64 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 758 



southwest side of the Temblor Range a thickness 

 of 3,700 feet has been measured. 



Quaternary Deposits. — The iiiiviatile sands, 

 clays, soils and gravels which are the results of 

 erosion since the latest deformation in the region, 

 have been included under this head. Exception to 

 the above statement must be made with regard to 

 some of the gravels along the San Andreas fault 

 line, upon which movement and resulting deforma- 

 tion have taken place even within historic times. 

 Such a classification will exclude all except the 

 stream alluvium and fine material skirting the 

 range and some of the gravel remnants left upon 

 the canyon slopes above the present drainage lines. 

 Along the margin of the San Joaquin Valley there 

 is the usual type of fine material, a result of the 

 coalescence of detritus from a number of sources. 

 Some small valleys of Quaternary material lie at 

 several points within the mountain ranges but 

 except in the larger examples the material has not 

 been mapped. 



Structure. — The structure of the McKattrick- 

 Sunset region is very complicated. In general, the 

 range may be considered as a block faulted up- 

 ward along either side at such a recent date, geo- 

 logically speaking, that the escarpments so pro- 

 duced have been well preserved. Accompanying 

 this faulting were developed a number of major 

 anticlinal structures, the axes of which are not 

 exactly parallel with the axis of the range, but 

 diverge from it at a low angle toward the south- 

 east. The result of this folding has been to pro- 

 duce a number of prominent salients extending 

 southeasterly away from the main range. Toward 

 its southern extremity the structure of the Tem- 

 blor Range is aflfected by the Tehachapi uplift. 

 This is well exemplified in front of McKittrick 

 in the Elk and Buena Vista hills, the structural 

 axes of which swing toward the east and at some 

 places are almost at right angles to the trend of 

 the main range. Here even more than elsewhere 

 in the United States the structural conditions 

 play a very important part in the accumulation 

 of petroleum, and in consequence the folds and 

 faults have been studied and mapped with con- 

 siderable care, especially in the Sunset, McKit- 

 trick and Midway fields; special maps having 

 been prepared which indicate the relations be- 

 tween the structure and the oil developments 

 already made. 

 Oil Resources of the McKittrick-Sunset District, 



California: Mr. Ralph Abnold. 



Francois E. Matthes, 



Secretary 



THE NEW TOBK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 

 SECTION OP BIOLOGY 



A EEGULAB meeting of the section was held at 

 the American Museum of Natural History, May 

 10, 1909, Mr. Frank M. Chapman, chairman of 

 the section, presiding. The following papers were 

 read: 

 Bufo agua in Bermuda: Professor Chaeles L. 



Bristol. 



The Relation between the Taxonomic Characters 



of Crickets {Oryllus) and the Ermwonment: 



Dr. Frank E. Ltjtz. 



The speaker stated that the species of Oryllus 

 are distinguished chiefly by the actual and rela- 

 tive sizes of the ovipositor, posterior femora, 

 wings and tegmina. The length of the ovipositor 

 is correlated with the character of the soil, being 

 longer on sandy soils than on the firmer ones. 

 This is probably brought about by selection de- 

 stroying the eggs which are not deeply placed in 

 loose soil. The length of the wings seems to be a 

 function of three variables: ancestors, heat and 

 moisture. Increased heat and moisture are accom- 

 panied not only by an increased percentage of the 

 long-winged dimorphs, but by a greater veing 

 length of the short-winged group. No relation 

 has been discovered between the size of the pos- 

 terior femora and the environment. These condi- 

 tions bring about marked differences between tfie 

 crickets in different habitats, and these differences 

 are of " specific " rank. 

 Deleterious Ingredients of Food: Dr. E. E. Smith. 



It was shown in this paper that food itself is 

 deleterious if ingested in sufficient quantity. This 

 is not an essential quality of food, but one de- 

 pendent on the quantitative relation. Any in- 

 gredient added to food is deleterious in the quan- 

 titative sense, precisely as food itself is. The 

 statement of the Food and Drugs Act, June 30, 

 1906, " an article shall be deemed to be adulter- 

 ated, in the case of food, if it contain any added 

 poisonous or other added deleterious ingredient 

 which may render such article injurious to 

 health" is to be interpreted as referring to in- 

 gredients that are essentially deleterious. Sub- 

 stances that serve a useful purpose in amount 

 widely separated from the quantity that may 

 produce injurious effects are not essentially dele- 

 terious, even though they may become deleterious 

 by abuse of the quantitative relation. 



Fbank M. Chapman, 

 Secretary pro tern. 



