POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



135 



ing the Glacial and Recent periods, is marked 

 by the number of papers eight before the 

 Geological Society, and an equal nuraber be- 

 fore the association, which pertained to this 

 latest geologic era. Among these, perhaps 

 the most notable was by Arthur Hollick, on 

 the disturbance of the Cretaceous and Ter- 

 tiary clay and sand strata next beneath the 

 glacial drift along the course of the terminal 

 moraine in northern New Jersey, on Staten 

 and Long Islands, Martha's Vineyard, and 

 Nantucket. The crumpled and distorted 

 condition of these beds he ascribed to the 

 crushing force of the ice advance. The dis- 

 locations and tilting are of similar character 

 with the disturbances which have been shown 

 to have resulted from the thrust of the Scan- 

 dinavian ice sheet on the islands of Moen 

 and Riigen in the Baltic Sea. 



The recession of the ice sheet from the 

 region of the Great Lakes tributary to the St. 

 Lawrence was discussed in a paper by War- 

 ren Upham, tracing the successive stages 

 of the ice-dammed lakes of that region, as 

 kno^vn by their beaches, far above the pres- 

 ent lake shores. From the relationship of 

 those glacial lakes, held by the barrier of the 

 waning ice sheet on their north and north- 

 east sides, it was shown that the ice sheet in 

 its retreat was melted away from the north- 

 ern borders of the United States west of 

 Lake Ontario somewhat earlier than from 

 New York and New England. The measure 

 of the Postglacial or Recent period, from the 

 end of the Ice age until now, was thought 

 from the rate of erosion of the gorge below 

 Niagara Falls to have been about seven thou- 

 sand years. Prof. J. W. Spencer, however, 

 in another paper argued that the duration of 

 this period has been some thirty thousand 

 years. 



Prof. Spencer also read a paper on the 

 late Tertiary and Quaternary changes of level 

 of the West Indies, in which great move- 

 ments of uplift and depression of Cuba and 

 the adjacent Antilles were held to have 

 united these islands repeatedly to the North 

 and South American continents, while the 

 Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were 

 connected with the Pacific Ocean. 



The Quaternary history of the Mississippi 

 Valley was considered by Oscar H. Hershey, 

 who regarded the loess of Illinois, Iowa, 

 and the States farther south as the deposit 



of a somewhat late stage of the Glacial 

 period. 



Prof. Calvin's address is published in full 

 in the American Geologist for September; 

 most of the Geological Society's papers will 

 soon be issued in its Bulletin, and abstracts 

 of the association papers will appear, prob- 

 ably about a year hence, in the Proceedings 

 of this meeting. 



Officers of the American Association. 



The following officers of the American Associ- 

 ation have been elected for next year : Presi- 

 dent, E. W. Morley, Cleveland, Ohio. Vice- 

 Presidents : A, Mathematics and Astronomy, 



E. S. Holden, Lick Observatory, Cal. ; B, 

 Physics, W. Leconte Stevens, Troy, N. Y. ; C, 

 Chemistry, William McMurtrie, Troy, N. Y. ; 

 D, Mechanical Science and Engineering, Wil- 

 liam Kent, Passaic, N. .J. ; E, Geology and 

 Geography, Jed. Hotchkiss, Staunton, Va. ; 



F, Zoology, D, S. Jordan, Palo Alto, Cal. ; G, 

 Botany, J. C. Arthur, Lafayette, Ind. ; H, 

 Anthropology, F. H. Gushing, Washington, 



D. C. ; I, Economic Science and Statistics, 

 B. E. Fernow, Washington, D. C. Perma- 

 nent Secretary, F. W. Putnam, Cambridge, 

 Mass. General Secretary, James Lewis Howe, 

 Louisville, Ky. Secretary of Council, Charles 

 R. Barnes, Madison, Wis. Treasurer, R. S. 

 Woodward, New York. Secretaries of Sec- 

 tions : A, E. H. Moore, Chicago, 111. ; B, E. 

 Merritt, Ithaca, N. Y. ; C, William P. Mason, 

 Troy, N. Y. ; D, H. S. Jacoby, Ithaca, N. Y. ; 



E, J. Perrin Smith, Palo Alto, Cal. ; F, S. A, 

 Forbes, Champaign, 111. ; G, B. T. Galloway, 

 Washington, D. C. ; H, Mrs. Anita Newcombe 

 McGee, Washington, D. C. ; I, E. A. Ross, 

 Palo Alto, Cal. The association decided to 

 meet next year in San Francisco, Cal., pro- 

 vided acceptable terms were secured from 

 the railroads. 



The Falling of the Leaves. According 

 to a paper by Prof. Trelease, quoted in Gar- 

 den and Forest, three more or less distinct 

 periods are observable in the falling of the 

 leaves. The first, occurring on an average a 

 week earlier than the main fall, is marked 

 by the loss of the leaves of weakly twigs; 

 the second comprises the main defoliation ; 

 the third embraces the period during which 

 straggling leaves, mostly on branches that 

 have been shaded during the growing season, 



