ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. (AMERICA*.) :_>;, 



nain, Cambridge (otlice Salem), Mass. General 

 Sei -reiary, Thomas II. Norton, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

 Secretary of the Council, Herman L. Kairrhild, 

 Rochester, N. Y. Secretaries of the Sections: 

 A, Clarence A. Waldo, Newcastle, Ind., in place 

 of Andrew W. Phillips, who was not present; 

 I'.. \V. he Conte Stevens, Troy, N. Y. ; C, Henry 

 N. Stokes, Chicago, 111., in place of John U. Nef, 

 who was not present; D, David S. Jacobus, HO- 

 IK. ken, N. J. ; E, William II. Hobbs, Madison, 

 Wis., in place of Robert T. Hill, who was not 

 in i sent; F, Leland 0. Howard, Washington, 

 i). C. : Q, Beverly T. Galloway, Washington, 

 1>. c., in place of Frederick V. Coville, who was 

 not present ; H, Warren K. Moorehead, Xenia, 

 Ohio; I, Nellie S. Kedzie, Manhattan, Kan. 

 Treasurer, William Lilly, Mauch Chunk, Pa. 



Opening Proceedings. The preliminary 

 meeting of the council with which the meeting 

 begins was held in the Park Hotel on Aug. 16, 

 when, besides other details, business pertaining 

 to local arrangements, etc., was decided upon. 

 About 80 new members were elected. The first 

 general session with which the public meetings 

 begin was held in Library Hall of the University 

 of Wisconsin, which institution had placed its 

 buildings at the disposal of the visiting scien- 

 tists, at 10 A. M., on August 17. As is the 

 custom. President Joseph Le Conte called the 

 meeting to order and promptly introduced his 

 successor, Prof. William. Harkness, as the presid- 

 ing officer. In taking the chair, Prof. Hark- 

 ness made a brief address, in which he spoke 

 of the aims and objects of the association, com- 

 paring them to those of the French Academy 

 and of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. The former labored for the 

 promotion of science by conferring honors and 

 medals upon scientists, while the latter acted by 

 stimulating independent research and rewarding 

 such work by pecuniary prizes. The object of 

 the American Association was similar to the 

 latter, and if it had not yet attained the stand- 

 ard of its British prototype, it certainly was in a 

 fair way of reaching it before long. Another 

 object of the American Association was the 

 bringing together of all workers in science men 

 and women into closer relations with each 

 other. At the close of these brief remarks the 

 Rev. J. W. Cochran offered prayer, and then 

 brief addresses of welcome were delivered by 

 Mayor John Corscot, representing the civic 

 authorities of Madison, and by Gen. Lucius 

 Fairchild, chairman of the local committee of 

 arrangements. President Charles K. Adams, 

 of the University of Wisconsin, extended a 

 hearty welcome to the scientists in behalf of the 

 university. The annual report of the associa- 

 tion was then presented by the permanent sec- 

 retary, Prof. Frederick W. Putnam, who an- 

 nounced the deaths of 32 members during the 

 past year. Among these was John S. New berry, 

 a past president of the association, head of 

 the department of geology at Columbia Col- 

 lege School of Mines; Prof. Eben N. Horsford, 

 of Cambridge. Mass., &n original member of the 

 association ; Dr. Henry Wheatland, of Salem, 

 Mass., founder of the Essex Institute in that 

 place ; Martha J. Lamb, of New York city, edi- 

 tor of the " Magazine of American History " ; 

 and Dr. Philo R. Hoy, of Racine, Wis. 



The receipts of the association during the past 

 year amounted to $8,233, and the ex)>eu<lii ures 

 $0,510, leaving a balance of $1,715. The asso- 

 ciation has a research fund, the interest of which 

 is expended 'in the encouragement of scientific 

 research. The fund now amounts to $5,840, 

 and it is increasing every year. 



Address of the Retiring President The 

 Association met in the Assembly Chamber of 

 the Capitol, on the evening of May 17, to hear 

 the retiring address of President Joseph Le 

 Conte. Owing to the absence of Gov. Peck, the 

 Attorney-General, J. L. O'Connor, welcomed the 

 association in a few well-chosen words, and 

 then gave way to Prof. Le Conte, who discussed 

 " The Present Status of Science as to the Origin 

 of Mountain Ranges." It was customary, he 

 said, for the president in his annual address to 

 give a resume of the progress of science for the 

 expiring year. But tne field of science was so 

 great that he felt obliged to confine his paper to 

 one subject. Then, taking up the theme of his 

 address, he defined a mountain as the result of 

 a single earth effort, occupying a short or a very 

 long time, while a mountain range was the re- 

 sult of a succession of earth throes. The thick- 

 ness of the strata of mountains varies, but it is 

 always great. In the Appalachians the Palaeo- 

 zoic is 40,000 feet thick, the Mesozoic of the 

 Alps is 50,000 feet, and the Cretaceous of Cali- 

 fornia is 20,000 feet. The sediments of the Ap- 

 palachians thin out to the west to only 1,000 

 or 2,000 feet, so that mountains may be consid- 

 ered as lines of exceptionally thick sediments. 

 They are, at the same time, lines of exceptionally 

 coarse sediments. Foldings and faults are also 

 characteristic of these features of the earth, the 

 folds being single or many, and the faults being 

 sometimes of enormous extent. Faults of 20,000 

 feet occur in the Western region. The compo- 

 nent materials of mountains are fragments of 

 rock, coarse gravels, and sands, and their huge 

 mass rises in folded structure above the general 

 surface of the globe. Sometimes, as in the 

 Uintah mountains, there is but a single enormous 

 fold ; and again there is fold upon fold ; and 

 yet again there is occasionally great complexity, 

 the strata being thrust under and over in a vast 

 fanlike form. There are also sinclines and anti- 

 clines, which are often greatly appressed, as in 

 the Appalachian range, where 19 have been 

 counted in a distance of 65 miles. Mountain 

 strata are not equally affected by cleavage, some 

 seeming to be very solid, while in the case of 

 others the whole mountain appears to be cleav- 

 able from top to bottom. The earth wave some- 

 times breaks with Surprising abruptness, and 

 again it slopes away very gently. 



Many theories have been offered in explana- 

 tion of these phenomena. Bare facts are not 

 science. Facts must be grouped and systema- 

 tized. But as this work goes on, it is liable to 

 grow daring and speculative, until it is necessary 

 to demand a careful discrimination between 

 what may be styled formal and causal theories. 

 It is agreed that mountains were originated by 

 a process of horizontal mashing and vertical 

 uplifting of the earth's crust. But what caused 

 this mashing and uplifting f A true formal 

 theory must advance gradually. Mountains are 

 born of sea-margin deposits. We find by ob- 



