310 
6. The following officers were elected for the 
year 1912: President, Robert Morris Ogden, Uni- 
versity of Tennessee; vice-president, H. J. Pearce, 
Brenau College, Gainesville, Ga.; secretary-treas- 
urer, William Carl Ruediger, The George Wash- 
ington University; councilors, Shepherd Ivory 
Franz, John Brodus Watson (for 3 years) and 
W. B. Lane (for 1 year). 
7. The following persons were elected to mem- 
bership: Samuel Claman, Howard University; H. 
E. Cunningham, Lookout Mountain, Tenn.; Gard- 
ner C. Basset, Johns Hopkins University; Willis- 
ton S. Hough, George Washington University; 
Edmund B. Huey, Johns Hopkins University; 
Herbert Charles Sanborn, Vanderbilt University. 
8. Votes of thanks were extended to Dean W. C. 
Borden for the use of the George Washington 
University Medical School and to Professors Franz 
and Ruediger for the smoker. 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 
THE twenty-fourth annual meeting of the Geo- 
logical Society of America was held at the new 
National Museum at Washington, D. C., from 
Wednesday to Saturday, inclusive, of Christmas 
week, and was the largest in the history of the 
organization, there being a registered attendance 
of 140 fellows and 14 fellows-elect, besides many 
visitors. Professor William Morris Davis, presi- 
dent for the year, presided, having made a special 
trip for the purpose to America from Paris, where 
he is serving as Harvard exchange professor at the 
Sorbonne. The first session of the society was 
occupied with matters of business. The secretary 
reported the election of twenty-nine new fellows, 
making the present active membership of the 
society 351. 
During the past year, there were lost by death 
Samuel Calvin, for many years state geologist of 
Iowa; Samuel F. Emmons, a noted mining engi- 
neer who was connected with the United States 
Geological Survey from its organization and was 
a member of the National Academy of Sciences; 
Christopher W. Hall, professor of geology at the 
University of Minnesota; Edwin E. Howell, of 
Washington, D. C., and Amos O. Osborn, of Water- 
ville, N. Y. One foreign correspondent, Professor 
A. Michel-Lévy, a famous French geologist, died. 
An indication of the activity of the society was 
the publication during the year of a volume of its 
Bulletin, consisting of 738 pages of text and 31 
plates, and including part of the papers read at 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 895 
the last preceding annual meeting, which was held 
at Pittsburgh a year ago. A large part of the 
volume was devoted to E. O. Ulrich’s contribution, 
‘*A Revision of the Paleozoic Systems.’’ 
In the course of the meeting the following 
papers were offered: 
New Evidence on the Taconic Question: ARTHUR 
KEITH. 
The reasons were given in this paper for re- 
opening the old controversy and for selecting the 
north end of the Taconic Mountain as the crucial 
place. The principal views regarding the rocks of 
the Taconie Mountains were briefly outlined and 
the geology of the region summed up. Five sub- 
divisions of the Stockbridge limestone around the 
north end of the Taconies were described and 
attention called to the extreme folding and meta- 
morphism of the rocks. The slates of the moun- 
tains are sharply outlined from the Stockbridge 
limestone and the contact follows a rude semi- 
circle around the end of the mountains. The 
characters of this plane of separation were dis- 
cussed and the conclusion reached that they can 
only be due to faulting. The bearing of this con- 
clusion was briefly considered. 
Some Features in the Grand Canyon of Colorado 
Rwer: N, H. Darton. 
Several years ago, the author measured sections 
at a number of points along the Grand Canyon to 
determine the stratigraphy of the Arizona Plateau. 
These sections were presented, and there was ex- 
hibited a colored preliminary geologic map of the 
Vishnu, Bright Angel and Shinumo quadrangles 
similar to one now in the corridor of El Tovar 
hotel at Grand Canyon. 
Covey Hill Revisited: J. W. SPENCER. 
This remarkable hill terminates the northeastern 
point of the Adirondack plateau (1,030 feet above 
tide). It is capped with Potsdam sandstone 
thinly covered with drift. This hill is separated 
from the main plateau by a broad depression from 
which the drift has been swept away. Its removal 
is commonly attributed to the broad trough being 
a spill-way for a glacial lake. This question is 
not raised except that it may have belonged to an 
epoch before the Iroquois period. The broad 
trough is incised by a deep gorge—the Gulf. Its 
character has not been fully described. This heads 
in a small channel such as is being formed to-day, 
with the increase in size due to the undermining 
of the walls of jointed sandstone where the blocks 
are forced off by frost action. Thus the gorge 
can not be taken as evidence of a greater drainage 
