472 



NATURE 



[September 17, 1891 



of Prof. Stevenson in Virginia and Pennsylvania, incidentally 

 referring to the work of Profs. Hall and Williams in New York. 

 In this way the continuity of the section was shown, and the 

 insignificance of the variations was insisted upon strongly. An 

 area in South-eastern New York and Northeastern Pennsyl- 

 vania, in which the Chemung group is almost without trace of 

 animal or vegetable life through the greater part of the thickness 

 was described. The absence of life was thought to be due, not 

 to fresh water, but to turbidity of the water in a shallow basin 

 near the land. The facts that the horizons of fish-remains are 

 much lower in the column than had been supposed, and that 

 the plant-remains come in like manner from the home group, 

 were thought to be of especial interest and importance. The 

 conclusions to which the speaker was led were : — (i) That the 

 series from the beginning of the Portage to the end of the 

 Catskill form but one period, the Chemung, which should be 

 divided into three epochs — the Portage, the Chemung, and the 

 Catskill. (2) That the disappearance of animal and veget- 

 able life on so great a part of this area toward the close of 

 the period was due simply to gradual extension of conditions 

 existing, perhaps, as early as the Hamilton period in South- 

 eastern New York. (3) That the deposits were not made in a 

 closed sea, but that the influx of great rivers with their load of 

 debris made conditions in the shallow basin such that animal 

 life could not exist. (4) That in the present state of our know- 

 ledge we are not justified in including the Chemung period in 

 the Carboniferous age. 



Notwithstanding the impending meetings of national and 

 international Geological Societies, this Section was fully occu- 

 pied with papers and discussion, mainly on the Glacial epoch, . 

 drift, &c. Mr. William Hallock read a paper entitled " A 

 Preliminary Report of Observations at the Deep Well, Wheel- 

 ing, W. Va." The question as to the conditions which exist in 

 the interior of the earth, said Mr. Plallock, has always attracted 

 much attention. The most important factor in the solution of 

 this riddle is the determination or estimation of the temperatures 

 there existing. The British Association has for years seized 

 every opportunity to obtain data as to the rate at which the 

 temperature increases as the earth crust is penetrated. The 

 most recent and trustworthy contributions on this subject are by 

 Mr. E. Danker, of Halle, Germany, and were obtained from a 

 41 70- foot well at Sperenberg, not far from Berlin, and a 5740- 

 foot well at Schladabach, near Leipzig. These wells are both 

 full of water, the circulation of which vitiates results or renders 

 elaborate apparatus indispensable, and the thermometers must 

 be protected from the pressure. The Wheeling deep well, sunk 

 by the Wheeling Development Company, and by them gener- 

 ously dedicated to science, is 4500 feet deep, 4^^ inches diameter, 

 and dry ; cased only to 1570 feet. The strata there are nearly 

 in situ, undistorted and dipping only 50 feet to the mile. More 

 satisfactory geological conditions can scarcely be imagined. 

 Being dry, ordinary United States Signal Service maximum 

 thermometers were used, and no especial precaution needed to be 

 taken to prevent circulation of the air. The thermometers were 

 lowered and raised, and depths measured by a steel wire. 

 Results : — 



Table I. 



Depth. 

 Feet. 

 1350 

 I591 

 1592 

 1745 

 1835 

 2125 

 2236 



2375 

 2486 

 2625 

 2740 

 2875 

 2990 



Temperature, 

 Fahrenheit. 

 Degrees. 

 6875 

 70-15 

 70-25 

 7170 

 7280 

 76-25 

 77-40 

 79-20 

 80-50 

 82-20 

 83-65 

 85-45 

 86-60 



51-30 



These observations, when plotted, show a slow increase for 

 the upper half of the uncased portion, about 1° F. for 

 So to 90 feet, whereas the lower part shows a more rapid 

 increase — about 1° F. for 60 feet ; ihe whole series giving 

 a well-defined and regular curve, wi^h a deflection at 2900 



NO. I 142, VOL. 44] 



to 3000 feet, where an oil sand occurs. Practically all the 

 rest of the uncased well is in shale. The increase in the rate at 

 which the temperature rises as the bottom is approached can 

 only be temporary, or we should have an inconceivable or im- 

 probable state of temperature at comparatively slight depths. 

 The two distinct series of observations combined in Table L 

 nowhere disagree more than o°-3 F., and hence are very 

 trustworthy and accurate. Table H. gives a comparison of the 

 results at the three great wells : — 



Table II. 



Name of well and 

 location. 



Total Temperature Temperature 

 Depth. at top. at bottom. 



Feet. Degrees. Degrees. 



Feet for 

 i°F. 

 Feet. 

 Sperenberg, near 



Berlin 59-2 



Schladabach, near 



Leipzig 65-0 



Wheeling Develop- 

 ment Company — 

 Top and greatest. 



depths 74-3 



Mean of lower 3000 



feet 75-4 



Mean of above two 749 



Inasmuch as the bottom of the well is some 3700 feet below 

 sea-level, it seemed worth while to attempt barometer readings 

 in it. The instruments used proved ill adapted to the work, 

 and the results were unsatisfactory. Samples of air were taken 

 at the bottom, but could not be analyzed in time for use. A 

 series of observations in a coal mine near the well gave as a very 

 probable value of the temperature of the top invariable stratum 

 5i°-3 F. From the mean annual temperature of Marietta and 

 Steubenville it might be taken at 52° -2 F. Drilling is tempo- 

 rarily stopped, but it is hoped that a depth of 5500 or 6000 feet 

 may be reached. Mr. Anton Reyman, of the Development 

 Company, has generously guaranteed half the expenses, and 

 what is wanted is that some one shall furnish the other 3000 

 dollars, and enable the Wheeling well to be lifted from the 

 second to the first place among the deep wells of the world. 



Section Y— Biology. 

 Prof. John M. Coulter, President of Indiana State University, 

 gave the annual address, as President of Section F, on the 

 future of systematic botany. He contended that for the system- 

 atists of to-day and of the future there must be three distinct 

 lines of work, related to each other in natural sequence in the 

 order presenled, and each turning over its completed product to 

 the next. (i) The Collection and Description of Plants. -He 

 expressed great gratitude to the noble army of self-denying 

 pioneer collectors, but claimed that the time had now come 

 when the same amount of labour could be expended to better 

 advantage, and that a race of field workers must be trained who 

 shall follow their profession as distinctly and scientifically as the 

 race of topographers. In reference to the work of descrip- 

 tion he read an unpublished note of Prof. Asa Gray, in which 

 that distinguished botanist lamented the work of those who 

 were incompetent. The speaker also expressed the opinion 

 that the exclusive use of gross organs in the description of 

 higher plants would be given up, and that the more stable 

 minute characters would prove valuable aids in steadying diag- 

 nosis. A danger in the use of these minute characters was 

 pointed out, viz. the tendency to use a single set of minute 

 characters too far, and to make the fabric of a whole group con- 

 form to it. The character of a species is an extremely composite 

 affair, and it must stand or fall by the sum total of its peculiari- 

 ties, and not by a single one. There is nothing that involves a 

 broader grasp of facts — the use of an inspiration rather than a 

 rule — than the proper discrimination of species. (2) The Sttidy 

 of Life- histories. -The work of searching for the affinities of 

 great groups is the crying need of systematic botany to-day. 

 The speaker called attention to the danger of magnifying the 

 impbrtance of certain periods or organs in indicating affinities, 

 and summed up what was said under this general head as fol- 

 lows : — "I have thus spoken of the study of life-histories to 

 indicate that its chief function lies in the field of systematic 

 botany ; to suggest that it take into account development at 

 every period and of every organ, and so obtain a mass of cumu- 

 lative evidence for safe generalization ; and to urge upon those 



