AMEEICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OE 1870-1879. 



563 



I'KOGKESSIYE TI1EI )KETK'AL VIEW. 



The following scheme exhibits the progress of theoretical notions which have 

 obtained at different times with regard to the classification of the formations — the 

 age and horizon of the rocks in the State: 



"Also partly Quaternary and partly Cretaceous. 



This report gave a very fair summary of the knowledge of the 

 geology of North Carolina up to date. The thin gravels overlying 

 the eroded surfaces of the Eocene, Miocene, and Cretaceous in the 

 eastern part of the State were regarded as of glacial origin, the under- 

 lying rock being planed down by the currents and drifting ice which 

 brought the bowlders from the Archean hills of Chatham. This idea 

 is not, however, general^ accepted, North Carolina being now uni- 

 versally recognized as far south of the glacial limit. 



The gold-bearing gravels were looked upon as beds of till which had 

 crept down the declivities of the hills and mountains, as glaciers 

 descend Alpine valleys by successive freezing and thawing of the 

 whole w T ater-saturated mass, both gravitation and the expansion of 

 freezing contributing to the downward movement. This is evidently 

 the same idea as that later advanced by I. C. Russell in his description 

 of the debris streams of Alaska. 



Appendices attached contained a list and descriptions of the new 

 genera and species of fossil shells, by T. A. Conrad, and the minerals 

 of the State, by F. A. Genth. A chapter on corundum and its asso- 

 ciated rocks, by C. D. Smith, is mainly of interest from the fact that 

 Smith regarded the chrysolitic rocks as of igneous origin, a conclusion 

 which for sometime was disputed, but to which later workers have 

 returned. 



Kerr was of Scotch-Irish descent, though born in North Carolina. 

 His parents dying while he was quite young, he was adopted by a 

 Rev. Dr. Caruthers, a Presbyterian minister, under whose instruction 

 he was fitted for the State University at Chapel Hill, where he gradu- 

 ated in 1850 with highest honors. After graduation he taught school 

 for a while at Williamstown in his native State, until elected to a pro- 



