258 SCIENCE. [N. S. VOL. XVI. NO. 398. and R. H. Traquair. An indispensable liker, Bakker, Rosenthal, Gottsche, Mik- 'Handbuch der Palaeontologie' is that of lucho, Macleay, Weber, Hasse, Retzius, Karl A. Zittel (1890), in which the knowl- Owsjannikow, H. Muller, Stieda, Marcusen edge of fossil fish is brought up to a recent and Ryder. date. The most valuable general work is Besides all this, there has risen, especial- the ' Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the ly in the United States, Great Britain, British lluseum,' in four volumes, by Dr. Norway, Canada and Australia, a vast lit- Arthur Smith Woodward, a most worthy erature of commercial fisheries, fish culture companion of Giinther's ' Catalogue ' of and angling, the chief workers in which the living fishes, and still more modern in fields we may not here enumerate even by the taxonomy and views of relationships. name. Important contributions are those of Hux- ley, F. McCoy, van den Marck, de Kon- JOINT MEETINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL inck, Davis, Nicholson, Charlesworth, Sir XOCIETY OF AMERICA, SECTION E, AND THE NATIONAL GEO- Philip Egerton, Rictet, Kner, von Meyer, GRAPHIC SOCIETY." Hasse, ThiolliBre, Jaekel, Rohon, Sauvage, 2'he Geology of the Pittsburgh District: I. Stolicza, Lawley, Molin, Gibbes, Probst, C. WHITE. Karpinsky, Kipryanoff and many others. The Appalachian coal field begins near In America, Dr. John Strong Newberry the northern line of Pennsylvania, and ex- has studied the fossil fishes of Ohio. Pro- fessor Edward W. Claypole has worked tends in a canoe-shaped trough 900 miles largely in the same region. Edward southwestward, ending in western Ala- Drinker Cope and Dr. Joseph Leidy have bama. Pittsburgh is gituated near the cen- added to our knowledge of the Eocene and ter the northern end of this great basin, Cretaceous fishes of the Roclry Mountains. and therefore, easy access to all of the Numerous recent papers of great value have formations. been published by Dr. Bashford Dean, of One these beds, the great Pitts- Columbia University, and Dr. Charles R. burgh seam1 which overlooks the city from Eastman, of Harvard. Other important an elevation of 350 feet, and extends up records are due to Orestes St. John, A. H. the Monongahela for 200 miles, the -indus- Worthen, Charles D. Walcott and the Red- trial supremacy of the region is largely fields, father and son. due. Still more difficult of enumeration is the several Years ago the gifted Blaine Prc- long list of those who have &died the dieted that the Pittsburgh district would anatomy of fishes, usually in connection in time become the manufacturing center with the comparative anatomy or develop- of the world because of its command of ment of other animals. Preeminent among cheap fuel. This prophecy has become a these are Karl Ernst van Baer, Cuvier, reality within less than a decade of its ut- Goffrey St. Hilaire, Louis Agassiz, Johan- terance. nes Miiller, Carl Vogt, Carl Gegenbaur, The Monongahela formation, of which MecBel, William Kitchen Parker, Francis the Pittsburgh coal is the basal member, BI. Balfour, Thomas Henry Huxley, H. caps all the hills around the city and Rathke, Richard Owen, Kowalevsky, H. stretches away to the south up the river Stannius, Joseph Hyrtl, Gill, Boulenger which gave the beds a name, to be in turn and Bashford Dean. Other names of high covered up by the Dunkard formation at authority are those of TVilhelm His, Kol- "Pittsburgh, Pa., July 1 to 3, 1902. SCIENCE. the summit of the Carboniferous column But interesting as are the stratified rocks and probably of Permian age. The city of the remote past in the Pittsburgh region, itself is located mostly on the Conamaugh the surface deposits tell for many a still formation or the old Barren Series of Rod- more attractive story. The clays, silts, gers, the central red beds of which crop sands, gravels and cobbles which rest upon along all the railroads which enter the city the ancient river bottoms, and mantle up and give no end of trouble from landslides, the slopes to 300 feet above the present slips and caves. These red beds enclose streams, unfold a most interesting history. one of the most interesting deposits of the They reveal a river during Tertiary time entire Carboniferous column, viz., the flowing with its bed immediately under the Ames or Crinoidal limestone. It marks site of the Carnegie Institute, 200 feet the end of marine life in the Carboniferous above the present streams, descending with waters of the Appalachian field, and is a gentle fall (only one third the rate of the most important ' key' rock. Coming as it present rivers), and at Beaver, instead of does 300 feet below the Pittsburgh coal turning southward down the Ohio, keeping bed, and at an equal interval above the northward and joining the St. Lawrence Upper Freeport seam, it has been t~aced system in the region of Lake Erie. from central West Virginia around through Then in Quaternary time, this north- western Pennsylvania, across Ohio, and ward-flowing river was met by a great mass back into southern West Virginia near of southward-moving ice and other glacial Huntington. d6bris which effectually impounded the Within easy access from Pittsburgh the Allegheny and Monongahela drainage, and geologist may see all of the Carboniferous, caused their waters to intermingle across and on the crest of the great Chestnut the East Liberty valley, and finally to cut Ridge arch above Connellsville get a peep a new pathway to the sea along what is deep down into the Devonian. now ,the Ohio River. This great inland This, however, has been given in the dia- lake is marked by a series of deposits of gram before you, which represents the clay, sand, boulders and other transported rocks under Pittsburgh as revealed in the materials upon all except steep surfaces up ' deepest oil boring ever made in America, to a little more than 1,000 feet above tide and, with one exception, the deepest in the over the entire basin of the two rivers. world. This record we owe to the intelli- Mr. Campbell, of the U. S. Geological Sur- gent interest in pure science of Mr. W. J. vey, has recognized the character of these Young, of Pittsburgh, now at the head of upland deposits as having been made in the great producing interests of the a lake-like body of water, but has erro- Standard Oil Co. At an expense of many neously referred them to a local ice dam. thousands of dollars Mr. Young drilled The one great dam which we know existed this well near West Elizabeth, Pa., to a just north from Beaver will explain all the depth of 5,575 feet, and gave to Professor phenomena. Hallocl~,of Columbia University, the op- portunity to make his important contribu- Tlze Lower Carboniferozcs of tlte Appala- tions to earth temperatures. This is but one chia~Basin: J. J. STEVENSON.(Read of numerous examples of encouragement to by title.) pure science given by the officers and agents In this paper a description is given of of that much-abused organization. the several divisions of the Lower Car- 260 8CIA'NCE. [N. S. VOL. XVI. NO. 398. boniferous as,they exist in the Appalachian Of the thirteen meteorites lcnown from basin; the effort is made to determine the Kansas, six have been found within an boundary between Devonian and Car- area 115 miles long by 85 miles broad in boniferous and to ascertain the changes in the northwestern part of the State. As physical geography during the period. these all resemble each other in outward appearance the question has been raised as A New Meteorite from Algonza, Kewaunee to whether they belong to a single fall. In Cotcnty, TVisconsifi: WILLIAM HERBERT deciding the question the probable course HOBBS. of a meteor and the structure and compo- The Algoma meteorite, which was plotv- sition of the meteorites should be dis- ed up near Algoma, TVis., in 1887, was rec- cussed. It is shown that the probable ognized in March of the present year as a course of the meteor ~vonldhave been from true meteorite. It is almost unique among southeast to northwest, and not from south- meteorites because of its peculiar shape and west to northeast as would be required if surface markings. Whereas most ineteor- the meteorites belonged to a single fall. As ites are quite irregular in form, this me- regards structure and composition, three of teorite is in the shape of a thin shield, or the meteorites have been studied, while the disk, with convex and concave sides. Con- other three have not. Results of studies of trary to common notions it is quite clear two of the latter, Long Island and Frank- that this body, when it entered the atmos- linville, are given and the Long Island me- phere of the earth, presented its convex teorite shown to be, in several respects, re- surface to the front, and was in part by the markable. The conclusion is reached that erosion of the air given its present form, two of the meteorites may belong to one and its convex surface was deeply eroded. fall but that the others are single individ- From a central, smooth, elliptical area upon ual falls. the front, radial and slightly spiral groov- ing~proceed to the circumference of the The Mohokea Caldera on Hawaii: C. H. meteorite. It seems clear that these groov- I~IT~HGOGE. ings and ridges are the result of fusion The eruptions from Mauna Loa upon the and erosion by the compressed air, the southwest side are different from those dead-air area in front of the center pre- upon the northeast, chiefly in being of the venting a similar grooving there. explosive type. The new map of Hawaii Although not generally appreciated, it develops the interesting facts of the exist- appears that there have been other disk- ence of an immense depression analogous like meteorites, and from the principles of to a caldera a few miles back from Punu- mechanics it is clear that they, like the luu. It is of larger dimensions tha,n the Algoma meteorite, must have moved celebrated calderas of Mauna Loa and through the atmosphere with their broad Kilauea. side on. The *lgoma meteorite shows the EZZipsosoidal Structure in the pre-Cambrian XTidma1istatten figures produced by etch- Basic and Intermediate Rocks of the ing, and also numerous crystals of schreib- Lake superior Region: J. MORGAN ersite. CLEMENTS. l'lze Meteorites of Northweste~n Iiansas. The greenstones of pre-Cambrian age in OLIVERC. FARRINGTON. the Lake Superior region have very com- AUGUST15, 1902.1 SCIENCE. 26 1

monly developed in them a structure which, Intrusives. Knife slates. since the masses separated by this struc- Lower Huronian ...... Lower Huronian iron- ture are ellipsoidal, is designated ' ellip- bearing formation. Ogishke conglomerate. soidal' structure. This structure was de- (Unconformity) . scribed and illustrated by means of lantern Intrusive granites, por- slides. phyries and green- Archean (Vermilion A review of the ideas held by various series) ...... Soudan f o r m a t i o n observers concerning the origin of this (iron-bearing). Ely greenstone. structure was given, and the conclusion was reached that the 'ellipsoidal ' was an orig- The structure is complex. The Vermil- inal structure due to the breaking up of ion district is broadly a great complex a viscous lava while it was being extruded. synclinorium bounded on the north by the The structure is of widespread occurrence, hrchean granite, and on the south by the especially in the greenstones of the Lake Kuronian granite, Keweenawan gabbro, Superior region. with the Upper Huronian slates coming in The desirability of using the term 'ellip- for a, short distance. The ores are high- soidal ' instead of 'spheroidal ' in referring grade hematites, averaging 63 per cent. of to this structure is urged in view of the iron and .05 per cent. of phosphorus, and fact that it is an original structure, and they are found in structural basins. Since that the bodies formed by this structure are this district began to ship ore in 1884, it ellipsoidal, whereas the spheroidal struc- has sent out some 17,000,000 tons of ore, ture in the rocks is of secondary nature and the greater part of this came to Pitts- and is due to exfoliation caused by weather- burgh. ing. As regards the origin of the iron, it ap- pears to come first from ireexisting rocks, Vermilion District of Minnesota: J. MOR- and then it is deposited to form the sedi- GAN CLEMENTS. mentary iron-bearing formations. In the The Vermilion district occurs in north- case of the Archean Soudan, the most eco- eastern Minnesota, extending from Vermil- nomically important iron-bearing forma- ion lake, N. 70" E., to Gunflint lake on tion of this region, the iron comes from the the international boundary. As described Archean greenstone (basic and intermedi- the district is about eighty miles long by ate intrusives and volcanics) . Later, after ten miles wide. The area surveyed com- the folding, the iron is leached from the prises nearly 1,000 square miles. The iron-bearing formation chiefly, and after stratigraphic succession is as follows, given being carried down by descending meteoric in descending order : waters is precipitated as the oxide in places favorable for its accumulation, thus form- Pleistocene...... Glacial drift. ing the ore deposits. , (Unconformity) . Keweenawan...... Great Gabbro and Lo- gan sills. The Pacific Nountain Xystem of British (Unconformity) . Columbia and Alaska: ARTHURC. Upper Huronian] SPENCER. (Animikie s e r ie s). Upper slate formation. The author brought together and at- Confined to eastern end Gunflint f o r m a t i o n of district...... (iron-bearing). tempted to interpret the existing descrip- (Unconformity) . tions of the physiography of the coastwise 262 SCIENCE. [N. S. VOL. XVI. NO. 398, mountains of British Columbia and Alas- tured some of the small tributaries of the ka. The term Pacific Mountains, which AEississippi and later the Mississippi turned was used by Powell as a designation for itself into these valleys in succession by the westernmost ranges of the United sapping the ridge between. Since the cap- States, was extended to apply to the moun- ture of the Mississippi, several of the small- tain ranges contiguous to the Pacific Ocean er rivers of the region have abandoned their from Lower California to the Alaskan older valleys. peninsula. T\'oTE.-T~~ above papers were presented North of the United States the moun- through the Geological Society of America, and tains are generally flat-topped and their for more complete accounts of the same see Bul- letin ff.8. A., Vol. XIII., 1902. uniform summits are considered to repre- sent uplifted peneplains. Back of them The following papers were offered di- the plateaus of the interior are of similar rectly to Section E : origin. Reasoning from the antecedent The Inte?*national Geographic Congress of character of the rivers which head in the 1904 under tlze Auspices of tlte Natio~zal inland plateau, and cross the coastal Geographic Society: GILBERTH. GROS- mountain belts, and also from local mer- VENOR. (Read by title.) ging of interior and mountain plateaus, it was shown that the peneplains of the vari- Possible Effects of the Glacial Period upolt ous regions can be correlated. A great sea- the Land Levels of Central Asia: G. ward-sloping surface of erosion was pro- FREDERICKWRIGHT. cluced in Eocene time, and upon it the pre- That northern and central Asia has ex- cursors of the present drainage systems perienced an extensive subsidence in recent mere developed. Since the completion of geological time is proved by a variety of this peneplain, all of the existing moun- evidence : tains have been formed, mainly by differ- 1. Stadling reports gravel terraces con- ential uplift attendant upon the general taining fresh pieces of wood several miles elevation of northwestern North America. back from the lower part of the Lena river, 650 feet above it. In some cases these ter- Dezielopme7zt of the Soz~tlteasternMissozcri races contain the bones of the mastodon Lowla7zds: C. F. MARBUT. (Abstract and are resting upon solid ice. read by W. M. Davis.) 2. On the south shore of the Black sea The lowland region of southeastern Mis- at Trebizond and Samsun, and upon the souri consists of two broad belts of flat north shore around the Crimea, there are lowland with a discontinuous ridge between fresh gravels which are evidently beach de- them. One of the lowland belts is an aban- posits, hanging upon the sides of cliffs, doned valley of the Jfississippi river, the indicating a recent subsidence of that whole other is the valley of the Ohio. The Mis- region to the extent certainly of 750 feet. sissippi river has gained its existing valley 3. In the Dariel pass, on the north side by two successive changes, abandoning of the Caucasus mountains, a few miles first about 200 miles of its original valley, above Vladikavkas, there are extensive re- and later about twenty more. It was led cent water deposits, with the finer material to abandon its valley because of a shorter at the bottom and the coarser material at and steeper course having been offered it the top, which could have accumulated only by the Ohio. The Ohio drainage first cap- when the gradient of the incline was very SCIENCE.

much less than it is now. These accumula- animals and the remains of man under- tions are sometimes more than 200 feet neath it, both in Russia and in Siberia, to- thick, and are beyond the reach of any gether with the small amount of erosion glaciers which ever extended down the that has taken place in it, indicates that ~orthside of the range. While these do the change of level was approximately con- not indicate a depression below the surface temporaneous with the glacial period both of the ocean, they do necessitate a depres- in America and in northwestern Europe. sion to the south such as would change the The result of observations in eastern relative level of the valley occupied by the Mongolia, Manchuria, ~ransbaikalia, and upper part of the Terek river. along the base of the Tian Shan range in 4. The existence of arctic seal (Phoca Turkestan was to show that, during the annelate) in Lake Baikal is best explained glacial period, there was no extension of on the theory of a recent depression, per- ice anywhere in Asia south of the sixtieth mitting the sea to extend inwards to all degree of latitude at all corresponding to the points now marked by that level. The that in America and in Europe; therefore, lake is 1,561 feet above the sea, and fully the weight of ice could not explain the de- 2,000 miles distant as the river runs. The pression of the Asiatic continent. presence of the seal in the lake is readily But the removal of 6,000,000 cubic milks explained by this supposition of a recent of water from the ocean bed to form the subsidence of the region, but is not satis- glaciers of Europe and America, which factorily explained by any other theory. would be equal to 24,000,000,000,000,000 Reaching the enclosure while it was an arm tons, would naturally so disturb the bal- of the sea, the seal would find a favorable ance of forces that a continental mass like habitat, and when, on re-elevation of the Asia, with mountains rising from 25,000 to land, the basin became cut off from direct 30,000 feet above the sea, would sink down communication with the sea, the water by its own weight. would still be salt, and would grow fresh so gradually that the species could adjust Recent Geology of the Jordan Valley: itself to the slowly changing conditions and G. FREDERICKWRIGHT. remain a permanent inhabitant. The same West of the Jordan the descent from seal is also found in the Caspian sea, and Jerusalem to Jericho is something more was formerly found in the Aral sea. than 3,000 feet in about fifteen miles, and 5. The distribution of the loess around the underlying rock is all Cretaceous, the the base of the Alatau and other immense strata dipping to the east even more rapidly mountain masses of central Asia is such as than the road descends. A fault of some to indicate a temporary water level from 4,000 to 5,000 feet occurs along the Jordan 2,500 to 3,000 feet higher than now. What- valley, so that the abrupt wall which forms ever may have been the ultimate origin of the western face of the mountains of Moab this peculiar soil, its distribution in north- has at its base Nubian sandstone strata ern China, in Turkestan, about the base of which underlie the Cretaceous, the Creta- Mount Ararat, at the southern base of the ceous rocks appearing near the summit, Caucasus mountains, and over the plains where the elevation is about 4,000 feet of southern Russia, is unaccountable except above the Dead sea, or nearly the same as by the assistance of water action; while that of Jerusalem and the surrounding the occurrence of the bones of post-Pliocene hills of Judea. 264 SCIENCE. [N. S. VOL. XVI. NO.398.

Approximately the grand movements extent; while the immediate valley itself is producing this fault may be fixed as be- scarcely one fifteenth as large. All the ginning in the Middle Tertiary period, wash of this large drainage area finally since Lower Tertiary rocks, consisting of lodges in the valley. nummulitic limestone, are found on Mounts If we estimate the rate of erosion in the Carmel, Ebal and Gerizim, and on some of drainage basin of the Jordan at one foot the heights in the vicinity of Jerusalem in 2,000 years, the age of the Jordan fault and to the south of Hebron. must be reckoned in tens of thousands of The egtensive post-Tertiary deposits of years, rather than in hundreds of thou- silt extend as high as 750 feet above the sands; thus confirming the shorter geolog- Dead sea, showing that up to a,recent time ical chronology of the physicists. the water was 750 feet higher than now, Histo~yof the Discoveries and Discussions producing a lake several times larger than Concerfiing the Glacial Terraces in the the Dead sea, and extending southward Upper Ohio and its Tributaries: G. about forty miles beyond the Dead sea, in FREDERICKWRIGHT. which were deposited hundreds of feet of fine sediment where side streams came in, Sz~bmergeclValleys ifi Sandusky Bay: E. and one hundred feet or more over the en- L. MOSELEY. tire valley. In the wady Zumeiya, where Tilting of the earth's crust is causing a it enters the depression near the south end depression of the land at the southwest ex- of the Dead sea, one can see the fine tremity of Lake Erie as compared with the lamina: of this sediment as it has gradually outlet at Buffalo. The effect of this. is accumulated to a depth of between 200 and shown in the vicinity of Sandusky by the 300 feet just below the 750-foot line, and extension of the water over the low ground where it has been exposed by subsequent as evidenced by surveys, submerged erosion. stumps, slack water in the lower course of The Jordan valley throughout all its all the streams and submerged stalagmites lower portion occupies a narrow gorge in the caves of Put-in bay. It is also which it has cut out of this sedimentary shorn by the fact that from the mouth of deposit. The river is constantly under- each stream entering Sandusky bay a val- mining its banks, now on one side and now ley now filled with mud can be traced out on another, leaving, pretty generally, per- through the bay. These valleys show a rise pendicular walls of the sedimentary depos- of the water of at least forty feet. its separated from the river by a flood- plain of varying width, averaging about a Some Geological Notes in Honduras, Cen- quarter of a mile. As a consequence the tral America: J. FRANCISPATCH-LE river is extremely muddy as it enters the BARON. (Read by title.) Dead sea. The main geological features of EIondu- Notwithstanding the vigor of these ero- ras are volcanic, but of a former age. These sive agencies only a relatively small por- features are more pronounced on the Pacific tion of the sediment has been washed away, slope, but there are at present no live vol- and the Dead sea is still unfilled, which canoes in the Republic. is a witness to the recentness of its forma- The greater part of the stratified forma- tion. The drainage basin of the Jordan tions belong to the Permian. The charac- valley is more than 10,000 square miles in teristic country rock in the departments of AUGUST 15, 1902.1 SCIENCE. 265

Olancho, Yoro and Mosquitia is a quartz- place where a Kurdish lord had the right ose conglomerate, 1,000 feet in thick- of ferriage. In another place a crowd of ness. In the vicinity of Tegucigalpa, the Turkish villagers stoned the raft because characteristic section is composed of red the Armenian fishermen had no fish to sell. and green marls nearly a thousand feet In both cases the natives refrained from thick. These are capped with limestones, further violence out of respect for the fact red conglomerates, sandstones and shales, that the travelers wore hats and so must very rich in gold and silver. The beds of be men of consequence. non-fossiliferous limestones in Honduras Two small canyons were traversed, the are immense, and we find the old sea basins second of which, nearly 2,000 feet deep, in many places 3,000 feet above present sea- was the picturesque home of large herds of level. ibex. Below this is a holy mountain, with Granite and syenite occur on the coast several shrines, at one of which rises an west of Trujillo, and basalts and lavas are immense square altar of rough stone, all found all over the country in great abund- covered with the gore of the numerous ance. goats and sheep which are here offered in Geological classification is difficult in sacrifice by both Christian Armenians and Honduras on account of the great mass of Mohammedan Turks. eruptive rocks which have been greatly The main canyon is cleft through the metamorphosed. mountains to a depth of from 2,000 to 5,000 feet, and the contracted stream The Great Canyon of the Euphrates River: thunders over rapid after rapid between ELLSWORTHHUNTINGTON. towering walls of frowning basalt or cas- Although the Euphrates river is known tellated buff limestone. In many ways it by name to every one certain parts of its resembles the grand canyon of the Colo- upper course are still almost unexplored. rado, with its exceedingly swift current ob- One of the least known sections is where structed here and there by fans of detritus the river, after the junction of its two larg- brought in from the sides, its steep walls of est branches, flows over great rapids naked rocks and its raging rapids. In through the Taurus mountains in an im- some places the main stream has cut its mense canyon. gorge so fast that the smaller tributaries In 1883 the great German general von could not keep pace with it, and so fall Moltke floated down this part of the stream over the walls into the river in a series of on a raft of inflated sheepskins manned by cascades. All these facts and many others Kurds, but the rapids are so formidable show that the Euphrates is very young that for over sixty years no other Euro- geologically. peans visited the region. In the spring of The real difficulties of the voyage began 1901 Professor T. H. Norton, U. S. Consul in the great canyon. At the first big rapid at Harput, Turkey, and the writer made a whole day was spent in making a portage the same journey, using a raft of inflated of two miles, involving a climb of 1,200 sheepskins manned by Armenian fishermen. feet over an almost impassable road; in an- For the first hundred miles no great diffi- other place, while the raft was being let culties were met, although at one place the down past a rapid with ropes, a raft of Kurds threatened the party with their logs floated by, on which were two almost guns, because the strangers floated past the nude Kurds, with tridents for paddles and 266 SCIENCE. [N. S. VOL. XVI. NO.398. strings of dried gourds around their waists parts is concisely indicated. The facts of for preservers. inorganic environment on the one hand The difficulties became greater and great- (physiography) and of environed organ- er as the party floated swiftly into the wild- isms on the other (ontography) , which con- er parts of the canyon, where rapids were stitute, when studied in their mutual rela- shot far larger than those where portages tions, the subject matter of geography had been made a day or two earlier. The proper, can only be appreciated after care- raftsmen's nerves were so completely un- ful analysis and arrangement. Geography strung one night that they dared neither may be given a regional aspect when the shoot the rapids, nor climb the mountain features of a single region are considered; side to get help from the Kurds in making but complete regional description implies a portage. Next day, the wildest of all the a previous understanding of general sys- rapids mas reached. The raftsmen dared tematic geography ; for otherwise, regional not shoot it, and a portage was out of the facts cannot be recognized as examples of question, so the Americans decided to the large classes of facts in which they shoot it alone, in spite of the entreaties of fall. Systematic geography is therefore a the servants, who fell on their knees, and, fundamental study. The author outlined with tears in their eyes, begged the for- the chief subdivisions of its two parts, eigners not to go to certain death. The physiography and ontography, and dis- raft shot into the rapids over a long cussed the order in which the relations be- smooth, tilting sheet of water; there was a tween them should be considered. wild exhilarating slide, and the great Some Topographic Features in the Soutlz- waves broke over the explorers, time and er?z Appalacltians: J. A. HOLMES. time again wetting them through to the skin; the raft whirled round and round. The Petrographic Province of Neponset Soon the danger mas passed, and the raft Valley, Boston, Massachusetts: F. BAS- safely moored. The journey lasted seven COM. (Read by title.) days because of the numerous portages, Tlze Occz~rrenceof Liquid Petroleunz Her- although the actual time occupied in float- nzetically Enclosed with Qtcartx Crz~stals, ing on the river was but thirty-seven hours. from Alabama: I?. L. STEXTART. The youthfulness of the deeper part of the canyon seems to be due to a recent,re- Restorntion of Embolopkorus dollovianus: viva1 of deformation, which has caused the E. C. CASE. (Read by title.) streams to incise deep, steep-sided, V- Synopsis of the Missourian and Permo- shaped, young valleys in the bottoms of Carboniferous Pish Pauna of Kansas broad, U-shaped, older valleys. and Nebraska: C. R. EASTMANand E. H. BARBOUR. Xystenzatic Geography: W. M. DAVIS. The majority of Upper Carboniferol~s Observations of geographical matters by fish remains from Nebraska are from the travelers and explorers are usually incom- Atchison shales in the southeastern part of plete in one respect or another, largely be- the State, and consist almost exclusively of cause there is no maturely developed and Elasmobranchs. Some of these are inti- generally accepted scheme of systematic mately related to those of older horizons geographical classifications, by which the from the region east of the Mississippi, in- relation of the whole of the subject to its cluding even the Chester limestone, and a SCIENCE. lesser number are suggestive of a Permian ed Palmar de la Sepulveda. It was struck aspect. Only a few species occur in the by the plow of Crescencio Aguilar in the Penno-Carboniferous of Nebraska, and at summer of 1871. He soon uncovered least one of them is identical with a Per- enough of its bright surface to satisfy mian species from the Red Beds of Texas. himself that he had found a silver mine! The Upper Coal Measure fish fauna of Its surrounding is now a cornfield, with a Kansas is slightly more varied than that black vegetable soil of some two yards in of Nebraska, Dipnoans and Crossoptery- thickness. In this soil we found the great gians being represented besides Elasmo- meteorite deeply imbedded. Its surface branchs. Altogether, more than twenty was but a little below the surface of the species of fish remains are known from this ground. region. The general form of the mass seen from the side was that of one rainus of a huge PI~ylogeny of the Cestraciont Group of jaw. The surface was entirely covered Sl~urks:C. R. EASTMAN. with 'pittings,' very regular in size, and The family of Cestraciont sharks has about two to three inches across, shallow, had a continuous existence since the De- but with well-defined walls. There were vonian, a range which is paralleled among no areas which showed the devastation of fishes only by the Ceratodus group of Dip- deep rust; a fact due both to the dryness noans. Some of the Devonian and Car- of the soil and to the large alloy of nickel boniferous forms (Protodus, Campodus, in the iron. On one side there was a deep Edestus, Helicoprion, etc.) were remark- crack, running horizontally through half able for their great development of sym- the length of the mass. At one end this physial teeth, which became coiled without crack was too narrow to insert a knife being shed, but none of these specialized blade, at the other end it was nearli three genera are known to have survived the inches wide. Over the area the vegetable Paleozoic. This family probably gave rise soil was from three to four feet deep, while to the Cochliodonts with inrolled crushing below it was a porphyry rock, common in teeth in the Middle Paleozoic, and to the this part of the country, much broken up modern ray type during the Mesozoic. The by natural cleavages and decomposed in existing Port Jackson shark is the sole sur- situ. vivor of the generalized ~estracibntstem, Immediately around the meteorite we and special importance is attached to a had dug much lower, leaving the great study of its embryological phases. iron mass poised on a pillar or pedestal of On n Complete Skeleton of a New Creta- the undisturbed rock. It needed little me- cean Plesiosaur, Itlustrated from Photo- chanical aid to make the mass turn over. graphs from Mounted Skeletons: S. W. Looking beneath it we found that its late WILLISTON. bed was a clean depression crushed into the rock, with absolutely no soil betweee The Bacubirito Meteorite: H. A. WARD. it and the mass which had lain above it. Bacubirito is a small but very old min- The extreme measures of Bacubirito, for ing town situated on the Rio Sinaloa in so our meteorite from the first has been latitude 26" and in west longitude 107". called, are: The elevation above sea-level is some 2,000 Length ...... 13 feet 1 inch. feet. The meteorite is seven miles nearly Width ...... 6 " 2 " due south from there, near the hamlet call- Thickness ...... 5 " 4 " 268 SCIENCE. [N. S. VOL. XVI. KO.39s.

The form of the mass is extremely irregu- DR. J. (2. COOPER. lar, and though measures have been taken NEWS has been received of the death at around the mass at many different points, Hayward, Alameda County, California, of its cubic contents cannot be calculated with Dr. James G. Cooper, at the age of seventy- more than an approximation to accuracy. two years, July 19, 1902. Dr. Cooper's The five largest meteorites known to sci- services to science have been such (coupled ence to-day are: with the singular omission of his name and his father's from the chief records of Bemdego (Brazil)...... 5% tons. American biography) as to render some San Gregoria (Mexico) ...... 111/, " statement of them desirable for a genera- Chupaderos (Mexico)...... l52/, " Anighito (Greenland) ...... 60 " tion to whom he was little known. Bacubirito (Mexico) ...... 50 " James Cooper, an English merchant, set- tled in New York shortly after the Revolu- The first three are weights proven on tion, accumulated a competency and died scales: the last two are thus far simple in 1801, leaving a son, William Cooper, estimates. born in 1798. At an early age the latter, Whichever meteorite shall, after accu- who had inherited the love of nature from rate calculation, prove to be the heavier, it his mother, Frances Graham, determined will ever remain of interest that the two to devote himself to the study of Natural largest meteorites known to our earth have History. At the age of eighteen young fallen on the North American continent- Cooper became one of the founders of the one far toward its northern end, the other I~yceumof Natural History, now the New toward its southern. York Academy of Sciences, under the lead of Dr. S. L. Mitchill, John Torrey, Daniel Paleontological Notes: (a) Notes on Gas- Barnes and others, and soon became a gen- t~opods,(b) Spirif er mz~cronatusand its erous contributor to its library and one of Derivatives: A. W. GRABAU.(Read by its officers. In 1821 William Cooper sailed title.) for Europe to continue his studies in zool- The following papers were read under ogy and was elected the first American the auspices of the National Geographical member of the Zoological Society of Lon- Society : don. He attended the lectures of Cuvier at Paris, and on his return devoted himself Scientific Ilesults of the Recent Eruptions to ornithology and paleontology. He was a friend of Schoolcraft, a correspondent in the West Indies: R. T. HILL. and colaborer of Lucien Bonaparte, who dedicated to him the well-linown Pa2co The Magnetic Distzcrbances during the Cooperi. His son, James G. Cooper, was Time of the Recent 17olcanic Eruptions born June 19, 1830, and in 1851 graduated in iMartinique: L. A. BAUER. from the College of Physicians and Sur- geons, New York, following it by a two Atmospheric Phenomena in Connection years' course in the city hospitals. In 1853 with the Recent Eruptions in the West he was appointed surgeon to the northern Indies: A. J. HENRY. (Read by 8. H. division of the Pacific Railroad Survey, at Grosvenor.) the suggestion of Professor S. F. Raird, I?. P. GULLIVER, and spent some time at the Smithsonian In- Secretary, Section E. stitution, preparing himself for the duties