448 
NATURE 
[FeBruary 8, 1917 . 
from the Roker Cliffs at Sunderland. 
Most of this | main contention since my first map of 1881, confirmed 
surface is above the tide-mark. Many of the cal- | in both France and Spain, and affording a fresh clue 
careous balls exposed in any part of this bed exhibit 
similar narrow concentric zones, which also are a re- 
arrangement of the carbonate of lime in an orderly 
fashion after the formation of the spheres. A few 
years ago in Fulwell Hill Quarry I saw, on about 
the same horizon as the top of Carley Hill, already 
mentioned, a bed of such balls 2 in. to 3 in. in | 
diameter, from which a few feet of Boulder Clay had 
been removed six years earlier. These also had the 
same concentric lines, but as yet I have had no oppor- 
tunity of fixing a time-scale for the formation of zones 
shown in Fig. 1. I ought to state that a few micro- 
scopical examinations of unweathered specimens re- 
vealed no such lines across the rod structure. The 
two forms of weathering are probably due to the same 
physical change. The second one, when I saw it in 
tgo1, I supposed was due to segregation, and there- 
fore I have since then called it segregation banding, 
but a better title is possible. Similar zonings: of 
carbonate of lime have been produced by osmotic 
action by Prof. S. Leduc, of Nantes, and are shown 
on p. 84 of his ‘‘La Biologie Synthétique” (A. Poinet, 
Paris). Much the same thing is now known as 
Liesegang’s rings, but who can claim priority I do not 
know. Except for a considerable difference in width 
of the interspaces they closely resemble the zones in 
weathered mortar due to rearrangement of carbonate 
of lime. GeEoRGE ABBOTT. 
2 Rusthall Park, Tunbridge Wells, 
December 30, 1916. 
Tertiary Igneous Rocks of the Pyrenees. 
THE review of the treatise of Beyschlag, Vogt, and 
Krusch 
c in Nature of August 3, 1916, gives 
prominence to their mention’ of supposed absence 
of Tertiary igneous rocks. Yet even _ their 
pages figure grey-copper veins of Los Arcos 
cutting Tertiary beside ophite and granite intrusions. 
The latest official map of a Pyrenean district 
(Orthez) figures the ophite veins cutting uppermost 
Cretaceous, which I have insisted on during thirty 
years. In that time I have succeeded in securing by 
fossil evidence the recognition of the Cambrian of 
the map of 1890 as Hippurite Cretaceous, the “ Silu- 
rian" slates of Lourdes as Middle Cretaceous, and 
the Scolithia beds of San Sebastian as Nummulitic 
Eocene, The erroneous classification led to the con- 
ception of the entire Pyrenees as rolled from the Sierra 
Nevada in such confusion and reversal as forbid atten- 
tion to local and detailed observation, in the pro- 
gressive correction of the map of Dufrénoy. 
Yet even in Cornwall the excellent ‘version of 
French methods supplied by an eminently practical 
miner has promoted accurate observation, and even 
Suess has returned, in his latest pages, to the prin- 
ciple of direction. As a hopeful science, apart from 
literary speculation, geology must aim at verifiable 
measurements and fossil confirmation. As example, 
I may quote my latest revision of the cluster of inte- 
rior basins between Pamplona and Bayonne, which 
present floors of the plain Cretaceous border, now 
cited as exposures of that plain beneath a shovelled 
Paleozoic mass. With accurate mining plans, I trace 
their Cretaceous filling, in places, to the highest sur- 
rounding summits, and its successive beds as dis- 
tinctly synclinal in disposition. Exceptional points of 
dislocation and reversal prove to accompany those 
local faults attested in mining work, abounding speci- 
ally on the depressions followed by the high roads of 
the tourist’s automobile. The Tertiary age of much of 
the ophite and granite of the Pyrenees has been my 
NO. 2467, VoL. 98] 
from the most neglected portiom of the chain. The 
latest observations in both Alps and Andes led Suess 
himself to rehabilitate the importance of igneous 
intrusion, and its recognition in connection with 
| mining and orogenics has seemed to me of supreme 
utility in practical geology. ; 
P. W. Strvuart-MENTEATH. 
Ciboure, January 20. 
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
Ts sixty-ninth regular annual meeting of the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science- was held in New York City on De- 
cember 26-30, 1916, under the presidency of 
Dr. C. R. Van Hise, of the University of Wis- 
consin. 
The headquarters of the meeting was Columbia 
University, but, with the twelve sections of the 
association and the fifty-two national societies 
of restricted scope affiliated with the association 
at this meeting, the large lecture-rooms of 
Columbia University were insufficient, and meet- 
ings were also held in the American Museum of 
Natural History, in Barnard College, in the 
College of the City of New York, in the Cornell 
Medical College, in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, and inthe Union Theological Seminary. 
The association, while holding annual meetings, 
is making especial effort to have every fourth 
meeting unite all the scientific societies of the 
United States, and this meeting at New York 
was the first of these four-year meétings. The 
second will probably be held at Chicago in 1920. 
The attendance was larger than it has ever 
been in the history of the association. More 
than two thousand registered at the association 
headquarters, and it is estimated that above 
a thousand more were in attendance at the meet- 
ings held in other parts of the city. 
The address of the retiring president, Dr._ 
W. W. Campbell, of the Lick Observatory, 
University of California, on “The Nebule,” was 
delivered on December 27 in the large lecture- 
hall of the American Museum of Natural History. 
The address was followed by a reception given 
by the trustees of the museum, and the guests 
were received by Mrs. H. F. Osborn and by 
Mr. J. H. Choate, former United States Ambas- 
sador to London. 
During the week presidential addresses before 
the different sections were given as follows :— 
Prof. W. A‘ Setchell, of the University of 
California, before Section G, on “The Geographic 
Distribution of Marine Alge.”’ This address was 
followed by a symposium on the relations of 
chemistry to botany. : 
Prof. E. Davenport, dean of the College of 
Agriculture of the University of Illinois, before 
Section M, on “The Outlook for Agricultural 
Science.” The address was followed by a dis- 
cussion on “The Adjustment of Science to Prac- 
tice in Agriculture.” 
