144 Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 
primary masses, with the exception of serpentine, viz. the total absence 
of water, at least in any thing like atomic proportions. On the other 
hand, this substance is a common ingredient in those minerals which 
are found in fissures of trap and greenstone, and in lavas which have 
been ejected from volcanoes. It was hence inferred that water was 
not evolved from a central nucleus during the earlier geological eras. 
Several localities were referred to in New York in which the con- 
nexion between trap and serpentine, or the change of the former into 
the latter, is well exhibited. Facts were also stated in regard to the 
occurrence of the hydrous minerals both in trap rocks and in lavas. 
The general conclusion drawn from them was that the presence of wa- 
ter, known to be an almost constant condition of modern voleanic ac- 
tion, was no less so during the periods when the ejection of the trappean 
rocks took place. 
The author also endeavored to show by a reference to facts connect- 
ed with traps and lavas, that as we proceed to the interior of the earth 
there are arrangements of mineral forms quite different from those 
which characterize the lowest of the primary rocks which appear on 
the surface. 
Dr. B. also submitted some remarks upon what has been called 
Antediluvian Climate, or the climate which is supposed to have 
prevailed during the fossiliferous era. 
The author referred to several well known facts, to show that from 
the earliest periods of geological history down to the latest, the animals 
and plants afford the evidence that a higher temperature prevailed than 
is now observed, except in tropical regions. But he thought it had been 
hastily concluded that during these remote periods the refrigeration 
was gradual. The remains of animals found in the oldest of the tran- 
sition prove that the arrangements of light and heat were the same or 
nearly the same as those which at present characterize tropical regions, 
and the same general conclusion was drawn from an examination of 
the remains found in the latest of the tertiary. ‘There appears to be 
no gradation from more to less tropical forms in these immensely dis- 
tant geological eras. A uniform or nearly uniform condition of things 
in regard to light, air, and heat, must have prevailed from one end to 
the other of this far-reaching series. Again, if it be admitted that the 
bowlder era was characterized by the prevalence of ice, at least in 
northern regions, the change from a tropical to a polar temperature 
must have been comparatively sudden. 
The author upon reviewing all the facts, concluded that the theory 
of Poisson afforded a more consistent explanation than that which had 
been generally adopted. 
