suggest rather that one is wandering over a plain than on a great moun- tain; yet you may sweep the entire horizon and find few higher peaks. The view is often very beautiful, it is far-reaching, not grand. No crags tower skyward, but many domes rise nearly to the same heights, and dome-like, their slopes are steepest toward the base. The valleys and the mountains have exchanged the characters they usually bear ; the former are dark and forbidding, wild and inaccessible, the latter are broad and sunlit of softened form, habitable and inhabited. All roads and villages are on the heights, only passing travelers and those who prey upon them frequent the depths. These facts of form are not local, they are general: all the streams of the Unaka mountains share the features of the French Broad Cafion, while peaks like Great Roan, Big Bald, Mt. Guyot, are but examples of a massive mountain form common through- out the range. . Thus the Unaka chain presents two peculiar facts for our consideration ; it 1s cut through by streams rising in a lower range, and its profiles of erosion are convex upward not down- ward. If we follow our river’s course beyond the Unaka chain into the valley of Hast Tennessee we shall still find the channel deeply cut ; here and there bottomlands appear, now on one side, now on the other, but the banks are more often steep slopes or verti- cal cliffs from fifty to one hundred feet high. The creeks and brooks meander with moderate fall through the undulating sur Round about Asheville. 995 face of the valley, but they all plunge by a more or less abrupt cascade into the main rivers. It is thus evident that the tributa- ries cannot keep pace with the rivers in channel-cutting, and the - latter will continue to sink below the surface of general degrada- tion until their diminished fall reduces their rate of corrasion below that of the confluent streams. If from topographic forms we turn to consider the materials, the rocks, of which they are composed, we shall find a general rule of relation between relative elevation and rock-hardness. Thus the great valley of Hast Tennessee has a general surface 3000 feet below the mean height of the Unakas: it is an area of easily soluble, often soft, calcareous rocks, while the mountains, consist of the most insoluble, the hardest, silicious rocks. East of the Unakas the surface is again lower, including the irregular divide, the Blue Ridge; here also, the feldspathic gneisses and mica schists are, relatively speaking, easily soluble, and non- coherent. What is thus broadly true is true in detail, also where a more silicious limestone or a sandstone bed occurs in the valley it forms a greater or less elevation above the surface of the soft rocks; where a more soluble, less coherent stratum crops out in the mountain mass, 2a hollow, a cove, corresponds to it. Of valley ridges, Clinch mountain is the most conspicuous example ; of mountain hollows the French Broad valley at Hot Springs, or Tuckaleechee Cove beneath the Great Smoky mountain, is a fair illustration. 7s But impassive rock-hardness, mere ability to resist, is not adequate to raise mountains, nor is rock-softness an active agent in the formation of valleys. The passive attitude of the rocks implies a force, that is resisted, and the very terms in which that attitude is expressed suggest the agent which applies the force. Hardness, coherence, insolubility,—these are terms suggestive of resistance to a force applied to wear away, to dissolve, as flowing water wears by virtue of the sediment it carries and as perco- lating waters take the soluble constituent of rocks into solution. And it is by the slow mechanical and chemical action of water that not only canons are carved but even mountain ranges reduced to gentle slopes. If we designate this process by the word “degradation,” it follows from the relation of resistance to elevation in the region under discussion that we may say: The Appalachians are moun- tains of differential degradation ; that is, heights remain where 296 National Geographic Magazime. the rocks have been least energetically acted on, valleys are carved where the action of water has been most effective. In order that the process of degradation may go on it is essen- tial that a land mass be somewhat raised above the sea, and, since the process is a never-ceasing one while streams have suffi- cient fall to carry sediment, it follows that, given time enough, every land surface must be degraded to a sloping plain, to what has been called a base level. With these ideas of mountain genesis and waste, let us con- sider some phases of degradation in relation to topographic forms ; and in doing so I cannot do better than to use the terms employed by Prof. Wm. M. Davis. When a land surface rises from the ocean the stream systems which at once develope, are set the task of carrying back to the sea all that stands above it. According to the amount of this alloted work that streams have accomplished, they may be said to be young, mature or aged; and if, their task once nearly com- pleted, another uplift raise more material to be carried off, they may be said to be revived. These terms apply equally to the land-surface, and each period of development is characterized by certain topographic forms. In youth simple stream systems sunk in steep walled cafions ‘are separated by broad areas of surface incompletely drained. In maturity complex stream systems extend branches up to every ‘part of the surface ; steep slopes, sharp divides, pyramidal peaks ‘express the rapidity with which every portion of the surface is ‘attacked. In old age the gently rolling surface is traversed by many quiet flowing streams; the heights are gone, the profiles are rounded, the contours subdued. In the first emergence from the sea the courses of streams are determined by accidents of slope, it may be by folding of the rising surface into troughs and arches. During maturity the process of retrogressive erosion, by which a stream cuts back into the watershed of a less powerful opponent stream, adjusts the channels to the outcrops of soft rocks and leaves the harder strata as eminences. In old age this process of differential degradation is complete and only the hardest rocks maintain a slight relief. Suppose that an aged surface of this character be revived : the rivers hitherto flowing quietly in broad plains will find their fall increased in their lower courses ; their channels in soft rock will Round about Asheville. 297 rapidly become cafions, and the revived phase will retreat up stream in the same manner that the cafions of youth extended back into the first uplifted mass. If the area of soft rocks be bounded by a considerable mass of very hard rocks, it is con- ceivable that a second phase of age, a base level, might creep over the valley while yet the summits of the first old age re- mained unattacked, and should perchance revival succeed revival the record of the last uplift might be read in sharp cut channels of the great rivers, while the forms of each preceding phase led like steps to the still surviving domes of that earliest old age. Is there aught in these speculations to fit our facts? I think there is. We have seen that our mountains and valleys are the result of differential degradation, and that this is not only broadly true but true in detail also. This is evidence that streams have been long at work adjusting their channels, they have passed. through the period of maturity. We have climbed to the summits of the Unakas and found them composed of rocks as hard as those from which the pinnacle of the Matterhorn is chiseled ; but we see them gently sloping, as a plain. These summits are very, very old. We have recognized that dissected plain, the level of the Asheville amphitheatre, now 2,400 feet above the sea; it was a surface produced by subaerial erosion, and as such it is evidence of the fact that the French Broad River, and such of its tributa- ries as drain this area, at one time completed their work upon it,. reached a base level. That they should have accomplished this the level of discharge of the sculpturing streams must have been constant during a long period, a condition which implies either that the fall from the Asheville plain to the ocean was then much, less than it now is, or that through local causes the French Broad. was held by a natural dam, where it cuts the Unaka chain. If we should find that other rivers of this region have carved. the forms of age upon the surfaces of their intermontane valleys,. and there is now some evidence of this kind at hand, then we must appeal to the more general cause of base-levelling and accept the conclusion that the land stood lower in relation to the ocean than it now does. Furthermore, we have traversed the ravines which the streams have cut in this ancient plain and we may note on the accompanying atlas sheet that the branches ex- tend back into every part of -it ; the ravines themselves prove that the level of discharge has been lowered, the streams have 298 National Geographic Magazine. been revived; and the wide ramification of the brooks is the characteristic of approaching maturity. . We have also glanced at the topography of the valley and have found the rivers flowing in deep-cut simple channels which are young, and the smaller streams working on an undulating surface that is very sensitive to processes of degradation. The minor stream systems are very intricate and apparently mature, but they have not yet destroyed the evidence of a gen- eral level to which the whole limestone area was once reduced, but which now is represented by many elevations that approach 1,600 feet above the sea. Here then in the valley are young river channels, mature stream systems and faint traces of an ear- lier base level, all of them more recent than the Asheville level, which is in turn less ancient than the dome-like summits of the Unakas. What history can we read in these suggestive topographic forms and their relations ? The first step in the evolution of a continent is its elevation above the sea. The geologist tells us that the earliest uplift of the Appalachian region after the close of the. Carboniferous period was preceded or accompanied by a folding of the earth’s crust into mountainous wave-like arches ; upon these erosion at once began and these formed our first mountains. Where they were highest the geologist may infer from geologic structure and the outcrops of the oldest rocks ; but the facts for that inference are not yet all gathered and it can only be said that the heights of that ancient topography were probably as great over the val- ley of Tennesseee as over the Unaka chain. The positions of rivers were determined by the relations of the arches to each other and, as they were in a general way parallel, extending from northeast to southwest, we know that the rivers too had northeast-southwest courses. From that first drainage system the Tennessee river, as far down as Chattanooga, is directly de- scended, and when the geologic structure of North Carolina and East Tennessee is known, we may be able to trace the steps of ad- justment by which the many waters have been concentrated to form that great river. At present we cannot sketch the details, but we know that it was a long process and that it was accom- panied by a change in the raison d’étre of the mountain ranges. The first mountains were high because they had been relatively raised ; they gave place to hills that survived because they had Round about Asheville. 299 not been worn down. A topography of differential uplift gave place to one of differential degradation. And to the latter the dome-like “balds” of the Unakas belong. Those massive sum- mits of granite, quartzite and conglomerate are not now cut by running waters ; they are covered with a mantel of residual soil, the product of excessively slow disintegration, and they are ' the remnants of a surface all of which has yielded to degradation, save them. In time the streams will cut back and carve jagged peaks from their masses, but standing on their heights my thought has turned to the condition they represent—the condition that is past. And thus in thought I have looked from the Big Bald out on a gently sloping plain which covered the many domes of nearly equal height and stretched away to merge on the horizon in the level of the sea. That, I conceive, was the first base level plain of which we have any evidence in the Appalachians and from that plain our present valleys have been eroded. The con- tinental elevation must then have been 3,000 or 4,000 feet less than it is now, and the highest hills were probably not more than 2,500 feet above the sea. ‘This was perhaps a period of constant relation between sea and land, but it was succeeded by one dur- ing which the land slowly rose. The rivers, which had probably assumed nearly their present courses, were revived ; the impor- tant channels soon sank in cafions, the tributaries leaped in rapids and cut back into the old base level. The region continued to rise during a period long enough to produce the essential features of the mountain ranges of to-day ; then it stood still in relation to the sea or perhaps subsided somewhat, and the French Broad and probably other rivers made record of the pause in plains like that about Asheville. Again the land rose slowly ; again it paused, and rivers, working always from their mouths backward, carved a base-level in the limestones of the great valley ; but before that level could extend up through the gorges in the Unakas, the continent was raised to its present elevation, the streams responded to the increased fall given them and the rivers in the valley began to cut their still incomplete cafions. Are we not led step by step from these latest sharply cut chan- nels up stream through the chapters of erosion to the still surviv- ing domes of an early old age? Let us sum up the history we have traced. There is reason to believe that : Ist. The consequent topography of the earliest Appalachian uplift was entirely removed during a prolonged period of erosion and was replaced by a relief of differential degradation. 300 National Geographic Magazine. 2d. The balds of the Unakas represent the heights of that first- known approach to a base-level. 3d. The topography of the region has been revived by a gen- eral, though not necessarily uniform, uplift of 3,000 feet or more, divided by two intervals of rest ; during the first of these the Asheville base-level was formed ; during the second, the valley alone was reduced. 4th. The latest movement of the uplift has been, geologically speaking, quite recent, and the revived streams have accomplished but a small part of their new task. These conclusions are reached on the observation of a single class of facts in one district ; they must be compared with the record of continental oscillation on the sea coasts, in the deposits of the coastal plain, and in the topography of other districts. The history of the Appalachians is written in every river sys- tem and on every mountain range, but in characters determined. for each locality by the local conditions. Only when the knowl- edge, to which every tourist may contribute, is extended over the entire region shall we know conclusively the whole story. ‘ W 20 afoo N SKETCH SHOWING LOCATION OF PANAMA RAIL ROAD, PANAMA CANAL AND TRIBUTARY DRATNAGE \ Scalp of Statute Milen ~ < E- i < ———{33 CAinita } We 4 | \ i x rs A Trip to Panama and Darien. 301 A TRIP TO PANAMA AND DARIEN. By RicHARD U. GOODE. Tue Government of the United States of Colombia in its act of Concession to the Panama Canal Company provided that it should give to the latter “ gratuitement et avec toutes les mines gwils pourront contenir” 500,000 hectares of land. Some of the conditions attached to this grant were, that the land should be selected within certain limits and surveyed by the Canal Company ; that a topographical map should be made of the areas surveyed and that an amount, equal to that surveyed for the canal should also be surveyed for the benefit of the Colombian Government. It was also further agreed that it would not be necessary to complete the canal before any of the land should be granted, but that it would be given at different times in amounts proportional to the amount of work accomplished. Thus in 1887, the Government agreed to consider that one-half of the work on the canal had been finished and that the canal was consequently entitled to 250,000 hectares of land, upon the completion of the necessary surveys, etc. The land was eventually chosen partly in Darien and partly in Chiriqui as follows : In Darien three lots, one between the Paya and Mangle rivers, one between the Maria and Pirri rivers, the two amounting to 100,000 hectares, and one lot of 25,000 hectares between the Yape and Pucro rivers. In Chiriqui, which is a Province of Panama just east of Costa Rica, two lots were chosen amounting to 125,000 hectares, one between the Sigsola and Rabalo rivers, and the other between the Catabella and San Pedro rivers. The Canal Company wanted the title to the land in order that it might be used as collateral security in bolstering up the finances of the corporation, and the Colombian Government was doubtless very willing to let the Canal Company have this amount or as much more as was wanted, both parties being equally aware of the valueless character of the land for any practical purposes. _ My services were engaged in 1888 in connection with the astro- 302 National Geographic Magazine. nomical work incident to the survey of these grants and it was intended that I should visit both Darien and Chiriqui, but the contract term expired about the time of the completion of the work in Darien, which was taken up first, and it was deemed prudent for various reasons, the chief of them being the un- healthiness of the locality at that season of the year, about the middle of April, not to remain longer on the Isthmus. If it had been possible to work as expeditiously as in this country there would have been ample time to have completed the necessary astronomical work for both surveys, and without understanding men and methods peculiar to a tropical country I started out with this expectation, but soon found out that any efforts looking towards expediting any particular matter were not only useless but were detrimentally reactive upon the person putting forward such efforts. Thus it was nearly the first of March before I reached Darien, having sailed from New York a month previously. Passage was had from Panama to Darien in a steamer chartered for the purpose. Sailing across the Bay of Panama and entering the Tuyra River at Boca Chica, we ascended the river as far as the village Real de St. Marie. At this point the steamer was abandoned and further transportation was had in canoes. Darien is a province of the State of Panama and its boundaries as given by Lieut. Sullivan in his comprehensive work on “ Prob- lem of Interoceanic Communication,” are as follows: “ The Atlantic coast line is included between Point San Blas and Cape Tiburon ; that of the Pacific extends from the mouth of the Bayano to Point Ardita. The eastern boundary is determined by | the main Cordillera in its sweep across the Isthmus from a posi- tion of close proximity to the Pacific, near Point Ardita, to a similar position near Tiburon, on the Atlantic. The valleys of the Mandinga and Mamoni-Bayano determine its western limit.” The Darien hills as seen from the Atlantic side present to the view an apparently solid ridge of mountains, although there are in reality many low passes which are concealed by projecting spurs. The dividing ridge hugs close to the Atlantic, and the rivers, of which there are a great many on this side, plunge abruptly to the sea. On the Pacific side the rivers have a much longer dis- tance to flow before reaching the sea, and the territory bordering on the ocean is low and swampy. ‘The tidal limit of the Tuyra River is nearly fifty miles from its mouth, and on this river and A Trip to Panama and Darien. 303 many of its tributaries one can travel many miles inland before ‘ground sufficiently solid to land upon can be found. The vegeta- tion within this low lying area is thick and closely matted together, and this fact taken in connection with the swampy char- acter of the ground, makes travel on foot through any portion of it exceedingly difficult. Therefore the various rivers, which form a very complex system and penetrate everywhere are the natural highways of the country. The chief rivers on the Pacific side are the Tuyra and Boyano with their numerous tributaries and on the Atlantic watershed is the Atrato. A peculiarity noticed at Real de St. Marie, which is at the junc- tion of the Pyrrhi and Tuyra rivers and at which point the tide has arise and fall of twelve or fifteen feet, was that at low tide it was impossible to enter the mouth of the Pyrrhi with a boat, while five or six miles up the stream there was always a good supply of flowing water and at double that distance it became a mountain torrent. Outside of the swampy area the character of the country is rough and mountainous. The valleys are narrow and the ridges exceedingly sharp, the natural result of a great rain fall. The hills are able to resist the continued wasting effect of the vast volumes of descending water only by their thick mantle of accu- mulated vegetation, and were it not for this protection the many months of continuous annual rain would long ago have produced a leveling effect that would have made unnecessary the various attempts of man to pierce the Isthmian mountains and form an artificial strait. The ridges are sometimes level for a short distance, but are generally broken and are made up of a succession of well rounded peaks. These peaks are always completely covered with trees and from the top of the sharpest of them it is impossible to get a view of the surrounding country. The highest point climbed. was about 2,000 feet above sea level and the highest peak in Darien is Mt. Pyrrhi which is between three and four thousand. Darien has been the scene of a great deal of surveying and ex- ploration from the time that Columbus, in 1503, coasted along its shores, hoping to find a strait connecting the two oceans, up to the present time. Balboa, in 1510, discovered the Pacific by crossing the Darien mountains from Caledonia Bay. This dis- covery taken in connection with the broad indentations of the land noted by Columbus, led the old world to believe in the exist- 304 National Geographic Magazine. ence of a strait, and the entire coast on each side of the new world was diligently searched. The Cabots, Ponce de Leon and Cortez interested themselves in this search and it was not until about 1532 that all expectations of finding the strait were aban- doned. ‘The idea of a direct natural communication between the oceans being thus dispelled, the question of an artificial junction arose, and in 1551 a Spanish historian recommended to Philip II. of Spain the desirability of an attempt to join the oceans by identically the same routes to which the attention of the whole civilized portion of the world is now being drawn, that is, Tehauntepec, Nicaragua and Panama. From this time up to the commencement of the work of the Isthmian expeditions sent out by the United States, and which lasted from 1870 to 1875, but little geographical knowledge relative to Darien was obtained. The United States expeditions undoubtedly did a great amount of valu- able exploration and surveying, and while the names of Strain, Truxton, Selfridge and Lull will always be held in high esteem for what they accomplished in this direction, still it is to be regretted that with all the resources at their command they did not make a complete map of the country. And just here I want to bring forward the suggestion that all that has been accomplished and more, could have been accomplished if the various explorers had known, or practically utilized, a fact that my own experience and that of other topographers, in this country and Darien, has im- pressed upon me; and that is, that it is easier in a rough and mountainous country to travel on the ridge than in the valley. In Darien they were looking for a low pass in the Cordillera and this was what should have first been sought, directly. Having found the low passes the valleys of the streams draining there- from could have then been examined, and thus all necessary infor- mation could have been obtained and the subject exhausted. The plan followed by the Isthmian expeditions was to ascend a stream with the hope of finding a suitable pass. The pass might be found or it might not, and if not, so much labor as far as the direct solution of the problem was concerned was lost. A pass of low altitude was of primary importance and should have been sought for in an exhaustive way. Humboldt said in substance, “‘ Do not waste your time in run- ning experimental lines across. Send out a party fully equipped, which keeping down the dividing ridge the whole length of the Isthmus, by this means can obtain a complete knowledge of the A Trip to Panama and Darien. 305 hypsometrical and geological conditions of the dam that obstructs the travel and commerce of the world.” But strange to say this plan suggested by such an eminent authority as Humboldt and so strongly recommended by common sense, has never been fol- lowed, and to-day after all the money that has been spent and the lives lost in explorations in Darien, there is not sufficient data collected to prove conclusively that there does not now exist some route for an interoceanic canal that possesses merits superior to any at present known. It is true the dividing ridge would be difficult to follow on account of the great number of confusing spurs, but I think I am safe in saying that starting from the sum- mit of the main ridge at Culebra pass on the Isthmus of Panama, the dividing ridge extending to the pass at the head waters of the Atrato could be exhaustively followed and studied with as much facility as could either the Tuyra or Atrato rivers, embrac- ing with each their respective tributaries. I traveled on some of the high dividing ridges in Darien, and did not find that progress was at all difficult, and especially noted the fact of the absence of tangled undergrowth and matted vines which is so characteristic of the Darien forests generally. Now a few words about the inhabitants of Panama and Darien, and in referring to these I mean the native inhabitants and not the indiscriminate gathering of all nationalities that were attracted by the Panama Canal. In Central and South America, as in North America, the abo- riginal inhabitant was the Indian. When the Spaniards first attempted to colonize Darien they were met and resisted by the native Indian just as our forefathers were in Virginia and Massa- chusetts, and as with us so in Panama and Darien the Indians have been driven back by degrees from the shores of both oceans until now they are found only in the far interior. They resemble our Indians in appearance, but are smaller. They are averse to manual labor and live almost entirely by hunting and fishing, although they sometimes have small planta- tions of plantains, bananas, oranges and lemons. The Spaniards in settling in the new country brought very few women with them and the Colombian of to-day is the result of the admixture of the Indian and Spanish blood, and has many of the characteristics of each race. In addition to the Indian and Colombian there are in Panama and Darien a comparatively large number of negroes, who were originally imported as slaves by the early Spaniards, 306 National Geographic Magazine. and who now constitute by far the larger portion of the inhabit- ants of Darien, being found usually in villages along the valleys of the larger streams. In contrast to the Colombian and Indian they are large in stature and make excellent laborers. The principal villages in Darien, as Yovisa, Pinagana and Real de St. Marie, are inhabited exclusively by the negroes, with the exception of a Spanish judge in each, who exercises great authority. Besides being a judge in civil and criminal cases, he practically controls everything in his particular village, as all contracts for labor are negotiated with him and settlement for services made through him. Upon reaching Darien the first work assigned me was the sur- vey and exploration of the Pyrrhi river. This survey was made for two purposes: primarily, to determine if any of the country bordering upon it was of a sufficiently desirable character to include it within the grant, and secondly, to secure data for the general topographical map. My instructions were to proceed as far south as latitude 7°30’. The ascent of the river was made in canoes until the frequency of rapids made it necessary to abandon them, and then the journey was continued on foot, gen- erally wading in the middle of the stream, as the undergrowth was too thick to admit of progress along the banks. Sometimes the water was very shallow ; at other times, where it had been backed up by dams of porphyritic rock, it reached above the waist, and near the end of the journey where the river ran between vertical walls of great height it was necessary to swim in order to get beyond this cafion. The survey of this river was satisfactorily accomplished in about a week. The method adopted for the survey was to take compass bearings and to estimate distances. ‘These courses and distances were plotted as they were taken and thus the topo- graphical and other features could be readily sketched in connec- tion with them. To check and control this work, observations were taken every day at noon with a sextant, on the sun, for latitude and time, and at night circum-meridian altitudes of stars were obtained when possible. Thus a number of rivers were surveyed—the Maria, Tucuti, Yovisa and other tributaries of the Tuyra. When it was found that a sufficiently correct idea of the country for topographical purposes could not be obtained by simply meandering the water courses, lines or trochas were cut through the forest from stream A Trip to Panama and Darien. 307 to stream, and where two streams thus connected were tributaries of a common river, all of which had been previously surveyed, a closed figure was obtained, an adjustment for errors of closure made, and by putting together the topographical data obtained by the four lines, there was generally found to be sufficient information to give a satisfactory though of course a crude delineation of the included area. After a number of rivers had been examined with more or less accuracy in this way, it was finally decided that the area for one portion of the grant best suited for the purposes of the Canal Company lay on the right bank of the Tuyra river, and that the portion of the river which lay between the mouths of two of its tributaries, the Rio Yape and the Rio Pucro, should be one of the boundaries of the grant. The Yape and Pucro have courses approximately parallel to each other and at right angles to the Rio Tuyra, and these streams were also chosen as boundary lines, so that the grant would have the three rivers as natural bounda- ries, and the fourth and closing boundary was to be a straight line from a certain point on the Yape to the Pucro, so located as to include within the four boundaries an area approximately equal to the amount of the grant, which in this particular case was 25,000 hectares. The problem then presented was: given three rivers for three boundaries of a figure to establish a fourth and artificial line, completing the figure in such a way that it should contain a given area, and also to procure data for a topographical map of the country surveyed. This survey was put under my direction and I was instructed to proceed to a point overlooking the Tuyra river, between the Rio Yape and the Rio Pucro, near the mouth of the Rio Capite, for the purpose of establishing a base camp. Leaving Real de St. Marie on the evening of March 15th, with a fleet of twelve canoes and about thirty native laborers, we reached the site for the camp in two days. After landing everything, the work of clearing away trees and underbrush over an area sufficiently large for the camp was commenced. The men worked willingly with axe and machéte, and soon the forest receded and left bare a semi-circular space facing the river. Two houses were needed and without saw, nail or hammer the construction was commenced and prosecuted rapidly. Straight trees about six inches in diameter and twenty feet long were cut and planted vertically in holes dug out with the machéte, and 308 National Geographic Magazine. horizontal pieces of a smaller diameter were securely fastened on with long tough strips of bark, and thus a square or oblong frame was fashioned. The horizontal pieces were placed at a distance of about three feet from the ground, on which a flooring was eventually laid, and at the top of the frame where the slope of the roof began. On the top pieces other poles were laid and fastened across and lengthwise, and on these the men stood while making the skeleton of the roof. The latter was made very steep for better protection against the rain. After the ridge pole was put in position other smaller poles were fastened on parallel and perpendicular to it so that the whole roof was divided up into squares, and it was finally completed by weaving in thick bunches of palm and other leaves in such a way as to make it thoroughly water-proof. For our purpose no protection on the sides of the structures other than the projecting eaves was con- sidered necessary. A floor of poles laid very close together was put in one house, the one used for sleeping purposes, and in the other a table for eating, writing, draughting, etc., was made. Thus in two or three days the place was made thoroughly habita- ble, and men were detailed to see that the grounds, etc., were always kept thoroughly clean and in a good sanitary condition, a very necessary precaution in a tropical country. The forest afforded game, the river an abundance of fish ; bananas, oranges, lemons and pineapples were easily procured from the natives, who also furnished material for a poultry yard, and thus while located at camp Capite, situated as it was on a picturesque spot overlooking two swiftly flowing rivers, with good drinking water, a commis- ‘sary department well stocked, a French cook who would have -done himself credit anywhere, I could not but think that hereto- fore pictures of life in Darien had been too somberly drawn, and that where so much suffering and sickness had prevailed among the early explorers it was because they had gone there not prop- erly outfitted, and because carried away with ambitious enthu- siasm their adventurous spirit had caused them often to undertake that which their calmer judgment would not have dictated ; and that to these causes as much as to the unhealthy condition of the locality was due their many hardships. Several days were spent here getting time and latitude observations and in mapping out plans for the work. It was decided that the mouths of the Yape, Capite and Pucro and other points along these rivers, such as. mouths of tributary streams, etc., should be astronomically lo- A Trip to Panama and Darien. 309 eated, that these points should be connected by compass lines, and also that cross lines should be run at various points from the Yape to the Capite and from the Capite to the Pucro. It was further decided that as time was limited it would be impracti- cable to run out the fourth side of the figure that would contain the grant, as the country around the headwaters of the streams was known to be exceedingly rough and mountainous, and to follow any straight line would necessarily involve a great amount of laborious cutting and climbing. Furthermore, in order to know just what direction this line should follow it would be first necessary to make a connected preliminary survey of the three rivers ; to plot this survey and then by inspection of the map and consideration of various start- ing points to decide on the most available location of the fourth side. Instead of this it was considered best and sufficient to arbitra- rily adopt a certain waterfall on the Rio Yape, the location of which was approximately known from a reconnoisance previously made, as the initial point of the line connecting the upper Yape with the Pucro and closing the figure. Thus it only became nec- essary, as far as the boundaries were concerned, to run a line along the Tuyra, joining the mouths of the Yape and Pucro ; to run a line from the mouth of the Yape to the waterfall above referred to ; and to run up the Pucro sufficiently far to be certain that when the work was completed and plotted, a line drawn from the position of the waterfall on the map in such a way as to include the desired area would intersect the Pucro at some point within the limit of what had been surveyed. I have not time to go into the details of the various trips by land and water neces- sary to carry out these plans. . Before starting it was known exactly what was necessary to be done ; each assistant engineer had his work clearly mapped out before him, and each one faithfully performed the task allotted to him, so that the whole survey was brought to a successful completion. This brought to a close all the work in Darien, the other tracts having been surveyed before my arrival and conse- quently the whole expedition returned to Panama, and soon afterwards I returned to this country. In going to and returning from Darien, I passed twice over the Panama railroad and along the line of the Panama canal, and I have thought that a few facts relative to the canal and railroad might prove of interest to the Geographical Society. 23 é 310 National Geographic Magazine. Published herewith is a sketch showing the location of the railroad, canal and tributary drainage, and a profile along the axis of the canal. The first surveys for the railroad were made in 1849, and it was probably the excitement of the California gold fever that brought about its construction at this particular time. Ground was broken in January, 1850, and the last rail was laid in Jan- uary, 1855. The length of the road is 47.6 miles and it crosses the dividing summit at an elevation of 263 feet above the mean level of the Atlantic ocean. The maximum grade is 60 feet to the mile. Soon after the road was built accurate levels were run to deter- mine the difference, if any, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and it was found that the mean levels were about the same, although there are of course variations owing to local causes, and considerable differences of height at times, owing to differences of tides in the Atlantic and Pacific. At Aspinwall the greatest rise is only 1.6 feet, while at Panama there is at times a difference of over 21 feet between high and low water. The cost of the railroad was $75,000,000. The existence of the railroad was probably the deciding cause that led Lesseps to the adoption of this location of the proposed canal. Now that the scheme has practically failed it is very easy to ‘see and appreciate the difficulties that lay in the way of building a canal at this particular place ; and it certainly seems that if sound engineering principles had been adopted at least some of these difficulties could have been understood and properly com- batted. The whole scheme, however, from an engineering stand- point, seems to have been conducted in the most blundering manner. Lesseps is a diplomat and financier, but in no sense a great en- gineer. In the construction of the Suez canal, the questions of diplomacy and finance were the most difficult to settle, while the engineering problems were comparatively simple. In Panama the opposite conditions prevailed. Concessions were freely given him by the Colombian government and money freely offered him by the French people, but he never grasped or comprehended the difficulties that nature had planted in his way, and these only seemed to occur to him when they blocked progress in a certain direction. The Paris Conference, controlled by Lesseps, decided A Trip to Panama and Darien. 311 on the 29th of May, 1879, that the construction of an inter- - oceanic canal was possible and that it should be built from the Gulf of Limon to the Bay of Panama. The tide-level scheme was adopted and the following dimen- sions decided upon, viz: Length, 45.5 miles; depth, 28 feet ; width at water line 164 feet, and width at bottom 72 feet. The route determined upon was about the same as that of the railroad, that is along the valleys of the Chagres and Obispo, crossing the divide at the Culebra pass and then descending to the Pacific along the course of the Rio Grande. The profile which is reproduced from “Science,” shows the state of progress on January Ist, 1888, and the amount of excavation that has been done since that time would make but a slight difference in the appearance of the profile. The portion shown in black is what has been removed along the axis of the canal and represents an expenditure of over $385,000,000 and seven years’ labor. The reasons that make the scheme impracticable are briefly these, some of which were known before the work was commenced, and all of which should have been understood. The first great difficulty is in cutting through the ridge cul- minating at Culebra where the original surface was 354 feet above the bed of the proposed canal. It was never known what the geological formation of this ridge was until the different strata were laid bare by the workman’s pick, and the slope adopted, 1} to 1, was found to be insufficient in the less compact formations, even at the comparatively shallow depth that was reached, and many and serious landslides were of frequent occur- rence. Another serious difficulty was the disposition of the excavated material, for upon the completion of a sea-level course this chan- nel would naturally drain all the country hitherto tributary to the Chagres and Rio Grande, and any substance not removed toa great distance would eventually be washed back again into the canal. But perhaps the greatest difficulty was in the control of the immense surface drainage. The Chagres river during the dry season is, where it crosses the line of the canal near Gamboa, only about two feet deep and 250 feet wide, but during a flood the depth becomes as much as forty feet, the width 1,500 feet, and the volume of water discharged 160,000 cubic feet per second. The bed of the river is here 42 feet above sea level, or 70 feet above what the bottom of canal would have been. Now add to 312 National Geographic Magazine. this a 40-foot flood and we have a water surface one hundred and ten feet above the bed of the canal. In order to keep this immense volume of water from the canal it was proposed to build a large dam at Gamboa, and to convey the water by an entirely different and artificial route to the Atlantic. It is impossible to show on the map the whole drain- age area of the Chagres, but a rough calculation shows it to be about 500 square miles. This seems a small total drainage area, but when it is considered that the annual rainfall is about 12 FEET, that this rainfall is confined to about one half the year, and that in six consecutive hours there has been a precipitation of over six inches of rain, some idea of the amount of water that finds its way through the Chagres river during the wet season may be formed. As I said before it was proposed to protect the canal from the waters of the upper Chagres by an immense dam at Gamboa, and for the purpose of controlling the water tributary to the lower Chagres two additional canals or channels were to be constructed on either side of the main canal. Thus, as the river is very tor- tuous and the axis of the canal crossed it twenty-five or thirty times, many deviations of the former became necessary. In some places the canal was to occupy the bed of the river and in others it cut across bends leaving the river for its original natural purpose of drainage. The difficulty in retaining the floods in these constructed channels would of course be immense, especially in some of the cases where the water rushing along its natural channel is suddenly turned at right angles into an artificial one. Thus it is clear that aside from the enormous expense incident to the removal of the immense amount of earth and rock necessary to complete the canal, that granting all this ac- complished, it would be practically impossible to maintain a sea- level canal by reason of the difficulty in controlling the Chagres and preventing the canal from filling up. The canal company finally came to the conclusion that the sea- level scheme was impracticable and it was abandoned, and plans were prepared for a lock system. As seen on the profile there were ten locks proposed, five on each side of the summit level. The summit level was to be 150 feet above sea level and conse- quently each lock would have a lift of thirty feet. The profile was constructed especially to show the amount remaining to be executed to complete the lock system, and a mere inspection will. A Trip to Panama and Darien. 313 show the relative amount of completed and uncompleted area along the axis of the canal. ‘To complete the summit cut it is still necessary to excavate 1il feet, 93 feet having already been excavated, through a horizontal distance of 3300 feet. The width of cut at top surface for the required depth at a slope of 14 to 1 would be 750 feet, but as I said before, at this slope landslides were of frequent occurrence and the slope would probably have to be increased to at least 2 to 1. Granting the necessary excavations made, there would be still the problem of the control of the Chagres river and the water supply for the summit level to provide for. At first it was thought that the water supply could be obtained from the storage of the waters of the Chagres and Obispo, but this idea was event- ually abandoned, either from a belief in the insufficiency of the water supply during the dry season, or from difficulties in the way of conveying the water to the summit level. Then it was that the advice of Mr. Eiffel, a noted French engi- “neer, was sought, and after a visit to the Isthmus he proposed that the summit level should be supplied by pumping from the Pacific. A contract was immediately made with Eiffel, who was heralded all over the world as the man who would save the canal, and immediately a positive day, the seventh that had been an- nounced, was fixed for the opening of the great canal. I do not know just how much work was done towards perfecting the system for pumping, but probably very little was ever accom- plished in this direction, as soon after this scheme was thought of the available funds of the canal company began to be very scarce, and there has been since then a general collapse of work all along the line until now it is entirely suspended. From what I have said and from what can be seen from the profile, it will be readily understood that as far as the sea-level project is concerned. the amount done is not much more than a scraping of the surface, relatively speaking, and that what has been done is in places where the obstacles were fewest. In regard to the lock, canal about one third of the necessary excavation has been made along the axis of the canal, but taking into consideration other requirements necessary for the comple- tion of the scheme, I should estimate, roughly, that probably only one sixth of the whole amount of work had been accomplished. The question now naturally arises as to what will be the probable future of this great enterprise. 314 National Geographic Magazine. The French people have seen the scheme fail under Lesseps in whom they had the most unbounded confidence, and it is not likely that they will raise any more money to be put in it asa business enterprise under any other management. Saddled as it is with a debt of nearly four hundred millions of dollars, it would be difficult to convince any one that it could ever prove to be a paying investment. Nor do I think that any American or English corporation can be organized that could obtain such concessions from Lesseps as would make the scheme an inviting field for capitalists, and thus my opinion is that the “Compagnie Univer- selle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama has irretrievably col- lapsed, and that the canal will remain, as it is now, the most gigantic failure of the age. * a fo t PO ReEECO) o : as 2 2 rs Sl a 5 Ze ra) fe The te 2 ee | _ . 5 o4 o o ° Aes S = = & g & ¢ Sa °F cn se bee Z se 3 5 os 1 on ecm a2 ine a5 4 4 7 g rg g = 5 3. = {1 1 | i ! 1! 7 = 1 2 GB TT ot i H Hil I | | 1 ' It 1 I} ow ! o Ht | | out oy Bal ‘a | s j ! H fe Dah | | t : 1 ence ae Se nn eam FE { ! S ee SaaS 1 paeeeeece| [CR are ae Ne een SFT aS BE Epi OATES TSU OOS eS PSS ST . 45 i 30 PROFILE OF THE PANAMA CANAL. Black indicates work executed ; stipple, work to be executed to complete a lock-canal ; white, additional work to be executed to complete a sea-level canal. INDVIOUC INDWS) ebBUMaL — SaNV THDIE OL HONVeaLNE O) PUN SNC i: Bi pang SA ae —— oT NTE LO LEG SOD, Et » BoacoViejo j REYTOWN ipa de) Norte ws FE THE NIGARAGUA “ i | , CANAL Vial Hie Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte. 315 ACROSS NICARAGUA WITH TRANSIT AND MACHETE. By R. E. PEARY. Tue action of this National Society, with its array of distin- guished members, in turning its attention for an hour to a region which has interested the thinking world for more than three cen- turies gives me peculiar pleasure and satisfaction. I propose this evening to touch lightly and briefly upon the natural features of Nicaragua, to note the reasons for the inter- est which has always centered upon her, to trace the growth of the great project with which her name is inseparably linked ; to show you somewhat in detail, the life, work, and surroundings of an engineer within her borders ; and finally to show you the result that is to crown the engineer’s work in her wide spreading forests and fertile valleys. That portion of Central America now included within the boundaries of our sister republic Nicaragua, has almost from the moment that European eyes looked upon it attracted and charmed the attention of explorers, geographers, great rulers, stu- dents, and men of sagacious and far reaching intellect. From Gomara the long list of famous names which have linked themselves with Nicaragua reaches down through Hum- © boldt, Napoleon III , Ammen, Lull, Menocal and Taylor. The shores were first seen by Europeans in 1502, when Colum- bus in his fourth voyage rounded the cape which forms the northeast angle of the state, and called it “Gracias 4 Dios,” which name it bears to-day. Columbus then coasted southward along the eastern shore. In 1522, Avila, penetrated from the Pacific coast of the coun- try to the lakes and the cities of the Indian inhabitants. Previous to this the country was occupied by a numerous population of Aztecs, or nearly allied people, as the quan- tities of specimens of pottery, gold images, and other articles found upon the islands and along the shores of the lakes, prove conclusively. s 316 National Geographic Magazine. In 1529 the connection of the lakes with the Caribbean sea was discovered, and during the last half of the eighteenth cen- tury a considerable commerce was carried on by this route between Granada on Lake Nicaragua and the cities of Nombre de Dios, Cartagena, Havana and Cadiz. In 1821 Nicaragua threw off the rule of the mother country and in 1823 formed with her sister Spanish colonies, a confedera- tion. This confederation was dissolved in 1838, and since then Nicaragua has conducted her own affairs. In point of advance- ment, financial solidity and stability of government she stands to- day nearly, if not quite, at the head of the Central American republics. Nicaragua extends over a little more than four degrees each of latitude and longitude, from about N.11° to N.15° and from 83° 20’ W. to 87° 40’ W. : Its longest side is the northern border from the Gulf of Fon- seca northeasterly to Cape Gracias 4 Dios, two hundred and ninety miles. From that cape south to the mouth of the Rio San Juan, the Caribbean coast line, is two hundred and fifty miles. Nearly due west across the Isthmus to Salinas Bay on the Pacific, is one hundred and twenty miles. The Pacific coast line extends thence northwest one hundred and sixty miles. In point of size Nicaragua stands first among the Central American republics having an area of 51,600 square miles. It is larger than either the State of New York or Pennsylvania, about the size of Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland combined, and is one-fourth as large as France or Germany. Its population numbers about 300,000. The Gulf of Fonseca, at the northern, and Salinas Bay at the southern extremity of the coast line are two of the finest and largest harbors on the Pacific coast of Central America. About midway between them is the fine harbor of Corinto, and there are also several other ports along the coast, at San Juan del Sur, Brito and Tamarindito. On the Caribbean coast no harbors suit- able for large vessels exist, but numerous lagoons and bights afford the best of shelter for coasting vessels. The central portion of Nicaragua is traversed, from north to south, by the main cordillera of the isthmus, which, here greatly reduced in altitude, consists merely of a confused mass of peaks and ridges with an average elevation scarcely exceeding 1,000 feet. Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte. 317 Between this mountainous region and the Caribbean shore stretches a low level country, covered with a dense for est, rich in rubber, cedar, mahogany and dye woods. It is drained by sey- eral large rivers whose fertile intervales will yield almost incred- ible harvests of plantains, bananas, oranges, limes, and other tropical fruits. West of the mountain zone is a broad valley, about one hun- dred and twenty-five feet above the level of the sea, extending from the Gulf of Fonseca, southeasterly to the frontier of Costa Rica. The greater portion of this valley is occupied by two lakes, Managua and Nicaragua. ‘The latter one hundred and ten miles long by fifty or sixty miles wide is really an inland sea, being one-half as large as Lake Ontario and twice as large as Long Island Sound. These lakes, with the rainfall of the adja- cent valleys, drain through the noble San Juan river, which dis- charges into the Caribbean at Greytown, at the southeast angle of the country. _ Between the Pacific and these lakes is a narrow strip of land, from twelve to thirty miles in width, stretching from the magnifi- cent plain of Leon with its cathedral city, in the north, to the rol- ling indigo fields and the cacao plantations which surround the garden city of Rivas, in the south. The lowest pass across the backbone of the New World, from Behring’s Strait to the Straits of Magellan, extends along the San Juan valley and across the Lajas—Rio Grande “ divide,” be- tween Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific; the summit of this divide is only one hundred and fifty-two feet above the sea and forty-two feet above the lake. Nicaragua presents yet another unique physical feature. Lying between the elevated mountain masses of Costa Rica on the south and Honduras on the north, the average eleva- tion of its own mountain backbone hardly one thousand feet, it is the natural thoroughfare of the beneficent northeast Trades. These winds sweep in from the Caribbean across the Atlantic slopes, break the surface of the lakes into sparkling waves, and then disappear over the Pacific, aerating, cooling and purifying the country, destroying the germs of disease and making Nicara- gua the healthiest region in Central America. The scenery of the eastern portion of the country is of the luxuriant sameness peculiar to all tropical countries. 318 National Geographic Magazine. In the vicinity of the lakes and between them and the Pacific,, the isolated mountain peaks which bound the plain of Leon on the northeast ; the mountain islands of Madera and Ometepe ;, the towering turquoise masses of the Costa Rican volcanoes ; and the distant blue mountains of Segovia and Matagalpa, visible beyond the sparkling waters of the lakes, feast the eye with scenic beauties, unsurpassed elsewhere in grandeur, variety and richness of coloring. . The products of the country are numerous despite the fact that. its resources are as yet almost entirely undeveloped. Maize, plantains, bananas, oranges, limes, and indeed every tropical fruit, thrive in abundance. Coffee is grown in large quantities in the hilly region in the northwest ; sugar, tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo and cacao plantations abound between the lakes and the Pacific ; potatoes and wheat thrive in the uplands of Segovia; the Chontales region east of Lake Nicaragua, a great grazing section, supports thousands of head of cattle ; and back of this are the gold and silver districts of La Libertad, Javali and others. Numerous trees and plants of medicinal and commercial value are found in the forests. Game is plentiful and of numerous varieties ; deer, wild hog, wild turkey, manatee and tapir; and fish abound in the streams and rivers. The temperature of Nicaragua is equable. The extreme variation, recorded by Childs, was 23° observed near the head of the San Juan in May, 1851. The southeast wind predominates during the rainy season. Occasionally, in June or October as a rule, the wind hauls round to southwest and a temporal results, heavy rain sometimes falling for a week or ten days. The equatorial cloud-belt, following the sun north in the spring, is late reaching Nicaragua, and the wet season is shorter than in regions farther south. The average rainfall, based on the records: of nine years, is 64.42 inches. The “trades” blow almost. throughout the year. Strong during the dry season and fresh- ening during the day ; the wind comes from the east-northeast, and blows usually for four to five days, when, hauling to the east or southeast for a day or two, it calms down, then goes back to northeast and rises again. The Spanish discoverers of the great Lake Nicaragua, coming upon it from the Pacific, and noting the fluctuations of level caused Be Dev Sulius Bien & Co. LEON CATHEDRAL i: ae _——— ~~ Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte. 319 by the action of the wind upon its broad surface, mistook these fluctuations for tides and felt assured that some broad strait con- nected it with the North Sea. Later, when Machuca had discov- ered the grand river outlet of the lake, and the restless searching of other explorers in every bay and inlet along both sides of the American isthmus had extinguished forever the ignis fatuus ‘“‘Secret of the Strait,” Gomara pointed this out as one of the most favorable localities for an artificial communication between the North and South Seas. It was not until 1851, however, that an accurate and scientific survey of a ship canal*route was made by Col. O. W. Childs. This survey which showed the lake of Nicaragua to be only one hundred and seven feet above the sea, and the maximum ele- vation between the lake and the Pacific to be only forty-one feet, exhibited the advantages of this route so clearly and in such an unanswerable manner that it has never since been possible to ignore it. In 1870, under the administration of General Grant and largely through the unceasing efforts of Admiral Ammen, the United States began a series of systematic surveys of all the routes across the American isthmus from Tehuantepec to the head waters of the Rio Atrato ; and six years later, with the plans and results of all these surveys before it, a commission composed of General Humphreys, Chief of Engineers, U. 8S. Army; Hon. Carlile Patterson, Superintendent U. 8. Coast Survey ; and Rear- Admiral Daniel Ammen, Chief of Bureau of Navigation, U. S. Navy ; gave its verdict in favor of the Nicaragua route. The International Canal Congress at Paris, in 1879, had such convincing information placed before it that it was forced, in spite of its prejudices, to admit that in the advantages it offered for the construction of a lock canal, the Nicaragua route was superior to any other across the American isthmus. In 1876, and again in 1880 Civil Engineer A. G. Menocal, U. S. N., the chief engineer of previous governmental surveys, re- surveyed and revised portions of the route, and in 1885 the same engineer, assisted by myself, surveyed an entirely new line on the Caribbean side, from Greytown to the San Juan river, near the mouth of the San Carlos. On the eastern side of Nicaragua, all these surveys (except the last), were confined almost entirely to the San Juan river, and its immediate banks ; and the country on either side beyond these 320 National Geographic Magazime. narrow limits was, up to 1885, almost entirely unknown. Between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, however, every pass from the Bay of Salinas to the Gulf of Fonseca had been examined. } In 1885 the party of which I was a member pushed a nearly direct line across the country from a point on the San Juan, about three miles below the mouth of the Rio San Carlos, to Greytown, a distance of thirty one miles by our line, as compared with fifty six miles by the river and forty-two miles by the former proposed canal route. In December, 1887, I went out in charge of a final surveying expedition, consisting of some forty engineers and assistants and one hundred and fifty laborers, to resurvey and stake out the line of the canal preparatory to the work of construction. The information and personal experience gained in previous surveys made it possible, without loss of time, to locate the various sections of the expedition in the most advantageous man- ner, and push the work with the greatest speed consistent with accuracy. The location lines of the previous surveys were taken as a pre- liminary line and carefully re-measured and re-levelled. Pre- liminary offsets were run; the location made, and staked off upon the ground ; offsets run in from three hundred to one hundred feet apart, extending beyond the slope limits of the canal; borings made at frequent intervals ; and all streams gauged. The result of this work was a series of detail charts and pro- files, based upon rigidly checked instrumental data, and covering the entire line from Greytown to Brito, from which to estimate quantities and cost. As may be imagined by those familiar with tropical countries, the prosecution of a survey in these regions is an arduous and difficult work, and one demanding special qualifications in the en- gineer. His days are filled with a succession of surprises, usually disagreeable, and constant happenings of the unexpected. Prob- ably in no other country will the traveler, explorer, or engineer, find such an endless variety of obstacles to his progress. Every topographical feature of the country is shrouded and hidden under a tropical growth of huge trees and tangled under- brush, so dense that it is impossible for even astrong, active man, burdened with nothing but a rifle, to force himself through it without a short, heavy sword or machéte, with which to cut his way. Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte. 321 Under these circumstances the most observant engineer and ex- pert woodsman may pass within a hundred feet of the base of a considerable hill and not have a suspicion of its existence, or he may be entirely unaware of the proximity of a stream until he is on the point of stepping over the edge of its precipitous banks. The topography of the country has to be laboriously felt out, much as a blind man familiarizes himself with his surroundings. In doing this work the indispensable instrument, without which the transit, the level, and indeed the engineer himself is of no use, is the national weapon of Nicaragua, the machéte, a short, heavy sword. As soon as he is able to walk, the son of the Nicaraguan mozo or huléro takes as a plaything a piece of iron hoop or an old knife, and imitates his father with his machéte. As he gets older a broken or worn-down weapon is given him, and when he is able to handle it, a full size machéte is entrusted to him and he then considers himself a man. From that day on, waking or sleeping, our Nicaraguan’s machéte is always at his side. With it he cuts his way through the woods ; with it he builds his camp and his bed ; with it he kills his game and fish; with it at a pinch he shaves himself, or extracts the thorns from his feet ; with it he fights his duels, and with it, when he dies, his comrades dig his grave. When in the field the chief of a party, equipped with a pocket compass and an aneroid barometer, is always skirmishing ahead of the line with a machétero, or axeman, to cut a path forhim. A pushing chief, however, speedily dispenses with the machétero and slashes a way for himself much more rapidly. As soon as he decides where the line is to go the engineer calls to the machéteros and the two best ones immediately begin cut- ting toward the sound of his voice. They soon slash a nar- row path to him, drive a stake where he was standing and then turn back toward the other machéteros, who have been following them, cutting a wider path and clearing away all trees, vines and branches, so that the transit man can see the flag at the stake. The moment the leading machéteros reach him the chief starts off again and by the time the main body of axemen have reached his former position the head machéteros are cutting toward the sound of his voice in a new position. As soon as the line is cleared the transit man takes his sight and moves ahead to the stake, the chainmen follow and drive 322 National Geographic Magazine. stakes every hundred feet, and the leveller follows putting in elevations and cross sections. In this way the work goes on from early morning until nearly dark, stopping about an hour for lunch. After the day’s work comes the dinner, the table graced with wild hog, or turkey, or venison, or all. After dinner the smoke, then the day’s notes are worked up and duplicated and all hands get into their nets. For a moment the countless nocturnal noises of the great forest, enlivened perhaps by the scream of a tiger, or the deep, muffled roar of a puma, fall upon drowsy ears, then follows the sleep that always accompanies hard work and good health, till the bull-voiced howling monkeys set the forest echo- ing with their announcement of the breaking dawn. In reconnoissance and preliminary work the experienced engi- neer, is able, in many cases, to avoid obstacles without vitiating the results of his work, but in the final location, in staking out absolute curves and driving tangents thousands of feet long across country, no dodging is possible. On the hills and elevated ground the engineer can, compara- tively speaking, get along quite comfortably, his principal annoy- ances being the uneven character of the ground, which compels him to set his instrument very frequently, and the necessity of felling some gigantic tree every now and then. In the valleys and lowlands there is an unceasing round of obstacles. The line may run for some distance over level ground covered with a comparatively open growth, then without warn- ing it encounters the wreck of a fallen tree, and hours are con- sumed hewing a passage through the mass of broken limbs and shattered trunk, all matted and bound together with vines and shrubbery. A little farther on a stream is crossed, and the line may cross and recross four or five times in the next thousand feet. The engineer must either climb down the steep banks, for the streams burrow deep in the stiff clay of these valleys, ford the stream and climb the opposite bank, or he must fall a tree from bank to bank and cross on its slippery trunk twenty or twenty- five feet above the water. Either on the immediate bank or in its vicinity is almost cer- tain to be encountered a “saccate” clearing. ‘This may be only one or two hundred feet across or it may be a half a mile. In the former case the “saccate” grass will be ten or fifteen feet in height and so matted and interwoven with vines and briars Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte. 328 that a tunnel may be cut through it as through a hedge. If the clearing be large, the tough, wiry grass is no higher than a man’s head, and a path has to be mowed through it, while the sun beats down into the furnace-like enclosure till the blade of the machéte becomes almost too hot to touch. But worse than anything thus far mentioned are the Silico or black palm swamps. Some of these in the larger valleys and near the coast are miles in extent. Occupied exclusively by the low, thick Silico palms, these swamps are in the wet season absolutely impassable except for monkeys and alligators, and even at the end of the dry season the engineer enters upon one with sinking heart as well as feet, and emerges from it tired and used up in every portion of his anatomy. It is with the utmost difficulty that he finds a prac- ticable place to locate his instrument, generally utilizing the little hummocks formed by the trunks of the clusters of palms, and in moving from point to point he is compelled to wade from knee to shoulder deep in the black mud and water. General reconnaissances from high trees in elevated localities, simple enough in theory, are by no means easy in a country so miserly with its secrets as this, nor are their results reliable without a great expenditure of time, labor, and patience. On level, undulating and moderately broken ground, the tops of the trees, though they may be one hundred and fifty feet from the ground, are level as the top of a hedge. Even an isolated hill if it be rounded in shape presents hardly better facilities, the trees at the base and on the sides, in their effort to reach the sun- light grow taller than those on the summit, and there is no one tree that commands all the others. If however an isolated hill of several hundred feet in height be found, its steep sides culminating in a sharp peak, one day’s work by three or four good axmen, in cutting neighboring trees, will prepare the way for a study of the general relief and topog- raphy of the adjacent country. If after these preliminaries have been completed the engineer imagines that he has only to climb the tree and sketch what he sees, to obtain reliable knowledge of the country, he is doomed to serious surprises in the future. If he makes the ascent during the middle of the day, he will, after he has cooled off and rested from his exhausting efforts, see spread out before him a shimmering landscape in which the uni- form green carpet and the vertical sun combined, have obliterated 324 National Geographic Magazine. all outlines except the more prominent irregularities of the ter- rene, and have blended different mountain ranges, one of which may be several miles beyond the other, into one, of which only the sky profile is distinct. Naturally under these conditions estimates of distance may be half or double the truth. There are two ways of extracting reliable information from these tree-top reconnaissances. If it be in the rainy season the observer must be prepared to make a day of it, and when he ascends the tree in the morning he takes with him a long hight line with which to pull up his coffee and lunch. Then aided by the successive showers which sweep across the landscape, leaving fragments of mists in the ravines, and hanging grey screens between the different ranges and mountains, bringing out the relief first of this and then of that section, an accurate sketch may gradually be made. The time of passage of a shower from one peak to another, or to the observer, may also be utilized as a by no means to be despised check upon distance estimates. If it be the dry season, the observer may take his choice be- tween remaining on his perch in the tree from before sunrise to after sunset, or making two ascents, one early in the morning and the other late in the afternoon. In this case the slowly dis- persing clouds of morning, and the gradually gathering mists at sunset, together with the reversed lights and shadows at dawn and sunset, bring out very clearly the relief of the terrene, the overlapping of distant ranges, and the course of the larger streams. This kind of work cannot be delegated to anyone, and besides the arduous labor involved in climbing the huge trees, there are other serious annoyances connected with it. The climber is almost certain to disturb some venomous insect which revenges itself by a savage sting which has to be endured ; or he may rend clothes and skin also, on some thorny vine, or another, crushed by his efforts, may exude a juice which will leave him tattooed for days ; then, though there may not be a mosquito or fly at the base of the tree, the top will be infested with myriads of minute black flies, which cover hands and face, and with extremely annoying results. On the other hand the explorer may as a com- pensation have his nostrils filled with the perfume of some bril- liant orchid on a neighboring branch; and there is a breezy enjoyment in watching the showers as they rush across the green carpet, and in listening to the roar with which the big drops beat upon the tree tops. Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte. 325 The special phase of field work which fell to my personal lot was entirely reconnaissance, consisting of canoe examinations of all streams in the vicinity of the line of the canal, to determine their sources, character of valley, and approximate water shed ; of rapid air-line compass and aneroid trails, to connect one stream, or valley head with another, or furnish a base line for a general sketch plan of a valley ; and of studies of the larger features of the terrene, from elevated tree tops. The last has been already described ; in the second the experi- ence was very similar to that of the parties in running main lines. On these occasions three or at most four hardy huléros (rubber hunters) comprised the party, two carrying the blankets, mosquito bars and provisions for several days, and one or two cutting the lightest possible practicable trail and marking prominent trees. In a day’s march of from five to eight miles, and this was the utmost that even such a light, active and experienced party could cover in one day, every possible and some almost impossible kinds of traveling was encountered, and thoroughly exhausted men crept into their bars every night. The canoe reconnaissances were more agreeable, though some most unpleasant as well as most enjoyable memories are connected with them. The innumerable large fallen trees which obstruct the streams and over or through which the canoe must be hauled bodily, the almost inevitable capsizing of the canoe, the monotonous red clay banks on either side and the frequent necessity of lying down at night in a bed of mud into which the droves of wild pigs which inhabit these valleys have trampled the clayey soil, are among the disagreeable incidents. From the head of canoe navigation to their sources the char- acter of these streams is entirely different, and both in 1888 and in 1885 I have followed them far up into mountain gorges, the beauty of which is as fresh in my memory as if I had been there but yesterday. The crew of the canoe on these reconnaissances usually con- sisted of three picked men, and when the canoe had been pushed as far up stream as it was possible for it to go, two of the men were left with it while the third and best, slinging the blankets, bars, and a little coffee, sugar, and milk, upon his back pushed on with me. Wading through the shallow water up the bed of the stream, taking bearings and estimating distances, while my Aulére VOL. I. 24 326 National Geographic Magazine. followed, ever alert to strike some drowsy beauty of a fish in the clear water; the source of the stream was generally reached in a day, and never did we make preparations to sleep on some bed of clean, yellow sand washed down by the stream in flood times, but what I had a plump turkey hanging from my belt, and my huléro several fine fish. Much has been written about the climate of Nicaragua and its effect upon the inhabitants of more northerly countries when ex- posed to it. It would seem that the experience of the numerous expeditions sent out by the United States, and the reports of the surgeons at- tached to those expeditions would have long since settled the matter. To those who cannot understand how there can be such a difference in climate between two localities so slightly removed as Panama and Nicaragua, and the former possessing a notori- ously deadly climate, the experience of the recent surveying ex- pedition must be conclusive. Only five members of that expedition had ever been in tropi- cal climates before, and the rodmen and chainmen of the party were yourg men just out of college who had never done a day’s manual labor, nor slept on the ground a night in their lives. Ar- riving at Greytown during the rainy season, the first work that they encountered was the transporting of their supplies and camp equipage to the sites of. the various camps. This had to be done by means of canoes along streams obstructed with logs and fallen trees. Some parties were a week in reaching their des- tination, wading and swimming by day, lifting and pushing their canoes along, and at night lying down on the ground to sleep. One party worked for six months in the swamps and lagoon region directly back of Greytown, and several other parties worked for an equal length of time in the equally disagreeable swamps of the valley of the San Francisco. Several of these officers are down there yet, as fresh as ever. In making tours of inspection of the different sections I have repeatedly, for several days and nights in succession, passed the days traveling in the woods through swamps and rain, and the nights sleeping as best I could, curled up under a blanket in a small canoe, while my men paddled from one camp to the next. In spite of all this exposure not only were there no deaths in the expedition but there was not a single case of serious illness, and the officers who have returned up to this time, were in better health and weight than when they went away. Soa ane Julius Bind 0.. UPPER CASTMELO— RIVER SAN JUAN Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte. 397 Of course the men had the best of food that money could ob- tain and previous experience suggest, and the chiefs of all parties were required to strictly enforce certain sanitary regulations in regard to coffee in the morning, a thorough bath and dose of spirits on returning from work, and mosquito bars and dry sleep - ing suits at night ; yet the climate must be held principally re- sponsible for a sanitary result which I believe could not be ex- celled in any temperate zone city, with the same number of men, doing the same arduous work under conditions of equal exposure. The forests everywhere abound in game and every party which included in its personnel a good rifle-shot was sure of a constant supply of wild pig, turkey, quail and grouse, varied by an occa- sional deer, all obtained in the ordinary work of reconnoissance and surveying. For the men’s table there was abundance of monkey, iguana and macaw. Parties in the lower valleys of the various streams had no trouble in adding two or three varieties of very toothsome fish to their bill of fare, though these fish were rarely caught with the hook, but usually shot, or knifed by an alert native, as they basked in the shallows. These parties also obtained occasionally a danta (tapir) or a manatee. On the river it was possible to obtain a fine string of fish with hook and line, then there was the huge tarpon to be had for the spearing, and fish pots sunk in suitable places were sure to yield a mess of fresh water lobsters. Ducks were also occasionally shot. The forms of life are even more numerous in the vegetable than in the animal kingdom. The effect of these wonderful forests is indescribable, and though many writers have essayed a descrip- tion, I have yet to see one that does the subject justice. Only a simple enumeration of component parts will be attempted here. First comes the grand body of the forest, huge almendro, havilan, guachipilin, cortez, cedar, cottonwood, palo de leche trees, and others rising one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet into the scintillant sunshine. The entire foliage of these trees is at the top and their great trunks reaching up for a hundred feet or more without a branch offer a wonderful variety of studies in types of column. Some rise straight and smooth, and true, others send out thin deep buttresses, and others look like the muscle-knotted fore-arm of a Titan, with gnarled fingers griping the ground in their wide grasp. BES yu aig National Geographic Magazine. But whatever the form of the tree trunks may be, the shallow soil upon the hills and the marshy soil in the lowlands, has taught them that there is greater safety and stability in a broad founda- tion than in a deeply penetrating one, and so almost without exception the tree roots spread out widely, on, or near, the sur- face. Beneath the protecting shelter of these patriarchs, as com- pletely protected from scorching sun and rushing wind as if in a conservatory, grow innumerable varieties of palms, young trees destined some day to be giants themselves, and others which never attain great size. Still lower down, Juxuriate smaller palms, tree ferns, and dense underbrush, and countless vines. These latter, however, are by no means confined to the underbrush, many of them climb to the very tops of the tallest trees, cling about their trunks and bind them to other trees and to the ground with the toughest of ropes. With one or two excep- tions these vines are an unmitigated nuisance. To them more than to anything else is due the impenetrableness of the tropical thicket. Of all sizes and all as tough as hemp lines, they creep along the ground, catching the traveler’s feet in a mesh from which release is possible only by cutting. They bind the under- brush together in a tough, elastic mat, which catches and holds on to every projection about the clothes, jerking revolvers from belts, and wrenching the rifle from the hand, or, hanging in trap- like loops from the trees, catch one about the neck, or constantly drag one’s hat from the head. The one exception noted above is the bejuco de agua or water vine. This vine, which looks like an old worn manilla rope, is to be found hanging from or twined about almost every large tree upon elevated ground, and to the hot and thirsty explorer it furnishes a most deliciously cool and clear draught. Seizing the vine in the left hand, a stroke of the machéte severs it a foot or two below the hand, and another quick stroke severs it again above the hand ; immediately a stream of clear, tasteless water issues from the lower end and may be caught in a dipper or dla native directly in the mouth. A three-foot length of vine two inches in diameter will furnish at least a pint of water. The order of cutting mentioned above must invariably be adhered to, otherwise, if the upper cut be made first, the thirsty novice will find he has in his hand only a piece of dry cork-like rope. It is practically impossible to judge of the age of the huge trees in these forests. Mighty with inherent strength, stayed to the Across Nicaragua with Transit and Machéte. 329 ground and to their fellows by the numerous vines, sheltered and protected also by their fellows from the shock of storms, their huge trunks have little to do except support the direct weight of the tops, and they rarely fall until they have reached the last stages of decay. Then some day the sudden impact of a ton or two of water dropped from some furious tropical shower, or the vibra- tions from a hurrying troop of monkeys, or the spring of a tiger, is too much for one of the giant branches heavy with its load of vines and parasites, and it gives way, breaking the vines in every direction and splitting a huge strip from the main trunk. With its supports thus broken and the whole weight of the remaining branches on one side, the weakened trunk sways for a moment then bows to its fate. The remaining vines break with the resist- less strain, and the old giant gathering velocity as he falls and dragging with him everything in his reach, crashes to the earth with a roar which elicits cries of terror from bird and _ beast, and goes booming through the quivering forest like the report of a heavy cannon.