Geographical Record

American Geographical Society

Geographical RecordSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Jul., 1942), pp. 488-501Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/210393 .

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

NORTH AMERICA

OIL POSSIBILITIES IN ALASKA AND WESTERN CANADA. A symposium, "Pos- sible Future Oil Provinces of the United States and Canada" (Tulsa, I94I), gives the results of a regional inquiry by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Two of the nine major regions treated are Alaska, by Philip S. Smith, and western Canada, by the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists. "The potential petroleum resources of Alaska are not known and they are not predictable with an approximation of accuracy from the facts now at our disposal. At present no petroleum is being produced from any Alaska field, and in the past there has been only one commercial field. Furthermore, the production of this field was measured in terms of a few thousand barrels a year and the gross value of its total production was less than three-quarters of a million dollars." However, the possibilities are far from being fully explored: for more than half of Alaska, or an area twice that of California, "data are entirely lacking." In three large areas "showings of oil and definitely favorable conditions and structures have been found." These are the Katalla- Yakataga area (the former commercial producer) east of Prince William Sound, a 350-

mile stretch on the east flank of the Alaska Peninsula, and a large area in the northwest that includes the 30,000-square-mile tract set aside by the government as the Naval Pe- troleum Reserve. Lack of transportation facilities and local supplies and labor make for high costs of development. "Climatic conditions are adverse.... [Yet] the writer feels that . . . the hazards are over-emphasized ... The bug-bear of Alaska cold is really far less terrify- ing than the enervation and unhealthfulness of the tropics."

In I939 Alaska imported nearly 53,000,000 gallons of heavy oils and nearly io,ooo,ooo

gallons of gasoline as well as illuminating oil and lubricating oil (P. S. Smith: Mineral In-

dustry of Alaska in I939, U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 926-A, I94I).

In the discussion of possibilities in western Canada special interest attaches to the unique oil field centered about McMurray, the so-called "Athabaska tar sands." These oil sands "have an area of IO,000 to 30,000 square miles, range from a few feet to 225 feet in thick-

ness, have a probable volume of 3 5 to IOO cubic miles, are saturated with from i to 25 per cent of oil by weight, and are estimated to contain at least ioo billion barrels of oil." The oil is present as "a film enveloping each sand grain. It is the sole cementing material ... its removal leaves the sand as free as that on a beach." Because of this peculiarity and the

viscosity of the oil, it cannot be produced from wells; washing with hot water is the most

feasible method of recovery. Under present conditions the only workable parts of the deposits are the benches along the valley walls of the streams. "The minable benches are

estimated to contain 5oo million to a billion barrels of oil." (See also S. C. Ells: Research Touches the North, Canadian Geogr. Journ., Vol. 24, I942, pp. 256-267.)

A MAP OF SOUTHAMPTON ISLAND. The January, I942, number of the Canadian

Geographical Journal contains a noteworthy map of Southampton Island, the large island that forms the western portal of Hudson Bay. This map is a revision in black and white of the one that appeared in the Geographical Journal for September, I936, and it accompanies "Remarks on the Physiography, Eskimo, and Mammals of Southampton Island" by T. H.



GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD 489

Manning (pp. I6-33). The map is on the scale i: i,650,000. Relief is shown by contours (ioo-foot intervals); astronomical positions are given; and Eskimo distribution, past (ruins) and present (campsites), is indicated. A helpful feature is the explanation of the new names, some of them after explorers and others who have participated in the development of the island. The contouring brings out well the division of the island topographically into a hilly northeastern gneissic area and southern and western areas of terraced limestone plateaus. The present campsites of the Eskimo population, which totals about I20, are on the south shore, with access to the trading post, Coral Harbour. The distribution of ruins is far wider. The island lies within the territory of the interesting Dorset culture (see Graham Rowley: The Dorset Culture of the Eastern Arctic, Amer. Anthropologist, Vol. 42 [N.S.], I940, pp. 490-499).

CITY OUTLIERS. Frequent observations have been made concerning the abnormal shape and structure of the cities of the United States. Recently attention has been directed to city enclaves (see Geogr. Rev., Vol. 3I, I94I, pp. 484 and 503). Just as there are rural areas entirely surrounded by urban developments, so there are urban fragments, or outliers, entirely detached from the permanent city. Many reasons can be given for such abnormal development. Intervening swamps and other physically undesirable areas sometimes afford the explanation. Cities attempt large annexations, and subsequent litigation by citizens not wishing to pay city taxes may result in this condition. Sometimes lands for airports, power plants, or water systems are purchased by cities and subsequently annexed. Frequently only the annexed line of a highway, railroad, or other strip of land attaches such areas to the city, or they may be connected only at one point.

BEATRICE WEST LAFAYETTE GAGE COUNTY TIPPECANOE-COUNTY -NEBRASKA " --IN DIANA--

NILES CENTER COOK COUNTY

--ILLINOIS-

FIG. i-Examples of city outliers.

On the basis of enumeration districts for the census of I940, during the taking of which the maps of all cities were inspected, it was found that 39 cities (total population, 728,0I6)

exhibited this phenomenon. The distribution by states of cities with outliers was thus: Wisconsin, 5; California, Illinois, Indiana, 4; Kansas, Ohio, 3; Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, 2; Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Washington, I.

The accompanying sketches exemplify the three conditions described: that of Beatrice (IO,883) presents urban fragments entirely detached from the city proper; that of Niles Center (7I72) shows an area attached only at one point; and that of West Lafayette (6270) is an example of an area attached to the city proper by a corridor.-C. E. BATSCHELET



490 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

SHEEP MIGRATIONS ON THE WESTERN RANGE. Six years ago the United States

Department of Agriculture published an important document, "The Western Range" (see

Geogr. Rev., Vol. 26, I936, pp. 69i-692), a report on one of the nation's most valuable but

greatly impoverished resources. Already steps had been taken to repair the damage of

years of neglect. In I934 a Grazing Service was established to administer more than a hundred million acres of public lands in the West. The problems of the range are many

and varied; one of prime importance is the effect of migrations-"sheep trailing represents one of the severest land uses known." A comprehensive study of that phase of the grazing industry has been made from data provided by the Grazing Service, the Forest Service,

and the Office of Indian Affairs (H. R. Hochmuth, E. R. Franklin, and Marion Clawson: Sheep Migration in the Intermountain Region, U. S. Dept. of Agric. Circular No. 624, I942).

To give some idea of the magnitude of the problem in the intermountain region, it

may be pointed out that in Utah in I938 the sales of mutton, lambs, and wool made up

about 2I per cent of the total agricultural income of the state; in Nevada the corresponding figure was 22 per cent. Most of the sheep are range sheep. Also included in the intermountain region are large parts of Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Oregon and small parts of Arizona and California. In this range area grazing is divided into three main categories:

winter range, summer range, and spring-fall range. Climate, which has the sheepman at

its mercy, is the delimiting factor, and the spring-fall range is the "buffer or critical portion

of the year's operation"; for the stay at the midway point is determined by the physical limitations of the summer and winter ranges. The volume and length of the migrations are

sometimes surprisingly great. "Twice each year more than ioo,ooo ewes pass over several

trails in Utah where topography forces concentration." Small bands usually do not travel more than 50 miles between ranges; large bands may travel more than a hundred miles;

few sheep are moved by rail or truck. Some excellent photographs illustrate the text, and it is accompanied by a striking map

in color (I: 2,500,000), showing types of land use in the intermountain region and the

movements of the flocks by volume, including railway shipments as well as trailing and

grazing movements. Small maps in the text complete the picture.

PLEISTOCENE GLACIATION OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. Since the time of I. C.

Russell's reconnaissance study of the Mono Valley more than fifty years ago it has been

recognized that former valley glaciers in this district expanded more than once and that

during later expansions some of them followed slightly different paths, in their terminal

parts, than the paths they had followed during earlier expansions. Explanations have been

essayed by Russell, McGee, and Blackwelder; and now John E. Kesseli seeks to clarify the

problem in a monograph "Studies in the Pleistocene Glaciation of the Sierra Nevada,

California" (Univ. of California Publs. in Geogr., Vol. 6, No. 8, I94I). As a basis for more

detailed study, Professor Kesseli made a pace-and-compass map, with form lines controlled

by elevations determined by altimeter, of an area of about 35 square miles.

Evidence of change of path exists in nine of the twelve valleys studied. Kesseli con-

cludes that not all the changes are attributable to the same cause. He suggests three hypotheses that together, he thinks, can explain all the changes he has recognized. According to

the first hypothesis, a valley glacier shrinks away, leaving a pair of lateral moraines con-



GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD 49I

nected by a terminal, the whole having a hairpin-shaped ground plan. During a long pause in its shrinking, the glacier builds a recessional end moraine connecting the two laterals. This moraine is built up so high that meltwater from the glacier is obliged to escape sideways, trenching one of the laterals. During further deglaciation the trench is greatly widened by the stream, so that when the glacier, reexpanding, returns, it is deflected through the wide gap in the lateral moraine.

By the second hypothesis, really only a variant of the first, the recessional moraine and its related lateral are built up unsymmetrically, with far more bulk on one side of the valley than on the other. Thus, even though no wide stream cut has been made, when the glacier returns after deglaciation, the persisting asymmetric moraines guide the new ice laterally across the low oldest lateral.

According to the third hypothesis, the older glacier terminates in a glacial lake. As the glacier shrinks, its meltwater streams build a delta fan into the lake. During a succeeding interglacial time the lake surface falls, and the shrunken stream follows a lateral radius of the delta fan and gradually excavates a capacious valley along this radius. When the glacier later returns, it follows this interglacial stream valley and is thus deflected from a more or less straight course.

All these hypotheses seem physically possible. They do not in themselves make any close quantitative implications as to the length of time between the glacial expansions, though obviously the first and third demand more interglacial erosion than the second. Kesseli believes that in some places the evidence favors interglacial intervals of the order of length of interglacial ages but that, for actual correlation, other kinds of evidence must be used.

Terms are clearly stated, though some may take exception to two of them: The author nowhere explains what he means by the "bed" of a glacier, though he uses this term frequently and speaks of "superposed beds." Also, he refers to an interglacial age as an "inter- glaciation," in the reviewer's opinion a contradiction in terms.-RICHARD FOSTER FLINT

STATUS OF THE INDIANS OF MEXICO. Professor Santiago Magariiios Torres would have found less difficulty in preparing his work on the legal background of the agrarian revolution in Mexico (El problema de la tierra en Mejico y la Constitucion Socialista de I9I7, Madrid, I932) if he had been able to consult two important legal compilations now available. In "Doctrinas y realidades en la legislacion para los Indios" (Departamento de Asuntos Indlgenas, Mexico, I940) Genaro V. Vasquez has assembled a vast array of ordi- nances affecting the life of the Indian under Spain. A decree of 155i, for instance, permitted Indians to elect their own alcaldes and even to own and operate their own mines; that of 1589 forbade the advancing of money or goods to the Indians, in an attempt to destroy the tienda de raya and its malevolent influence. Interesting to those who feel the 8-hour day to be a modern idea is the law of I593 which ordered that workers work only "eight hours conveniently spaced."

Manuel Fabila, in Volume i of his "Cinco siglos de legislacion agraria en Mexico" (Banco Nacional de Credito Agricola SA, Mexico, I94I), has compiled the important agrarian laws affecting Mexico from the first law of Ferdinand V, in I513, to the effect that "to the new settlers be given land and Indians 'en encomienda,' " through the whole




history of Mexico, including the Agrarian Code of September 23, I940. His work includes

an exhaustive bibliography and is basic for any study of land tenure in Latin America.

The Indian is rapidly-in terms of human history-being incorporated, economically,

socially, and politically, into the life of the nation, a process furthered by such a brilliant

student and statesman as the late Mexican Ambassador to Peru, Sr. Moises Saenz.

The desire of former President Cairdenas that Mexico have fewer Indians and more

Mexicans is being realized; indeed, already the word "Mexican" (Mejicano) is not applied

exclusively to an inhabitant of Mexico City. Perhaps the greater the regional cultural

autonomy, the greater the cohesive force of the central government.-RAYMOND E. CRIST

SOUTH AMERICA

THE URUS OF THE DESAGUADERO RIVER. About ten kilometers south of the outlet

of Lake Titicaca the Desaguadero River widens into a shallow lake, where giant totora reeds

grow to heights above one's head to form a perfect wilderness upon the water. Unique indeed

is the vegetation-filled lake, I2 kilometers in length and $ kilometers at greatest width, and

unique also is the small group of humans who depend on it for their living. For at the village

of Hanco Haque, on the left bank of the Desaguadero at the south end of this lake, are the

remnants of a vanishing race quite different from the commonly known highland Indians of

Bolivia, and presenting an absorbing anthropological riddle (Weston La Barre: The Uru of

the Rio Desaguadero, Amer. Anthropologist, Vol. 43 [N.S.], I94I, PP. 493-522).

Possibly Arawakan in their linguistic affiliation, the Urus form a distinct linguistic en-

clave in the midst of wide areas of Aymara- and Quechua-speaking peoples. Their nearest

language congeners are east of the Cordillera Real, far beyond the Bolivian Altiplano. It is

difficult to understand what prompted the ancestors of this tribe to leave their eastern tropical

forests in order to migrate to the western outposts of the cold, barren, wind-swept plateau

with its 3 800 meters of altitude. Study of the language of this group dates back to a book published in Naples in I607,

containing about thirty pages in the "Puquina" tongue, with translations into Aymara,

Quechua, Spanish, and Latin. Puquina and Uru have been considered of the same stock by

some authorities, just as the Urus are believed to be linked to the vanishing Chipayas of

Carangas in southwestern Bolivia. Here there are differences of opinion, but one fact seems

to be established and supported by all the evidence at hand, that the Urus are not related to

either the Aymaras or the Quechuas. Writers in many languages have used the adjectives "brutal," "inhuman," "rude," and

"stupid" in describing the Urus, but La Barre found them a "cordial and smiling people,"

quite in contrast with their quarrelsome Aymara neighbors. However, long contact between

the Aymaras and the Urus has had its effect on Uru culture; in fact, there is now intermixing

of the two peoples, since Uru males outnumber the females and have been taking Aymara

wives. The Uru is even shorter than the short-statured Aymara, the average being not much

more than five feet for adult males. A more striking difference is in the nose: the Uru nose is

relatively small and depressed at the root; the Aymara nose is very large in all dimensions

and continues the line of the forehead in many cases. The Urus do their fishing with the aid of spears and by building fish fences. They use

balsas made from the giant reeds. Nearly all Urus have quantities of this material in its




various stages toward the manufacture of balsas, and in spare moments the men braid grasses into tough ropes to bind the balsas together. The life of a balsa is from one to two years, but this may be prolonged by frequent removal from the water and thorough drying.

The Urus find other uses for the totora stalks in making sails for the balsas, fish weirs, mats for roof covering, floor and sitting mats, rafters, and doors. These people hunt aquatic birds by disguising themselves in bunches of reeds at early morning, so that they can approach close enough to the birds, still sluggish from the cold of night, to seize them by the feet. The few cattle of the Urus spend most of the day partly immersed in the water of the lake as they browse on the roots of the totora.- WILLIAM E. RUDOLPH

A REGIONAL DIVISION OF BRAZIL. "Divisao regional do Brasil," by Fabio M. S. Guimaraes (Rev. Brasileira de Geogr., Vol. 3, I94I, PP. 3I8-373), is a discussion of the theory of regions as applied to the division of Brazilian territory.

Most geographers that have written on Brazil, and even the government agencies that have succeeded one another in the field of statistical compilation, have used somewhat different regional divisions. The fundamental reason for this is the fact that the purposes for which regions are made determine the kinds of regions most desirable; and as the purposes are many, the kinds of regions are many. A region is a geographical generalization: that is, it is an extent of territory within which the general likenesses are emphasized and the differences are minimized. What likenesses are selected for emphasis and what differences are minimized depend on the objective.

Professor Guimaraes insists that the regions should be based on a combination of physical characteristics, that they should be as large as possible, and that they should be bounded by definite lines. He quotes the work of the distinguished Brazilian geographer Padre Geraldo Pauwels (O conceito da regiao natural e uma tentativa de estabelecer as regioes naturais do Brasil, Rev. Inst. Hist. e Geogr. do Rio Grande do Sul, Vol. 6, I926,

PP. 9-67). For the organization of a series of statistical compilations running over several decades,

the relatively unchanging natural region has many advantages over the human and economic regions, with their shifting outlines. The newer techniques of regional study, however, are perhaps trending away from the highly generalized natural or geographic region- recognizing it as chiefly of pedagogical value-and trending toward the comparison of several regional patterns, each drawn on the basis of one set of criteria. The attempt to recognize combinations of several elements often has the effect of obscuring the realities rather than throwing additional light on them. Furthermore, although it must be agreed that for statistical purposes the lines bounding the regions must be definite, as soon as the lines are drawn their importance must be minimized, for no such lines exist in nature. The chief difficulty with the regional method has perhaps resulted from an overemphasis on the significance of boundaries.

Some of the difficulties encountered when natural regions are formed from groups of states are illustrated by the maps of Figure i. The only complete agreement in the nine systems is in the grouping of Acre, Amazonas, and Para in one unit, but even in this region the systems differ in the disposition of the borderline states of Maranhao and Piaui. Further- more, the states of Baja and Minas Gerais are bisected by a major natural division: the




southern and southeastern parts of Minas Gerais and the southern and southeastern parts of Bala are rainy, heavily forested regions; the northern and western parts of both these states lie in the interior region of scrub forests and savanas, marked by a long dry season and a certain broad similarity of surface features. No system that places the whole of Baja or the whole of Minas Gerais in one natural region can be entirely satisfactory. Among the systems

ANDRE REBOUCAS (10 REG16ES)

R C ELISEE RECLUS X | (8 REGIdES)

3;v1 DELGADO DE CARVALHO (S REGIOES)

/ |PIERRE DENIS

CO NS.TCNADESEONL.EMAES

W / | EZEOUINSBRASDE6EOGR'EESTAT.I _

FIG. I-Proposed regional divisions of Brazil, reproduced on a reduced scale from Guimaraes's study (p. 344).

presented, oniy that of Pierre Denis departs from state boundaries, and this system includes parts of Baja in three regions. That the state can be so partitioned is a more significant geographic fact than that the state as a whole might be grouped with Minas Gerais.

Another difficulty is encountered on the southern border of Sao Paulo State and the




northern border of Parana'. Somewhere near this political boundary there are two climatic boundaries of major importance: the northern limit of frosts and the southern limit of tropical rainfall (with a marked dry season in winter). Any system of natural regions that gives emphasis to the climatic differences, and to the vegetation differences that accompany the climatic ones, must separate Sao Paulo from Parana'. On the other hand, if the system of natural regions places emphasis first on the geologic character of the country, then Sao Paulo can (with disregard for details) be grouped with Parana', since both are largely com- posed of stratified formations associated with the great Parana' Plateau.

A different solution may be reached by proceeding on a different principle. Granting the strength of the argument that, for statistical purposes, groups of states must be selected, the groups might be selected on the basis of the settlement pattern rather than the natural character, which, as we have pointed out, is too diverse to fit into the straight jacket of any political pattern. The pattern of population is arranged quite simply with reference to the political areas; and if the interior sertoes are included with the zones of concentrated settlement near the coast with which they are closely related in terms of population pattern and population movement, then the changes in the next few decades that may appear on the map of Brazil will not significantly change the proposed grouping of the states. If this principle is accepted, the division would most closely agree with that of the Conselho Tecnico de Economia e Finanqas; it would differ from it, however, in including Piaui with the northeastern region and Sao Paulo with its hinterlands, Mato Grosso and Goiaz. -PRESTON E. JAMES

EUROPE

THE GEOGRAPHICAL PERSONALITY OF FRANCE. "La personnalite geographique de la France," the first part of Vidal de la Blache's classic "Le tableau de la geographie de la France," has been republished by the Manchester University Press, I94I (an English transla- tion by H. C. Brentnall appeared in I928). It comes as an opportune reminder that "France is an idea necessary to civilization," as Charles Morgan put it in a recent address (Proc. Royal. Instn. of Great Britain, Vol. 3I, Part 3, I94I, PP. 373-389). Dr. H. J. Fleure contributes a preface, addressed to "British students trying to understand France." We quote from one of his paragraphs: "Vidal de la Blache warns us against thinking of Britain, France and Germany as abstractions; he rightly says that one cannot appreciate the growth of British ideas save in relation to our island; they are not ideas to be exported arbitrarily, and we need to remem- ber the same point concerning France."

THE LAND OF BRITAIN. It is gratifying to note the arrival (June 3) of a batch of the descriptive memoirs-ten for English counties, three for Scotland, one for the Isle of Man -prepared to accompany the map sheets of the Land Utilisation Survey of Britain (see L. D. Stamp: Land Utilization Survey of Britain, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 24, I934, pp. 646-6S0). The field work on which the reports are based was in general completed before the war, but one or two gaps remained to be filled, a not too easy task, for the surveyors were likely to be regarded with suspicion by zealous country folk, and the police had to smooth the path of research! Writing and editing for the most part were carried out under difficulties, and some of the reports have been curtailed. The most substantial are those dealing with




the West Riding of Yorkshire, Devonshire, and Shropshire. The West Riding comprises many land-use types, with moorland and fertile vales as well as the great conurbation of the woolen-manufacturing towns and the coal-mining areas. Of particular interest is a section on land use a century and a half ago. Devon offers a contrast. "If one excludes the cathedral city of Exeter (a county borough with a population of 66,029) and the City of Plymouth (a county borough with 208,182 people) the county is almost entirely rural." To this report are appended summaries of types of farming in the southern and southwestern counties and of the Grassland Survey of the same area. This Survey, incidentally, is part of a Grassland Survey of England and Wales organized by Sir George Stapledon and Mr. William Davies in I939-I940. (The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has published a grassland map in color on the scale of I: I,700,000.) Shropshire, on an old cultural boundary, offers a fruitful field of research in many directions. "It is a county well known to literateur, archaxologist, geologist, historian, geographer, and agriculturalist."

In all these reports statistics are brought down to I938 inclusive and thus give a picture of the land on the eve of the war. The field sheets are reported to have proved especially valuable in connection with the wartime agricultural program.

AFRICA

FAUNAL HISTORY OF EAST AFRICAN ISLANDS. Off the east coast of Africa lie three islands, none more than 30 miles out. Mafia, the southernmost, and Zanzibar are on the continental shelf, well within the ioo-meter line. Pemba, the northernmost, is. isolated by a channel reaching 700 or 800 meters and has been said to be much the oldest of the three- dating back to the Miocene, whereas the other two were not separated before the Pleistocene. The antiquity of Pemba was supposedly confirmed by the presence of certain birds that had their nearest relatives in Madagascar. The faunas of Zanzibar and Mafia are much like those of the adjacent mainland.

R. E. Moreau and R. H. W. Pakenham (The Land Vertebrates of Pemba, Zanzibar, and Mafia: A Zoo-Geographical Study, Proc. Zool. Soc. of London, Ser. A, Vol. 10, I94I, Pp.

97-I28) now present new and fairly complete lists of land-living vertebrates for each of the islands and discuss their past history. Chances of dispersal by air, water, and human agency are weighed. Prevailing winds and drift of ocean water are none too favorable for natural rafts from coastal rivers, and least of all for Pemba. In addition to rats, a few species of other mammals, birds, and one serpent have been introduced by man from Asia, others no doubt from Africa.

On Pemba 23 species of reptiles and amphibia have been reliably recorded, on Zanzibar 62, on Mafia 32. Endemics are few: one species of gecko and one frog on Zanzibar, two possibly distinct races of snakes on Pemba and Zanzibar. The differences among amphibia are surprisingly slight.

Birds are far better represented: 72 species on Pemba, I02 on Zanzibar, 69 on Mafia. Yet the coast of the mainland has 246. Many families of mainland birds are unrepresented; Mafia has not one endemic race of bird, Zanzibar only three, Pemba three races and two endemic species. One of the Pemba birds is a scops owl, Otus pembaensis, allied to one of Madagascar; another is a fruit pigeon, Vinago pembaensis; and a swallow found on Pemba is found also in Madagascar. Such are the tenuous Mascarene resemblances.




Of mammals, Pemba has only I7 species, Zanzibar 39, Mafia only I2 SO far as is known. Pemba has one endemic species, a fruit bat (Pteropus voeltzkowi), and one endemic race of monkey. Zanzibar has a viverrid (Bdeogale tenuis) peculiar to it, one duiker (Cephalophus adersi), and four endemic subspecies. Mafia has no peculiar mammal, but its fruit bat (Pteropus comorensis) is of Mascarene distribution.

The vertebrate fauna of the islands, barring introductions, is predominantly East African. The endemic species on Pemba are all flying animals, and their Mascarene affmities are therefore not so important; moreover, some other Mascarene invaders may have vanished again because of competition by African species. Zanzibar and Mafia can have been cut off only in the Pleistocene. Against any Miocene isolation of Pemba, Moreau and Pakenham oppose the low degree of endemism and the lack of any possible survivor of a Miocene fauna. Several subspecies are found on both Pemba and Zanzibar; and the proportion of amphibia in their faunas is much the same, despite the barrier of salt water. The weight of evidence for Pemba thus favors only a Pleistocene separation and no Mascarene connection.-JAMES P. CHAPIN

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

SHIFTINGS OF SEA FLOORS AND COAST LINES. A petrologist, a paleontologist, and a petroleum geologist, each eminent in American science, have contributed three short papers to make up the booklet under the foregoing title for the University of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, I941). Professor Norman L. Bowen, in discussing "Physical Controls in Adjustments of the Earth's Crust," emphasizes that, whether crustal deformation is caused by contraction of the earth as a result of cooling, invasion of liquid magma, internal convection currents, or migration of continents, it is certain that each of these "is either caused or controlled by the earth's temperature gradient." Important in this respect is the lack of knowledge of temperature distribution within the earth. Most hypotheses depend on extrapolation into the depths of the earth's interior of that relatively minute fraction of the temperature gradient which it is possible to observe near the surface. Earthquake waves by their velocity at various depths yield some clues to the character of the material deep in the earth. Knowledge of the earth's interior is so deficient, however, that some students deduce it to be quite liquid; others find that it is as rigid as steel. It may be necessary, says Professor Bowen, "to turn away from a basaltic liquid of whatever origin as the source of mobility of the sub-crust and to consider rather that its mobility may be due to recrystallization under stress in crystalline shells."

In "Geologic Changes and Structures as Revealed by Submarine Cores from the At- lantic" Dr. Joseph A. Cushman tells of a few of the fascinating results and conclusions paleontologists have derived from studies of cores from the sea bottom obtained by the Piggot gun. The chemical, geologic, and organic contents of these cores, some of which were as much as ten feet in length drawn up from depths of more than two miles, yield many surprising facts. One of the most striking finds was the occurrence of shallow-water foraminifera in a core from 2500 fathoms in the Bartlett Deep north ofJamaica. Studies of the sediments and the contained organisms in cores taken between Newfoundland and Ireland showed that in the time represented several warm periods alternated with much colder periods. They are interpreted by Dr. Cushman to reflect several known advances and




retreats of the polar ice during Wisconsin time. Relying on the known environment of the minute marine organisms, which some students may feel is yet inadequate to justify entirely some of the author's conclusions, Dr. Cushman believes that study of certain additional cores may make it possible to deduce the relative thicknesses of the Pleistocene ice and the various positions of the Gulf Stream.

Under the title "Molengraaff River: A Drowned Pleistocene Stream and Other Asian Evidences Bearing upon the Lowering of Sea Level during the Ice Age" Dr. Roy E. Dicker- son presents an interesting brief of his important monograph "Distribution of Life in the Philippines" (Philippine Bur. of Sci. Monograph 21, I928). After summing up the evidence drawn from the drowned Molengraaff River (a stream supposed to have flowed over the continental shelf between Sumatra, Borneo, and Malaya during times of lower sea level), the inferred oceanography of the Sulu Sea, and other hydrography of the Philippine region as correlated with certain endemic species of birds of the Philippines, Dr. Dickerson con- cludes that "the sea level was lowered over 240 feet during the last glaciation but not as much as 300 feet." It is true that the Sulu Sea is a mediterranean sea below a certain threshold depth, but this depth is not 689 feet, as the writer states, but more nearly I500 feet, as one can easily determine from Coast and Geodetic Survey charts. Dr. Dickerson's conclusion that if sea level were lowered 700 feet the Sulu Sea would be freshened and lose its marine life will therefore require some modification. It may also raise other questions as to postu- lated meteorologic and oceanographic conditions of the past that may or may not have been favorable to a fresh-water mediterranean Sulu Sea. (The same, of course, may be said for the true Mediterranean Sea.) The rather close limits he has given for sea-level lowering have already been questioned by some students. Others may question the dating of this evidence, especially that based on endemic bird species.

Current events have focused interest on the geography of the Far East, especially the Netherlands Indies, Malaya, and the Philippines. For this reason Dr. Dickerson's original monograph might now be re-read with profit by many students.

Dr. Bowen's concluding statement might well have been the epilogue of the booklet: "No concept of earth structure having unquestionable merits is to be rejected on account of an apparent discrepancy with facts as they are noiv understood. There are several hypotheses of merit and the problem is one of reconciliation."-PAUL A. SMITH

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

CONSERVATION: OLD AND NEW. "Conservation is a very old idea. Centuries before America was discovered, Chinese scholars wrote comprehensively and understand- ingly of it. Yet China has been one of the most backward nations in practicing conservation," say Bushrod W. Allin and Ellery A. Foster (The Challenge of Conservation, in Farmers in a Changing World, Yearbook of Agriculture 1940, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, I940, PP. 4i6-428). Although continued research and the systematic evaluation of problems and remedial techniques are now, and always will be, essential elements in any intel- ligent conservation program, these authors hasten to point out that in the United States, "as in China, the problem has not been lack of scientific knowledge of what to do so much as difficulty in getting the principles of conservation accepted and the simple effective conservation measures practiced."




In a paper read before the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Alfred B. Sears remarked that "soil depletion and consequent social discontent are not new in American history, nor can they be dissociated from the main political and economic issues.... The historical profession, with notable exceptions, has neglected this vital issue in its teaching and writing. It has been too much concerned with the deserts of the Orient rather than the Dust Bowl of today, with the poor whites of I 840 rather than those of I940, and with the bread and circuses of ancient Rome rather than the bread and cinemas of the New Deal.... Soil depletion is a world-wide social, economic, and political problem, and one which challenges every historian who is as interested in the present as in the past" (The Desert Threat in the Southern Great Plains, Agricultural History, Vol. I5, I94I, pp. I-II). As J. R. Whitaker puts it: "One of the major problems of the Twentieth Century is the shrinkage of the natural resource base of communities, regions, and nations" (Sequence and Equilibrium in Destruction and Conservation of Natural Resources, Annals Assn. of Amer. Geogrs., Vol. 3I, I94I, pp. I29-I44). The citizenry of this period has found, "with the disappearance of the frontier, that men may no longer swarm from worn-out farms to virgin lands, from cut-over barrens to uncut wilderness, or from stripped mines to new, rich mineral deposits. On the contrary, men must now look forward to the building of sound and enduring farm lands, forest lands, grass lands, recreational lands, or city lands in the community where they now live" (L. A. Wolfanger: Resources-Pioneers-Conser- vation-Citizens, iMichigan State College Extension Bull. 219, I940).

It is becoming increasingly clear that any attempt to establish adequate conservational techniques, directed toward stemming the tide of resource "shrinkage," must be based on a careful definition of the past sequences of resource use and on a historical analysis of the economic, social, and political influences involved in the destructive exploitation that has taken place. The validity of this statement is admirably supported by a recent study carried out at the Harvard Forest through the combined efforts of an ecologist and an economic historian (H. M. Raup and R. E. Carlson: The History of Land Use in the Harvard Forest, Harvard Forest Bull. No. 20, I941). "The central premise of the study is that present-day forest management cannot be carried on effectively without some knowledge of past land use. It follows in turn that land use cannot be understood without some knowledge of the town economy in which forestry, farming, and local industry were interrelated activities."

The project, which was executed with meticulous care, involved the establishment of the size and position of the shifting titles of land over the period during which the some 2300 acres now making up the Harvard Forest were in private hands (I733-I907) and a study of the complete succession of land-use histories for all individual farms and fields. This has enabled the authors to bring together invaluable data relating to the character and local distribution of the pre-colonial forest.

Not only is it of conservational importance to re-create the stages of past development with the greatest possible accuracy, but it is imperative to make careful and representative inventories of the current scene, which is to be regarded as but a single phase in a continuing record of dynamic change. The currently appearing studies of "Erosion and Related Land Use Conditions" of the Soil Conservation Service (Erosion Surveys) are directed primarily toward this latter purpose. More than twenty investigations have already been carried out in selected areas. The reports consist of a comprehensive text, dealing with the areal funda-




ment, economic development, agriculture, and soil erosion, and accompanying maps, which show in great detail (through the use of a numerical and alphabetical system) the nature and extent of erosion, the degree of slope, and the dominant type of soil. Additional sym- bols differentiate cultivated and urban land, idle land, pastureland, and woodland. The maps accompanying some of the more recent reports bear revised combinations of sym- bols, which also delimit "classes of land according to use capability" (i, suitable for cultivation without special practices; 2, suitable for cultivation with simple practices; 3, suitable for cultivation with complex or intensive practices; 4, not suitable for continuous cultivation; 5, not suitable for cultivation).

One serious stumbling block to progress has been the lack of advisedly uniform regula- tions in cases in which conservation problems extend across state boundary lines. For example, as Charles E. Jackson points out, American fisheries cannot be adequately protected in the face of present interstate "conflicts as to size limits, seasons, and conservation factors in general" (Fish Refuse to Recognize Man's Boundary Lines, Trans. Sixth North American Wildlife Conference, Memphis, 1941, Amer. Wildlife Inst., Washington, I94I,

pp. 59-65). However, despite the existence of numerous unsolved problems of this nature, advances have been made in instituting legislation essential to a well conceived national conservation program. For example, state governments have taken and are taking part, in the establishment of better land-use practices ("State Legislation for Better Land Use, A Special Report by an Interbureau Committee of the United States Department of Agri- culture," Washington, I94I).

At the Fifth North American Wildlife Conference one of the leading panel discussions centered around the problem of "selling wildlife to the public." The principal conclusion reached by the conservationists present on that occasion seems to have been summed up by the statement that "the only effective sales campaign is education" (Trans. Fifth North American Wildlife ConJerence, Washington, 1940, Washington, I94). A noteworthy con-

tribution to the growing literature devoted to this purpose is "Wildlife Conservation" (Macmillan, New York, I94I), by Ira N. Gabrielson, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior. Of particular interest is Dr. Gabriel- son's discussion of the close relationships between the conservation programs designed to ensure the lasting productive value of the soil, water, forest, and wildlife resources. For

example, he emphasizes the importance of a type of forest management that is mutually advantageous to forest and wildlife productivity. (A few of the many problems of wildlife management that closely ally this field of endeavor to other major branches of conservation activity are also suggested in the following discussions: L. A. Davenport: Timber vs. Wildlife,Journ. of Forestry, Vol. 39, I94I, pp. 66i-666; E. H. Graham: Wildlife Manage- ment as a Part of Soil Conservation, U. S. Soil Conservation Service, I94I; R. K. Grater: Wildlife and Reservoir Development, U. S. Natl. Park Service Yearbook 1941, Washington, I941, pp. 40-42; C. R. Wickard: Wildlife's Share in the Use of the Land, Trans. Sixth North American Wildlife Conference, Memphis, 1941, pp. I2-I5.)

The importance of the interdependent association of all forms of life in a given region has too frequently been disregarded. However, even more common has been man's failure to recognize the fact that he is himself intimately involved in the symbiotic patterns of

the area in which he lives. As Professor William S. Cooper has recently put it (at the Uni-



GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD 50I

versity of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference): "Man has in the course of his evolution developed a serious psychosis, which in Freudian terms may be called a superiority complex. . . . A super-terrestrial psychoanalyst, called in for consultation, would doubtless advise the following corrective procedure . . .: that man school himself to realize that after all he is but a single species of animal, albeit an important one, involved with all other organisms, both plants and animals, in a complex web of community relations, where man is far more dependent upon his fellows than they are upon him" (Man's Use and Abuse of Native Vegetation, in Conservation of Renewable Natural Resources, by Raphael Zon, W. S. Cooper, and others, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, I94I, pp. 5-i8).

In contrast with Dr. Gabrielson's book, which is largely confined to a discussion of renewable resources, the volume entitled "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (by L. S. Mitchell, Eleanor Bowman, and Mary Phelps; Macmillan, New York, I940) presents an examination of three nonrenewable resources-soil, coal, and oil. In this book, which is dedicated to the somewhat unusual thesis that "both thinking and feeling are necessary for the under- standing of the problems of natural resources," the authors "are juxtaposing a variety of forms-from verse and dramatic images and episodes to statistics and charts." They have put "fact and image, intellectual and emotional appeal, sources and interpretations, under one cover in the hope-possibly too naive-that what belongs together in one head may belong together in one book." The intent of this volume lies very close to Dr. Gabrielson's statement that one of the greatest needs is "to have more of the population understand conservation and to get it so fixed in their minds that it will become part of their philosophy of life."

The growing importance of the conservation idea in the formal educational curriculum is indicated by the recent appearance of a number of comprehensive texts dealing with the entire range of conservational activities. Such volumes as "Our Natural Resources and Their Conservation," edited by A. E. Parkins and J. R. Whitaker (2nd edit., John Wiley, New York, I939), "Conservation in the United States," by members of the faculty of Cornell University (Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, I939), and "Conservation of Na- tional Resources," by George T. Renner (Wiley, New York, I942), fill the college need for an authentic and concise presentation of conservation problems. The spreading recog- nition of the place that the teaching of conservation can and should have on less advanced educational levels has stimulated the publication of somewhat more elementary but none- theless basic treatments of similar materials. "Conservation and Citizenship," by George T. Renner and William H. Hartley (D. C. Heath, Boston, I940), and "Conservation of American Resources," by Charles N. Elliott (Turner E. Smith & Co., Atlanta, I940), are two contributions in this field. All these texts perform the valuable educational function of bringing into sharp focus the basic conservational principles on which future national development must be built.



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