POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



283 



can geology the Taconic group which was 

 set forth by Dr. Emmons iu 1842. Until 

 very recently it has been the practice of 

 geologists to refer every crystalline rock in 

 the Northwest — in Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 later in Minnesota — to either the Huronian or 

 Laurentian system. A more careful exami- 

 nation has shown that the nomenclature is 

 imperfect, and needs to be amended or sup- 

 plemented. Omitting the igneous rocks of 

 dikes and overflows, the crystalline rocks un- 

 derlying the shales and sandstones of the cu- 

 priferous formation in the Northwest may be 

 arranged, in descending order, in six groups. 

 The first group consists of granite and gneiss 

 with gabbro, and has been variously regard- 

 ed by different geologists. Below this is a 

 series of strata that may be designated by 

 the general term mica-schist group. Next 

 is a group of black mica-schists, with car. 

 bonaceous and arenaceous black shales, un- 

 der which is a very thick series of obscure 

 hydromieaceous and greenish magnesian 

 schists, with beds of gray quartzite and clay 

 slates and deposits of hematite iron -ore, 

 terminating with magnetic iron - ore. The 

 fifth group consists of gray quartzite and 

 marble, and rests upon the lowest recog- 

 nized horizon of granite and syenite, with 

 hornblcndic schists. Difficulties rise when 

 it is attempted to find correspondences be- 

 tween these groups and any of the now rec- 

 ognized Eastern formations. Dr. Emmons 

 erred in his first presentation of the Taconic 

 system by extending it geographically too 

 far east, and choosing a name for it which 

 is appropriate only to a part of that east- 

 ward extension, and for that reason, poi- 

 haps, among others, it has fallen out of fa- 

 vor. In Professor Winchell's view, how- 

 ever, his claim, "in all its essential points, 

 remains intact." This consists in the ex- 

 istence of a series of sedimentary deposits, 

 largely metamorphic, below the Potsdam 

 sandstone, and separating the Potsdam from 

 the crystalline rocks known as " primary " in 

 an orderly chronological sequence. His sys- 

 tem, going from the top down, comprised a 

 black slate, including a considerable amount 

 of carbonaceous matter ; an argillaceous> 

 siliceous, and " talcose " Taconic slate ; the 

 " Stockbridge limestone "; graduating down- 

 ward into " talcose " or magnesian sand- 

 stones and slates ; a " granular quartz-rock," 



with slates and becoming in some places a 

 conglomerate with a " chloritic paste " ; and 

 the " ancient gneiss " on which the forma- 

 tion rested unconformably. In this several 

 correspondences are found with the defini- 

 tions of the crystalline i-ocks of the North- 

 west. Professor Winchell concludes that Dr. 

 Emmons's Taconic included three of the six 

 groups of the Northwest; that the Huro- 

 nian of Canada is the equivalent of the low- 

 est of the Taconic groups, and the perfect 

 parallel of only the lov.est of the groups in 

 the Northwest that have been designated 

 Huronian ; that the uppermost of the groups 

 in the Northwest is local in its existence and 

 exceptional in its characters, and has there- 

 fore received a variety of names ; and that 

 there are, therefore, confusion and conflict 

 of authority in the application of names to 

 the crystalline rocks of the Northwest. 



Profes?or Cope chose, as the subject of 

 his address before the Biological Section, 

 catagenesis, or the doctrine of the process 

 of creation by tlie retrograde metamorphosis 

 of energy, or by the specialization of ener- 

 gy. He began his argument by assuming 

 that the general proposition that life has 

 preceded organization in the order of time 

 may be regarded as established ; for it fol- 

 lows necessarily from the fact that the sim- 

 ple forms have as a rule preceded the com- 

 plex in the order of appearance on the earth. 

 Consciousness is coeval with life and has 

 preceded all action, even such actions, called 

 automatic and reflex, as are now performed 

 in incomplete or complete unconsciousness. 

 They were performed for the first time con- 

 sciously and of design, but by frequent repe- 

 tition they became habitual, an i conscious- 

 ness finally disappeared. Life, then, may 

 be defined as energy directed by sensibility, 

 or by a mechanism which has originated un- 

 der the direction of sensibility. Conscious- 

 ness is a property of matter, although clear- 

 ly not of all kinds of matter. It is, then, 

 of course subject to the laws of necessity 

 to which matter and energy conform. The 

 key to many weighty and mysterious phe- 

 nomena of animal life can be found in the 

 fact that energy can be conscious ; but, when 

 energy has become automatic, it is no longer 

 conscious, or is about to become unconscious. 

 In animals, with the development of habit, 



