TRANSACTIONS OF SCIENTIFIC SECTION. 83 



JANUARY 30, 1891— THIRD REGULAR MEETING. 



Present, Chairman Elsworth; Members Warring, Neu- 

 mann and P. S. Arnold and a number of visitors. 



TJie Chairman presented for discussion a few informal 

 remarks about the Sun, the little that is known about it, 

 and reviewed and criticised several theories concerning 

 it. The subject was discussed by Members Warring and 

 Neumann. 



FEBRUARY 10, 1891— FOURTH REGULAR MEETING. 



Present, Chairman Elsworth, and Members C. N. 

 Arnold, Cooley, Dwight, Herrick, Tompkins, Warring, 

 Ward and P. S. Arnold and visitors. 



Prof. W. B. Dwight presented a fossil shark's tooth 

 from Gray Head, Martha's Vineyard, and made some re- 

 marks on that locality. It is the miocene and pliocene 

 formation and very rich in fossils — sharks' teeth, whale 

 bones, amber, etc. — the Isle of Wight of America, but it 

 has never yet been thoroughly explored. 



Prof, C. B. Warring read a paper on the Geology of 

 of Montgomery County, Illinois, which had been written 

 by George H. Richards, of Pillsbury, Illinois. The forma- 

 tion of Montgomery County, Mr. Richards represents as 

 carboniferous with numerous shales, sand and lime- 

 stones, and with bituminous coal. The deposits are 

 mostly in place not yet contorted and not very fossilifer- 

 ous. The lime stone is crystalline. Natural gas is 

 found co-incident with a fault in the formation, the heat 

 displaying the strata, having probably distilled the coal. 



The writer observed the somewhat singular fact that 

 the coal layers, instead of lying as usual between two 

 layers of shale, may lie beneath sandstone or shale in- 

 differently. The writer considers the region as interest- 

 ing as being at the end of the Continental Glaciers, but 

 as surprised to report that there are no morains in the 



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