196 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arls, and Letters. 



Of this balance, $600 received from Life Members constitutes 

 a permanent fund, the proceeds of which are only ajjplicable to 

 the general purposes of the Academy. 



The proposition heretofore offered to amend section two of the 

 by-laws, relating to the meeting to be held at the time of the 

 exhibition of the State Agricultural Society, was considered and 

 indefinitely postponed. 



The proposition, submitted at the last meeting, to amend sec- 

 tion eight of the Constitution, so as to provide that the Presi- 

 dent and Secretary of the State Agricultural Society shall be 

 ex-officio members of the Council for the Department of the 

 Arts was considered and adopted. 



On motion, it was 



JResolved, That the resolution requiring the investment of a permanent endowment 

 fund be so modified as to authorize the investment of the same iu any securities satis- 

 factory to the Committee on Finance. 



The rules being unanimously suspended for the purpose, the 

 following named persons were duly elected members of the 

 Academy. 



Life Members —John L. Mitchell, Esq., Milwaukee, Wis. 



Annual Members.— Prof. W. P. Yocum, Appleton, Wis. ; G. F. Luders, Sauk City, 

 Wis. ; Kev. W. S. Alexander, Racine, Wis. ; Wm. 3. Sherman, Esq., Milwaukee, Wis. ; 

 H. K. Smith, Esq., Milwaukee, Wis. 



Corresponding Members.— Hon. J.Hammond Trumbull, LL. D. , Hartford, Conn.; 

 Prof. S. S. Haldemann, State University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia; F. Ebener, Ph. 

 D., Baltimore, Md. ; Prof. W D. Whitney, New Haven, Conn. ; Dr. J. G. Brintou, Phil- 

 adelphia, Pa. 



It was resolved to publish another number of the Bulletin, to 

 include the proceedings of the last and present meetings. 



Rev. C. Caverno announced that being about to leave the 

 state, it would be necessary to resign the office of Secretary of 

 the Social Science Department of the Academy. 



The papers read at this meeting were as follows: 



1, On the Clay Deposits and Fossils found therein, in the 

 Region about Appleton. By R. Z. Mason, LL. D., Appleton. 



The geological characteristics of this region are, 1st. A thin stratum of the lower mag- 

 nesian limestone overlaying the Potsdam sandstone, all dipping at small angle to the 

 southeast. The limestone in the vicinity of Appleton grows thinner as we go westward, 

 and nearly disappears at the Wolf river, being replaced as a surface rock by the Potsdam 

 sandstone, between the Wolf and Wisconsin rivers. The Lower River flows over the 

 surface of the limestone at a level of about sixty feet below the general surface of the 

 clay deposits. These deposits, of clav mainly, are therefore about sixty to eighty feet 

 deep, and give every appearance of having been made iu quiet and shallow seas, inter- 

 mixed with these deposits of clay, are boulders, varying in size from a mere pebble to 

 those of many tons weight. These boulders, are granite, quartz, feldspar, hornblende, 

 and trap — the first and last most abundant. 



Throughout this entire region there have also been found, at the depth of twenty, 

 forty and sixty feet, large fragments of timber, generally cedar, tamarack and other con- 

 ifers . 



These seem to be the fragments of trees that have grown in this region at an early 

 period, when the temperature was lower than at present, and where the surface of the 

 ground was level and marshy. 



The above inference is based on the fact that the forest trees of warmer latitudes and 

 higher regions, such as now grow there, to wit, the oak, the maple, the beech, etc., have 

 never been found in these clays. Nearly all the discoveries of this nature have been 

 made in the digging of wells. 



2. On the Ancient Lakes of Wisconsin, By J. G. Knapp, 

 Esq., Madison. 



[Published in the Transactions, p. 151.] 



