212 Association of Geologists and JVaturalists. [Nov., 



This apparatus he fitted to a common pasteboard tube, covered 

 with gilt paper externally, and blackened internally, with which 

 he measured the heat of distant objects. He could detect the 

 heat of a man's face a mile off j that of a house five miles off. He 

 thus discovered that the coldest spot in the sky is at the zenith. 

 One day, on directing his tube to a cloud, from which flashes of light- 

 ning proceeded, he was astonished to find it indicated a great degree 

 of cold; he afterwards found out that a considerable quantity of 

 hail had failed from this cloud. Forming clouds probably evolve 

 heat; and dissolving clouds, cold. 



He was not satisfied with the appearances of heat supposed to 

 have been derived from the moon. The heat that other observers 

 have got is probably the reflected heat of the sun, and not the 

 moon's proper heat. 



A lens made of ice may set fire to a combustible: it may re- 

 flect heat, as well as light. 



These are a few of the important results at which he arrived. 

 The thermo-electrical telescope will be found of vast importance, 

 from the immense range of phenomena to which it may be applied. 



It Avas voted to extend the objects of the association, so as to 

 comprise every branch of positive science; and a new name was 

 therefore adopted, viz: American Association for the Promotion 

 OF Science. 



On the Taconic System, hy Prof. Adams. 



This range, in Vermont, is between the Green mountains and 

 Lake Champlain. It diverges from the granitic, in the north 

 part of the state; it presents fewer traces of metamorphosis. He 

 concluded that the " red sand rock " is newer than the Hudson 

 river group; that, from the fossils found and exhibited, it is equiv- 

 alent f o the ]\1edina sandstone and Clinton group of New York. 



Dr. Emmons, in a brief reply to Prof. Adams' remarks on the 

 Taconic system, maintained that he had overlooked entirely the 

 fault which passes through Snake mountain, in Addison, Vt; that 

 the mass called by Mr. A. the Trenton limestone, could not be 

 that rock, inasmuch as he had placed it above the Hudson river 

 group, and that the fossils were not proved to be those of the 

 Trenton limestone; and furthermore, that the masses which Mr. 

 Adams attempted to show, belonged to the Clinton group, were 

 merely in fact the calciferous sandrock or Potsdam sandstone, be- 

 ing proved to be those rocks, by fossils at other localities, and 

 which, as in the case of the same rocks at Snake mountain, rest 

 upon the Taconic slate. Overlooking the fault in the geological 

 position of the rocks at the Snake mountain, Prof. Adams had 

 been led into error. (Remarks discontinued for want of time.) 



