632 The Smithsonian Institution 



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS 



AMONG the somewhat elaborate publications included in the 

 quarto series (" Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge "), 

 several have been of sufficient importance to the progress of 

 geology to deserve special notice. 



J. W. Bailey's paper, entitled "Microscopical Examinations 

 of Soundings, made by the United States Coast Survey off 

 the Atlantic Coast of the United States" (1851) is an interest- 

 ing piece of pioneer work in a field destined to be earnestly 

 cultivated, and to yield a rich harvest in the succeeding half- 

 century. The observation that, as the soundings increased 

 in depth (though none of them much exceeded 100 fathoms), 

 the quartzose and feldspathic constituents of the seashore 

 sands gave place gradually to the calcareous remains of fora- 

 minifera, was a discovery of prophetic interest. 



Two important papers relate to surface geology, or the 

 geology of the Quaternary era. " Illustrations of Surface 

 Geology," by Edward Hitchcock (1857), is a valuable inves- 

 tigation in a department of geology which had then received 

 but little attention. The maps and sections of terraces of the 

 Connecticut River and its tributaries give evidence of most 

 thorough and conscientious work. The progress of science 

 in the past forty years has, indeed, very largely changed the 

 interpretation of the facts so faithfully observed and recorded. 

 The increased knowledge of the dynamics of glaciers has 

 answered the objections which compelled President Hitch- 

 cock to attribute the Drift to the action of ice-floes. The 

 marks of the action of glaciers, which he was sagacious 

 enough to recognize in various localities in Massachusetts 

 and Vermont, can now take their place as illustrations of 

 particular phases of the action of the same agency which 

 produced the Drift, instead of being arbitrarily distinguished. 



