The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. II., No. 2, May, 1890 — John Shaqi
The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. II., No. 2, May, 1890Various
Science
The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. II., No. 2, May, 1890
Various
Geography -- Periodicals
_Supplementary Note_.--Professor Albrecht Penck of Vienna has published
a valuable essay on "Die Bildung der Durchbruchsthäler" (Verein zur
Verbreitung naturwissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse in Wien, 1888) from
which the following historical notes are taken to illustrate the
gradual overthrow of the fracture theory of cross valleys by the
introduction of the idea that rivers can sometimes cut down their beds
as fast as the land is uplifted or upfolded beneath them.
Ferd. Römer. Die jurassische Weserkette. Zeit. d. deutsch. geol.
Gesellsch., ix, 1857, 581. The deepening of valleys by rivers and
streams must keep pace with the gradual elevation of continental
masses. The Porta Westphalica has thus been cut by the Weser in the
Wiehen-Weser range, in the northeastern part of Westphalia.
A similar suggestion was briefly made a little later by Bischoff, to
explain the gorge of the Rhine below Bingen. Lehrb. d. chem. u. phys.
Geol., 2 Aufl., i, 374, 382; and again independently for the same river
by Dücker. Zeitschr. d. Gesellsch. f. Erdk. Berlin, v, 1870, 183.
Gümbel explained the course of the Altmühl, a branch of the Danube
which crosses the Frankish Jura in northwestern Bavaria, by supposing
its course was defined before and maintained during the deformation of
the range. Bavaria: Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern,
1865, iii, 756.
Medlicott recognized that many streams flowing from the inner Himalaya
are older than the outer ranges, and showed reason for believing that
they held their places while the outer ranges were tilted up. Mem.
Geol. Survey India, iii, 1865, 6, 122, 127, 157, 163. A little later,
he applied the same explanation to some Alpine rivers. The Alps and the
Himalayas, a geological comparison. Q. Journ. Geol. Soc., London, xiv,
1868, 47, 52.
Wynne explains the Indus and adjacent rivers as of greater age than the
elevation of the Salt Range in northwestern India. Mem. Geol. Survey
India, xi, 1875; xiv, 1878.
Rütimeyer recognized the possibility of uprising ranges being cut down
by transverse rivers, but regarded the occurrence as a rare one,
thinking that lakes would generally appear behind such a growing
barrier. He emphasized the idea that erosion works upstream, which Löwl
has later developed farther. Ueber Thal- und Seebildung, Basel, 1869; 2
Aufl., 1874.
Tietze regarded the persistence of rivers across growing ranges as the
rule rather than the exception. Die Bildung von Querthälern, Jahrb. d.
k. k. Geol. Reichsanst., 1878, 581.
Hayden was perhaps the first to point out in this country the
antecedent origin of certain headwaters of the Missouri in Montana,
where the mountain ranges are frequently cut across by deep cañons.
Amer. Journ. Science, xxxiii, 1862, 305. Hayden's Sixth Report, 1872
(1873), 85.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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