American Geographical Society

Physiographic Provinces of North AmericaThe Physiographic Provinces of North America by Wallace W. AtwoodReview by: Arthur David HowardGeographical Review, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1940), pp. 518-519Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/210263 .

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5I8 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

no room for an adequate treatment of erosion problems in other parts of the world, nor is it possible to give in one chapter a well documented argument about the possible relationships between the effects of soil erosion and the decline of civilizations.

To speak of the "current erosion crisis in North America" may be to show only a little too much ardor for the cause; to assert that the principal causes of this crisis lie in the countries in which American crop and farm practices originated is inadmis- sible. It can hardly be considered the fault of European agriculture that most of the American settlers failed to realize the differences in geographic conditions between marine Western Europe and continental America; furthermore, the crops that probably caused a respectable share of the damage-corn and cotton-did not come from lands across the Atlantic.

In some of the beginning chapters the terminology might have been improved by reference to the principal works on physiography and physical geology. For example, the generally accepted opposite of "aggradation" is "degradation," not " abrasion "; and " abrasion of consolidated rocks " probably refers to what is usually called "corrasion." In the chapter on "Erosion and Runoff" numerous examples are given of soil losses from different types of farmland; but there is no critical dis- cussion of the methods by which, and the conditions under which, the figures were obtained.

However, these are only minor criticisms. The book represents an immense amount of work and is based on years of experience. It is the most nearly complete repertory available of the various types of soil erosion and methods of conservation in this country. The chapters on these methods, especially, are a mine of information for both the practical farmer and the student. Much of the last part of the book (pp. 6I 7-867) consists of a valuable regional discussion of soil-erosion problems, which should be read by all who are interested in the geography of the United States.

WILLIAM VAN ROYEN

PHYSIOGRAPHIC PROVINCES OF NORTH AMERICA

WALLACE W. ATWOOD. The Physiographic Provinces of North America. xvi and 536 pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., bibliogrs., index. Ginn & Co., Boston, New York, etc., I940. $4.80. 9'2 x 6'4 inches.

In this volume, North America is divided into ten provinces, each of which includes one or more of the provinces outlined in the revised (3rd) edition of Fenneman's "Physiographic Divisions of the United States" (Annals Assn. of Amer. Geogrs., Vol. I8, I928& PP. 261-353). Here, however, the extensions of these provinces into Canada, Alaska, and Mexico are also considered. The discussion of each province contains: (I) a general description, covering the location, size, and shape of the province, the general appearance of the landscape, and the boundary relations; (2) an account of structures and materials; (3) a description of special features; (4) an out- line of the physical history; and (5) a resume of human adjustment.

There is an unusually large number of illustrations, among which are several remarkable aerial photographs and a number of excellent pen-and-ink drawings, including a large physiographic diagram of the United States. Unfortunately, so

much detail has been included in this beautifully drafted diagram that some of the major features of the landscape are partly obscured.

In comparison with other regional physiographies, this volume places greater emphasis on ecology. The text includes references to flora and fauna, the cultural pattern, and the settlement and development of the regions. The geographical point of view is also evident in the discussion of the term "province," in which the

stress is placed on topography rather than on structure. Similarly, the term "pla- teau," which for most physiographers implies horizontal rocks, is here also applied to regions of truncated metamorphic rocks (Yukon Plateau). The inclusion of the

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GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS 5I9

Great Basin with the Cordilleran Plateaus is unusual, inasmuch as neither horizontal rock structure nor levelness of surface characterizes it.

If the text is intended primarily for students of geography, the emphasis on geo- graphical factors and the inclusion of detailed explanations of such elementary geological concepts as cuestas, piracy, and the stream cycle are understandable. Yet the use of such terms as " crystallization, " " metamorphism, " and " glacial plucking" without explanation assumes that the reader has some geological training. In the reviewer's opinion, a regional physiography must assume a knowledge of elementary geology unless it is to include detailed descriptions of all the essential physiographic processes.

The suggestions to research workers, which have been inserted at several places, are valuable, but nevertheless they seem inappropriate in an elementary text. The reviewer also questions the advisability of including unsupported opinions on current problems. In this category falls the statement: "We venture the opinion that the Lancaster surface [in Wisconsin] is younger than the Schooley Peneplain." This opinion is especially perplexing in the light of certain views that even go so far as to deny the existence of a Lancaster peneplain.

The plan of the text raises the question of procedure in regional description. The purpose of dividing a large area into provinces is to facilitate description, because more generalities are possible for a single unit of a complex region than for the region as a whole. It follows from this that the simplest treatment is one which divides a complex region into many small units rather than into a few large ones. Some of Atwood's ten provinces are so large that they necessarily comprise markedly unlike structures and topographies. This is true of his Southwestern Appalachian High- lands, which includes the Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Ridge and Valley, and Appalachian Plateau provinces of Fenneman. The description of this division is necessarily complicated and therefore less lucid than descriptions of more homogeneous provinces. Fenneman's 25 provinces, plus such additional provinces as appear outside our national frontiers, might offer a more satisfactory basis for regional description.

The sections of the text dealing with Canada and Mexico would have been clarified by the inclusion of simple physiographic diagrams of those regions. Unless one follows the discussion with an atlas, the picture is not always clear. The description of the Alaskan provinces, on the other hand, is much better because of the accom- panying diagram.

The selection of material is satisfactory with a few exceptions. The supposed meteorite scars of the Coastal Plain are not mentioned, yet the relatively insignificant mud lumps of the Mississippi delta are referred to. Nowhere is the Fall Zone pene- plain alluded to, the Schooley being described as the first one developed after the Appalachian Revolution. In the discussion of the Columbia Lava Plateau only the Spokane Flood hypothesis of scabland origin is considered, with no reference to R. F. Flint's aggradation-degradation hypothesis (Origin of the Cheney-Palouse Scabland Tract, Washington, Bull. Geol. Soc. of America, Vol. 49, Part I, I938, pp. 46I-523).

The influence of the San Andreas Rift on the development of fiordlike Tomales Bay is not considered in the description of the California coast north of San Francisco. Yet this bay is the most prominent feature in the diagram in which it appears.

Several statements seem contradictory. For example, the higher surface around the Lexington and Nashville Basins (Highland Rim of Fenneman) is described as of the age of the Schooley peneplain; yet Atwood earlier assigned the same age to the surface at the top of the Appalachian Plateau immediately to the east.

In spite of some of the above comments, the volume is a decided step forward in the evolution of a simple and concise text for a one-term undergraduate course in regional physiography. The clarity of the language and the excellent supporting illustrations are strong recommendations. ARTHUR DAVID HOWARD

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