January 27, 1399.] 



SCIENCE. 



143 



ties of Columbia University the section ad- 

 journed. 



GENERAL SECTION. 



In the other section, before which papers 

 bearing on glacial geology and some more 

 general topics were read, the following pro- 

 gram was presented. The notes of the 

 section on which the following account is 

 chiefly based were kept by Arthur Ilollick, 

 but by a misunderstanding they are less 

 complete than those for the previous papers: 



Jr're- Cambrian Fossiliferoits Formations. Chas. 



D. Walcott, Washington, D. C. 



A DESCRIPTION was given of the pre-Cam- 

 brian formations which have yielded traces 

 of life, including the announcement of the 

 discovery of fossils indicating highly organ- 

 ized life in the pre -Cambrian belt terrane 

 of Montana. The fossils occur in a fissile 

 black shale or slate called the Empire shales 

 and are of eurypteroid forms. The paper 

 was illustrated by geological sections and 

 by photographs and specimens of the fossils. 

 It was discussed by J. A. Holmes, H. S. 

 Williams, Bailey Willis and H. M. Ami. 



After the reading of the paper oppor- 

 tunity was given for the discussion of the 

 papers presented the day before by W. D. 

 Johnson and H. W. Turner. The discus- 

 sion was participated in by I. C. Eussell, 

 H. F. Eeid, G. K. Gilbert and W. D. 

 Johnson. 



Ice Sculpture in Western Neiu York. G. K. 



Gilbert, Washington, D. C. 



Careful study of the Niagara escarp- 

 ment in Niagai-a county shows that its 

 greater features are pre- glacial, but glacial 

 erosion has wrought important modification. 

 The Medina shale has been so deeply sculp- 

 tured as to obliterate its pre-glacial relief 

 and substitute a broad iiuting in the direc- 

 tion of ice movement. At Thirty Mile 

 Point a mass of strata several hundred feet 

 broad has been moved by the ice. The paper 



was illustrated by charts and was discussed 

 H. F. Reid and Robert Bell. 



The Wind Deposits of Eastern Minnesota. C 

 W. Hall and F. W. Sardeson, Min- 

 neapolis, Minn. 



The paper treated of the character, origin 

 and age of the lag gravels and dune sands 

 so frequently seen in eastern Minnesota — 

 more particularly in the district between 

 the Mississippi and St. Croix Elvers. These 

 deposits in the vicinity of Minneapolis have 

 been more particularly studied and their 

 relations to some fossiliferous post-glacial 

 water deposits were considered. The paper 

 was illustrated by photographs and was 

 discussed by Arthur Hollick and J. B. 

 Wood worth. 



The Iroquois Beach at Toronto and its Fossils. 



A. P. Coleman, Toronto, Canada. 



The Iroquois beach north of Lake On- 

 tario was long ago mapped in outline by 

 Spencer, but many details in this shoreline 

 remain to be filled in. Near Toronto two 

 bays are found, one near Carlton on the 

 west, the other near York on the east. 

 Each has an area of several square miles 

 and is cut off from the main lake by a 

 gravel bar like the present Toronto Island. 

 Horns of caribou are common in the Carl- 

 ton bar, and teeth of the mammoth have 

 been found in the bar near York. Fresh- 

 water shells of four species — Campeloma 

 decisa the most common — are found in beach 

 gravels of Iroquois age near Eeservoir 

 Park, Toronto. These are the fresh-water 

 fossils found without doubt in the Iroquois 

 beach deposits. As the main Pleistocene 

 beaches from Agassiz to Iroquois contain 

 fresh-water shells, they must have been 

 formed in lakes and not arms of the sea. 

 The numerous marine shell-bearing de- 

 posits of the east of Canada cease before 

 Lake Ontario is reached. The paper was 

 illustrated by diagrams and by fossil shells. 



