EDITORIAL. 623 



to submerged channels in the south-eastern part of the continent, 

 particularly the Antillean region, and urged these as evidences of 

 very great subsidence. The paper awakened considerable discus- 

 sion, the general tenor of which was the acceptance of the evi- 

 dence and of the inference of subsidence, with an expression of 

 doubt as to the time of its occurrence and its relations to other 

 geological events. 



The paper of Mr. Upham was a fuller statement of the argu- 

 ments he has recently advanced in support of the derivation of 

 kames, eskers, and moraines chiefly from englacial drift. These, 

 and his views of the internal movement of the ice upon which 

 they are in some degree founded, were opposed by Reid on phys- 

 ical grounds and by others on observational grounds. It was 

 remarked that existing glaciers fail to show basally-rubbed mate- 

 rial on their surfaces, even on their low terminal slopes, at least 

 as a common fact. In his second paper, Mr. Upham urged a 

 somewhat simple and brief succession of Pleistocene formations. 

 The successive lines of moraines and the observed overlaps of 

 till were interpreted as signifying minor and relatively brief halts 

 and readvances of the ice. In the discussion, this position was 

 opposed as being inconsonant with the evidences of interglacial 

 intervals and of intervening erosions, oxidations and other changes 

 which the formations were thought to present. 



The papers of Darton and Holmes on different but analogous 

 portions of the coastal region showed the very great advances 

 which have been made in the last few years in the analysis and 

 differentiation of the coastal formations, and the interesting 

 discussions they called forth showed, in some measure, the 

 important bearing these have upon the interpretation of the 

 Pleistocene and immediately Pre-Pleistocene histories of the glac- 

 iated region. 



Professor W. P. Blake, while coinciding in general in the views 

 held by Whitney and by Chamberlin respecting lead and zinc depos- 

 its, urged the existence of a greater amount of dislocation than 

 they had recognized, and attributed to it greater influence in 

 the localization of the deposits. His views are intermediate 



