Febbuaby 5, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



239 



Holm's journey induced the officials to remove it 

 to the Peilin or " forest of tablets," where it will 

 be protected from the weather and its life pro- 

 longed many years. Mr. Von Holm recounted the 

 interesting details of his expedition, the various 

 difficulties which beset his work and the final 

 deposit of the replica in the Metropolitan Museum 

 of Art in New York. The lecture was illustrated 

 by about forty excellent lantern slides. 



" Remarks on Nestorianism," by Dr. I. M. 

 Gasanowicz. 



This address was largely in illustration of the 

 paper preceding, and consisted in a brief review 

 of the past history and present condition of the 

 Nestorian sect. Unlike most Christian bodies, 

 Nestorians were fostered by both Persians and 

 Arabs, and at the zenith of their power under the 

 latter the Catholicos, or supreme head of the Nes- 

 storian Church, had under him twenty-five metro- 

 politans, each of whom in turn was over not less 

 than five bishops. Nestorians penetrated to China, 

 Ceylon and India, where they were found by the 

 Portuguese and are known as Christians of St. 

 Thomas. At the present time a portion of the 

 Nestorians of southwestern Asia have united with 

 Rome, while those who still maintain their inde- 

 pendence, numbering about 70,000, have been the 

 object of labors by Protestant missionaries from 

 England and America. 



At the 427th regular meeting, on January 19, 

 1909, Mr. Juul Dieserud presented a paper on 

 " The Scope and Content of the Science of An- 

 thropology." Mr. Dieserud was originally led to 

 take up this problem in cataloguing scientific 

 works, first at the Field Columbian Museum, 

 Chicago, and later at the Library of Congress. 

 His attitude was, therefore, that of the librarian 

 and not of the working anthropologist, and was 

 governed by a study of the attempted classifica- 

 tions of professional anthropologists as compared 

 with the actual works requiring classification. 

 It followed closely, though with elaboration in 

 many points and condensation in others, the 

 course of his argument in his book bearing the 

 same title. 



The paper was discussed at some length by 

 Professor McGeCj Dr. Fewkes, Dr. Swanton and 

 Dr. Folkmar. 



Walteb Hough, 



Secretary 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



At the 210th meeting of the society, held on 

 Wednesday, November 25, under informal com- 



munications, Mr. Ernest A. Shuster described 

 briefly the original boundary stones of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia. 



Regular Program 



The International Geographic Congress: Mr. 

 David T. Day. 



The Correlation of Sections Lithologically Sim- 

 ilar: Mr. Wilms T. Lee. 



A geologic section of the coal-bearing rocks of 

 the Grand Mesa coal field of central western 

 Colorado, hitherto referred to the Mesaverde, was 

 shown to be strikingly similar to the section, in 

 the Raton coal field of New Mexico, of rocks 

 hitherto referred to the Laramie. The evidence 

 on which the correlations have been based is not 

 conclusive and attention was called to the de- 

 sirability of reexamining it in the light of new 

 evidence. The recently discovered facts likely to 

 influence the revision of correlations are: (1) a 

 line of unconformity discovered a year ago (1907) 

 in the Grand Mesa field separating the coal-bear- 

 ing rocks into an upper and a lower member; 

 (2) a similar line of unconformity discovered 

 during the present season (1908) in the Raton 

 field separating the coal-bearing rocks into two 

 formations and (3) the stratigraphical evidence 

 and fossil plants collected from both formations 

 apparently indicate that the unconformity in the 

 Raton field represents a period of erosion com- 

 parable to the post-Laramie erosion in the Denver 

 basin. 



Coon Butte or Meteor Crater: Geo. P. Merrill. 



The region of Coon Butte, near Canyon Diablo, 

 is underlain by a light gray to buff' Carboniferous 

 (Aubrey) limestone some 200 feet in thickness, 

 this by a light gray saccharoidal sandstone of not 

 above 500 feet in thickness, and this, again, by a 

 red-brown sandstone of undetermined thickness. 

 These rocks lie nearly horizontally and are little 

 disturbed. 



The crater was described as roughly circular in 

 outline and nearly 4,000 feet in diameter. The 

 crater rim at its highest point is 160 feet above 

 the level of the plain and the present bottom 

 some 350 feet below. The rim is composed wholly 

 of sharply upturned edges of the limestone, cov- 

 ered with fragments of the same, as well as 

 fragments of the underlying sandstone, in sizes 

 varying from microscopic to those weighing thou- 

 sands of tons. Exteriorly the crater rim slopes 

 gradually away to the plain. Interiorly the 

 broken edges of the upturned limestone form steep. 



