The points of agreement between Prof. Kendall and my husband, and the proofs more recently found by Prof. Kendall in northwest England (a part of the country with which he is thoroughly familiar) of the correctness of my husband's views with regard to the origin of the interbedded marine and glacial deposits of Lancashire and Cheshire, will appear in full in the first appendix of the memoir on my husband's observations in Great Britain, which is now in the hands of the printer. I am, with respect,
The following letter, inclosed in Mrs. Lewis's letter, was copied by her from the work on The Terminal Moraine in Pennsylvania, by H. Carvill Lewis, introduction, p.li.
(Letter of Transmittal.)
Prof. J. P. Lesley, State Geologist.
Dear Sir: In transmitting to you the following notes on the terminal moraine, I desire to express my thanks to the Second Geological Survey, which has afforded me the opportunity to undertake an exploration which to me has been of the greatest interest.
I desire also to express my thanks to those citizens and railroad companies which have rendered assistance in the prosecution of my field work. Especially I am indebted to my friend Prof. George Frederick Wright, of Oberlin, Ohio, who for six weeks—about one third of the time employed in field work in 1881—gave me valuable assistance.[1] While we were together over a great part of the field, portions of the moraine in central Lycoming and southern Venango Counties were traced by him alone, and his experience in the glacial phenomena of New England has been of great value in correlating similar deposits in Pennsylvania.
Hoping the inclosed report will meet with your approval,
| I remain, very respectfully yours, |
| (Signed)H. Carvill Lewis. |
| Germantown, October 15, 1882. |
The other letter referred to by Mrs. Lewis is a letter from her published by Prof. Wright, to whom it was written, in Science of May 27, 1892.
THE ATTACK ON PROF. WRIGHT.
WE publish in this number an article by Major J. W. Powell, Director of the Geological Survey of the United States, in which much interesting information is given as to the problems, or some of them, which the Survey has taken in hand to solve, and as to the methods of investigation which have been employed. Major Powell's primary object is, however, to clear the Survey of the charge of having made a concerted and most bitter attack upon Prof. G. F. Wright's recently published book on Man and the Glacial Period, and in this respect we are compelled to say that we think his article a failure. We accept without the slightest reservation his disclaimer of any personal responsibility in the matter; but with the evidence before us we find it impossible to believe that a number of individuals, directly or indirectly connected with the Survey, did not, in a concerted manner, set themselves to attack Prof. Wright's book, and that in a spirit of personal hostility and spite far more than of zeal for scientific accuracy. Considering the nature of the language indulged in by Mr. W J McGee in regard not only to Prof. Wright's book, but to Prof. Wright himself, we think the director of the Survey might have spared a few words in which to express his personal disapprobation of it; but we look in vain in his article for anything of the kind. He admits that upon the publication of the work in question "his (Prof. Wright's) fellow-workers (on the survey) criticised the book in various scientific periodicals and sometimes spoke very disparagingly of it, as being unworthy of acceptance;" but he does not say that so prominent a member of the Survey as Mr. McGee penned and published an article
- ↑ I. c, in tracing the terminal moraine across Pennsylvania.—J. F. Lewis.
