[ATIONS F<>U 



SCIF.NCK. <AMKRICAX.) 



35 



for the Automatic Regulation of Engine Loads in 

 Power Plants of Variable Output." by William S. 

 Franklin: and "The llydrographic Survey." by 

 Frank H. Newell. 



K. ff . md Q "iraphy. The presiding offi- 

 cer of this section was Prof. Benjamin K. Kmerson. 



nherst College, who delivered a vice-presiden- 

 tial addr. - "logical Myths." His pt: 

 wa- to trace "the history of several myths which 

 have their origin in remarkable geological phenome- 

 na, for I hardly need to say that I do not use the 

 word -myth' in the modern fashion of newspaper 

 English, 'as a false report, a canard in short, a 



-i'aper story: but as meaning a history, treas- 

 ured and hallowed in the literary and religious 

 archives of an ancient folk, of some startling or im- 



-:ve event, that, in the stimulating environ- 

 ment of poetry and personification, has completed 

 a long evolution, which disguises entirely its origi- 

 nal 



Has suffered a sea change 

 Into something new and strange,' 



so that, in fact, its study is pahvontological. I pro- 

 io speak of the Chimera, or the poetry of 

 petroleum; of the Niobe, or of the tragic side of 

 calcareous tufa : of Lot's wife, or the indirect re- 

 ligious effect of cliff erosion ; and of Xoah's flood, 

 or the possibilities of the cyclone and the earth- 

 quake wave working in harmony." 



The first of these he found in its earliest form 

 in a quaint old translation of Hesiod. who. accord- 

 ing to the marbles of Paros. lived almost nine cen- 

 turies before the Christian era. Prof. Emerson 

 found the origin of the myth in a strange mountain 

 called Chima?ra. from which portentous flames 

 escaped. Like the ChinuTra, the Niobe is an epi- 

 sode in Greek mythology, and may be traced to a 

 --al bust of a woman cut out of the living rock, 

 which is still standing, and may be seen in the val- 

 ley of Nif, or Xymphio, between Mount Tmolus 

 and Sipylus. Lot's wife was indeed a pillar of salt. 

 and the myth simply is the tradition that ha- 

 ciated the name of that unfortunate woman with 

 the salt formation that was exposed by the catas- 

 trophe that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Go- 

 morrah. 



He traced the history of the flood through the 

 various authorities, including Haupt and Jet 

 recent translation of the ""Gilgamos Epic." and 



Eointed out the possibilities of its origin and simi- 

 irity to modern seismic phenomena. 

 The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section : " Notes on the Artesian 

 Well sunk at Key West, Florida, in 1895." by Ed- 

 mund 0. Hovey: "A Revision of the Morain 

 Minnesota "anil "The Hydraulic Gradient of the 

 Main Artesian Basin of the Northwest." by James 

 E. Todd ; " The True Tuff Beds of the Trias, and the 

 Mud Inclosures. the Underrolling, and the Basic 

 Pitchstone of the Triassic Traps " and " The Tyring- 

 ham iMa--. 'Mortise Rock ' and Pseudomorphs of 

 Quartz after Albite." by Benjamin K. Emerson ; 

 "The Succession of the Fossil Faunas in the Ham- 

 ilton Group at Eighteen Mile Creek. X. Y.." by 

 Amadeus W. Grabau : "Volcanic Ash from the 

 North Shore of Lake Superior," by Nathaniel H. 

 Winchell and Ulysses S. Grant; "The 'Aucren- 

 gneiss.' Pegmatite 'Veins, and Diorite Dikes at Bed- 

 ford, Westchester County. N. Y.." by Lea Mel. Lu- 

 quer and Heinrich Ries: "Development of the 

 Physiography of California " (with lantern pic- 

 tures) and " Synopsis of California Stratigraphy." 

 by James P. Smith ; " Ancient and Modern Sharks, 

 and the Evolution of the Class." by Edward \V. 

 Claypole ; "Observations on the Dorsal Shields in 

 the Dinichthyids." by Charles R. Eastman: "The 



Geology of the Buffalo Region." by Frederick 

 K. Mixer; " Interglacial Change <>f Course, with 

 of the St. Croix I fiver, in Minne- 

 nsin " and " The Cuyahoga Pregla- 

 cial Gorge in Cleveland. Ohio." by Warren Uphara ; 

 "Notes on Certain Fossil Plants from the Carbon- 

 iferous of Iowa.'" by Thomas II. Macbride : "Ori- 

 gin of the High-Terrace Deposits of the Mononga- 

 hela River." by Israel C. White: "The Making of 

 Mammoth Cave "and "The Colossal Cavern," by 

 11' race ( '. Hovey: "James Hall, Founder of 

 American Stratigraphic Geology" and "Sheet- 

 flood Erosion." by W J McGee; "Glacial Flood 

 Deposits in the Chenango Valley." by Albert P. 

 Brigham : " Origin of Conglomerates." by Thomas 

 C. Hopkins; "Origin of Topographic Features in 

 Xorth Carolina." by Collier Cobb ; " The Cretaceous 

 Clay Marl Exposure at Clifford. X. J.."' by Arthur 

 Hoilick: "Post-Cretaceous Grade Plains in South- 

 ern Xew England." by F. P. Gulliver : " Prof. 

 Hall and the" Survey of the Fourth District." by 

 John M. Clarke: "The Algonquin River." "The 

 Whirlpool. Saint Davids Channel." and "Profile of 

 the Bed of the Xiagara in its Gorge." by Grove K. 

 Gilbert ; " The Xiagara Falls Gorge." by George W. 

 Holley ; " Origin and Age of the Laureutian Lakes 

 and of Xiagara Falls." by Warren Upham : " Cor- 

 relation of Warren Beaches with Moraines and 

 Outlets in Southeastern Michigan " and " Xotes on 

 the Glacial Succession in Eastern Michigan." by 

 Frank B. Taylor : " Geomorphic Xotes on Norway " 

 and " The Slopes of the Drowned Antillean Val- 

 by John W. Spencer : "Notes on Kansan 

 Drift in Pennsylvania." by Edward H. Williams : 

 " Preliminary Notes on the Columbian Deposits of 

 the Susquehanna." by Harvey B. Bashore : "The 

 Eocene Stages of Georgia." by Gilbert D. Harris: 

 and " The Origin and Age of the Gypsum Deposits 

 of Kansas." by G. P. Grimsley. 



F. Zoology. This section was presided over by 

 Dr. Theodore X. Gill, of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, whose address was on " Some Questions in Xo- 

 menclature." At the outset he said: "Nomencla- 

 ture, in the modern sense of the word, did not 

 trouble naturalists till near the middle of the last 

 century. The animals and plants of the ancient 

 world were mostly treated of under the names 

 which the Greeks or Romans had used, or were 

 supposed to have used. The forms that became 

 first known after the discovery of America were in- 

 troduced into the literature under names more or 

 less like those which they bore among the aborigi- 

 nal inhabitants of the countries from which those 

 forms had been obtained." And then he told how 

 a census of animals and plants taken by Ray shortly 

 before Linnaeus began his career, enumerated less 

 than 4.000 animals, exclusive of insects ; and of 

 those it was estimated that there were about "'20.- 

 000 in the whole world." whereas about 400.000 spe- 

 cies of animals are now known, and of insects we 

 still know the smaller portion. As knowledge of 

 species of animals and plants increased, the neces- 

 sity of system in registering them became apparent. 

 Linnaeus and Artedi especially appreciated this ne- 

 cessity, and early applied themselves to the correc- 

 tion of existing' evils and the reformation of the 

 classification and nomenclature of all the kingdoms 

 of Nature. Then, taking up the binomial nomen- 

 clature, he said: "The question that has been most 

 adtated of late is. What time shall we recognize as 

 the starting point for the binomial nomenclature t 

 Almost all the naturalists of the United Star 

 cept 1758 as the starting time for nomenclature, 

 and now most of the naturalists of Europe take the 

 same view. But the English generally accept 1766 

 as the beginning of this orismo. 



Misapplied names were considered as well as the 



