1 62 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



be constituted on the rotation system, to represent as far as pos- 

 sible — 



Vertebrate paleontology — fishes and amphibians. 



Vertebrate paleontology — Birds, reptiles, and mammals. 



Invertebrate paleontology — Paleozoic. 



Invertebrate paleontology — Mesozoic and Cenozoic. 



Paleobotany. 



This committee to be chosen for terms of five years, but at the 

 first election to determine by lot the members to hold office for one, 

 two, three, four, and five years respectively, so that one member of 

 the committee shall go out of oSice each year and not be eligible 

 for immediate reelection, but to be replaced by a new member elected 

 by the Carnegie Institution. 



Such advisory committee to hold stated quarterlj'- meetings, for 

 attendance at which members present will receive a fee in addition 

 to expenses ; to elect its own chairman annually, and to appoint an- 

 nually a salaried secretary, whose duty it shall be to keep all the 

 records, to prepare and present applications, and to act especially as 

 editor of paleontological publications.* 



The principle of rotation in office, both as regards the committee 

 of five and its secretary, will secure the constant infusion of fresh 

 blood and keep the committee abreast of the most recent advances 

 in paleontology. 



The organization, duties, and powers of this committee will nat- 

 urally conform to those assigned by the Institution to advisory 

 committees on other subjects. 



III. Personnel. — That a full list of the active investigators of the 

 country, including the younger as well as the older and better 

 known men, should be prepared and kept constantly renewed, in 

 connection with the specific problems in regard to which investiga- 

 tion from time to time seems to be most urgent. 



IV. The establishment of standard be^ich-marks for the geological 

 time scale. — It is recommended that the Advisory Committee on 

 Paleontology be authorized (and in case no such committee is ap- 

 pointed, that a committee be appointed for this purpose) to under- 

 take the establishment of a few carefully selected time bench-marks, 

 which shall constitute a permanent set of standards for discrimi- 

 nating divisions of geologic time, and which shall serve as datum 



* It is probable that the salaried secretary could also act as the secretary of 

 one or more other committees, say the zoological, and be connected with the 

 central office in Washington. 



