502 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 171. 



and the effect of the character of the bottom 

 over which streams flowed. 



F. A. Lucas, 



Secretary. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



At the regular meeting held on Wednesday, 

 March 23, 1898, Professor C. E. Van Hise, of 

 the U. S. Geological Survey and the University 

 of Wisconsin, made the principal contribution. 

 It was on Crystalline Schists and Rock Flow- 

 age. The propositions advanced were radical, 

 and to state them within the limits of a single 

 paragraph and without the evidence will not be 

 attempted. The paper will, of course, be pub- 

 lished in due time. 



Mr. Geo. Otis Smith, U. S. Geological Survey, 

 spoke on the ' Igneous Phenomena in the Tintic 

 Mountains, Utah.' 



The Tintic Mountains, he said, are situated 

 in the Great Basin, but do not belong to the 

 Basin range type. They possess an axis of 

 closely folded Paleozoic strata, which were 

 deeply eroded in Mesozoic time, while later the 

 area became the seat of volcanic activity. The 

 earliest eruption was of quartz-porphyry and 

 rhyolite. The next eruption was andesitic and 

 a well defined cone of tuffs and lavas, now 

 deeply dissected, can be seen on the western 

 slope of the range. The vent is filled with an 

 agglomerate containing large blocks of Paleo- 

 zoic quartzite and limestone. This earlier 

 andesite series, largely fragmental, is capped 

 by very extensive flows of mica-andesite and 

 pyroxene-andesite. 



A dioritic mass covers an area of several 

 square miles on the western slope. On the 

 north this rock cuts the Carboniferous lime- 

 stone and includes blocks of the quartzite and 

 limestone hundreds of feet in diameter. Here 

 the rock is a typical granular hornblende-dio- 

 rite. On the south the intrusive mass breaks 

 across the volcanic cone and the rock is a 

 diorite-porphyry. Dikes from this mass extend 

 into the tuffs and connect with the overlying 

 andesite flows. On the crest of the range no 

 division line can be drawn between the ande- 

 site flows and the diorite-porphyry intrusive. 

 In a continuous rock-mass a perfect gradation 

 is seen between a granular diorite and a glassy 



andesite. The dioritic intrusive is, therefore, 

 the youngest rock of the area and occupies the 

 stock or neck, through which the later flows of 

 andesite were erupted. 



The meeting closed with a brief description, 

 by Mr. A. C. Spencer, of a ' blow-out ' near 

 Mancos, Colorado. 



W. F. MORSELL. 

 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 482d meeting of the Philosophical So- 

 ciety was held March 19th, at the Cosmos Club, 

 at 8 p. m. The first paper of the evening was 

 by the President, Professor F. H. Bigelow, on 

 ' The State of the Philosophical Society. An 

 interesting table of statistics was presented and 

 discussed, from which encouraging conclusions 

 were drawn in regard to the future work of the 

 Society. The second paper was by Mr. Herbert 

 Friedenwald, on ' The Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence — a Summary of Colonial Grievances.' 

 In the address the following facts were brought 

 out and emphasized : 



The Declaration as a political document 

 marks a significant point in the history of the 

 Revolution. Jefferson was chosen to draw it 

 up because of his familiarity with colonial his- 

 tory, and because of the feeling that he was the 

 fittest man to summarize the grievances of the 

 colonies. In so doing he omitted no material 

 point in the 'long train of abuses,' and the 

 Declaration, therefore, is a brief, yet eloquent, 

 account of the political contest that waged be- 

 tween England and America for more than a 

 hundred years. 



It has not been so viewed by the historians of 

 the period, with the result that from no histories 

 is it possible to get at the true meaning of the 

 counts in the indictment against King and Par- 

 liament. 



Each of these charges was then taken up in 

 turn and, from a study of the sources, was 

 elucidated. 



E. D. Pbeston, 



Secretary. 



engelmann botanical club. 

 The Club met at the Shaw School of Botany 

 on Thursday, March 10th, thirty-three mem- 

 bers present. Professor William Trelease dis- 



