10 proceedings: geological society 



Evidence of the inorganic origin of petroleum: C. W. Washburne. No 

 abstract. 



Resins in Paleozoic Coals: David White. The discoveries by Eu- 

 ropean paleobotanists of supposed secretory cells and canals in petrified 

 woods of Paleozoic age, were reviewed, and in the light of data afforded 

 by certain American coals of low bituminous rank, interpreted as proba- 

 bly resin-bearing for the most part. This conclusion rests on the exami- 

 nation of the canal casts found in certain carbonized woods in the bi- 

 tuminous coals of the interior basins; on the observation of lumps of 

 exudate resins in Paleozoic coals of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, and, in 

 particular on the physical and chemical characters of the canal fillings 

 found in carbonized petioles in the upper part of the Quadrant quartzite 

 of Montana all of which indicate that these secretions are resinous, and 

 that, accordingly, some of the Paleozoic woods found petrified were 

 resin-bearing. It appears that the resin contributions of the Paleozoic 

 plants were perhaps as large as those furnished by the coal-forming 

 floras of the Cretaceous and Tertiar3\ 



Studies in a number of western coal fields of the occurrence of resins, 

 which are always present and often conspicuous in the lower rank coals 

 of the Cretaceous and Tertiary, show that when, as the result of regional 

 metamorphism,. these coals are brought to a low bituminous rank the 

 effects of pressure metamorphism are found in physical changes as well 

 as in probable chemical changes in the resin lumps; also that during 

 the alteration indicated by the passage from about 58 per cent to 68 per 

 cent fixed carbon (pure coal basis) the resin lumps have become crackled, 

 changed to a dark brown, to a brownish black and, successively, to a 

 black carbonaceous granular powder. The process seems, in effect, to be 

 a devolatilization (carbonization) of the resin lumps. So far as known 

 no resin lumps are present in coals characterized by so high a percentage 

 of carbon (pure coal basis) as 68. 



The deadening of the cannel coals found in association with high rank 

 coals, such as semi-bituminous and anthracite, is thought to be due to 

 the reduction of the waxy and resinous substances characteristic of the 

 cannel group of coals. As causally related to this phenomenon atten- 

 tion was called to the fact that, so far as observed by the speaker, no 

 commercial oil field has yet been found in any part of the earth in re- 

 gions where the coals of the formations that contain or overlie the oil 

 sands have been brought to a carbonization represented by 70 per cent 

 or more, the inference being that the distillation of the organic matter 

 has gone so far as to devolatilize or drive off the petroleum in the form- 

 ations of these regions. 



The 275th meeting of the Societv was held in the Cosmos Clul? on 

 November 26, 1913. 



REGULAR PROGRAM 



Quaternary History of the Mount St. Elias Region, Alaska: A. G. 

 INIaddren. The southern slopes of the Mount St. Elias region front on 

 the Pacific Ocean with a rather regular coast line that is in marked 



