1881. 21 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Sez. 
forming as nodules about some nuclei. The aggregate quantity of 
copper in this formation was enormous, but, except where by the erosion 
of the beds it accumulated at the surface and could be picked up with- 
out any expense in mining, it would hardly pay to attempt to obtain it 
by ordinary mining processes. 
The wood replaced by copper, Dr. Newberry said, was undoubtedly 
all coniferous, and different from any now living) The beds which 
contained the cuprified wood also contained much that was silicified. 
Of this he had examined many specimens under the microscope and 
had found the peculiar dotted cells which are characteristic of the con- 
iferz, and these grouped in such a way as to prove the trees to have 
belonged to the Araucarian group of conifers. So far as yet known, 
the angiosperms, or higher order of plants, did not make their appear- 
ance on the earth’s surface until after the copper bearing rocks of the 
southwest had been deposited. 
November 7, 1881. 
REGULAR BUSINESS MEETING. 
The President, Dr. J. S. NEWBERRY, in the Chair. 
Twenty-nine persons present. 
A paper by Prof. P. T. CLeve, University of Upsala, Sweden, 
was read by Prof. D. S. Martin, entitled 
OUTLINES OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE NORTHEASTERN WEST INDIA 
ISLANDS. 
(Abstract.) 
Prof. Cleve’s paper contained a resumé of his observations made 
during 1868-9, in and around the Virgin Islands, and published in the 
Swedish language in the 7raus, R. Acad. Scz. of Stockholm, in 1871. 
He regards the whole group as of Cretaceous and Tertiary age, with 
the exception of Anegada, which, like the Bahamas, is Post-pliocene. 
The strike of the rocks, and the trend of the entire group, are 
approximately east and west. The rocks are various, largely eruptive 
and metamorphic. Of these, Prof. Cleve discussed somewhat fully the 
character and distribution of the following kinds :—1, Dioryte; 2, Fel- 
syte; 3, “ Blue-beach” (a peculiar volcanic breccia, locally so-called); 
4, Diabase. 
All these rocks have great thickness, and indicate long-continued vol- 
canic activity. As in modern lavas, they present two types, basic and 
acidic. 
Metamorphic slates are next described ; and then a partly metamor- 
