ABSTA\4CTS 



99 



soils, such could hardly be of interest for the reason stated, since potash 

 is not, on the whole, a prominent constituent of zeolitic minerals. In 

 this connection Mr. Merrill suggested that the term weathering as 

 applied to rocks should be limited to those processes going on within 

 the zone of oxidation and resulting as a rule in the destruction of the 

 rock was as a geological body, while the more deep-seated processes 

 which result in the production of new minerals of the nature of zeolites, 

 chlorite, epidote, etc., and which are really of mineralogical rather than 

 geological moment, should be looked upon as metamorphic and desig- 

 nated as products of hydrometamorphism. In discussing the probable 

 condition of the soluble constituents of soil, a brief table was given 

 showing that in rocks of as diverse types as granite, phonolite, diabase 

 and basalt, the percentage amount of soluble constituents in both fresh 

 and decomposed materials may be very nearly equal. 



JVb^es on the Potsdam and Lower Magnesian Formations of Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota. By Jcseph F. James. 



The observations recorded in this paper were made on a trip 

 through Wisconsin and Minnesota during 1889. Starting from Mad- 

 ison, Wis., the route was through Lodi, Devil's Lake, Baraboo, Able- 

 man's, Ripon, Winneconne, New London, Morritan, Hudson and River 

 Falls, Wis., to Stillwater, Winona, and Dresbach, Minn. Natural and 

 artificial, exposures, especially in quarries, were studied at all of these 

 places and others, and nearly all of them are illustrated by sections 

 drawn to a scale. The most extensive section is that made between 

 Knapp and Wilson stations on the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, 

 St. Paul and Omaha R. R. The distance between these two places 

 is about five miles. There is a continuous up grade with many cuts 

 and a number of exposures. The section extends from well down in 

 the Potsdam up to and into the Lower Magnesian, with an estimated 

 vertical range of about 140 feet. Two slabs of worm trails from the 

 Potsdam of Dresbach and the Lower Magnesian of Prairie du Chien are 

 also illustrated. 



Preliminary Note on the Pleistocene History of Paget Sound. By 

 Bailey Willis. 



During the past season the drift deposits about the southeastern 

 edge of Puget Sound have been studied in some detail. They are 

 found to consist of several beds of till, separated by stratified deposits 



