744 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. 11. No. 



Notes on Geological Excursions. By W. M. 

 Davis. 1. A brief descriptiou was given of an 

 excursion made on October 26tli with a party 

 from the Teachers College, New York City, 

 up the Hudson River Railroad to Fishliill, 

 and thence by electric car and on foot to the 

 summit of South Beacon Hill (1635), near the 

 northern margin of the Highlands. The even- 

 ness of the sky-line was a notable feature 

 of the view then obtained, the successive 

 ridges reaching a much more equable alti- 

 tude than, for example, in the Highlands of 

 Scotland ; although both regions are regarded 

 as ancient lowlands, reduced to moderate relief 

 by long-continued denudation, afterwards ele- 

 vated and dissected. The Highlands of the 

 Hudson are now advanced well towards mature 

 variety of form in the present cycle of denu- 

 dation, the valleys generally following an Appa- 

 lachian trend, northeast-southwest. The view 

 included the trench cut across the Highlands by 

 the Hudson, an admirable example of a narrow 

 transverse valley draining a wide inner longi- 

 tudinal valley ; the deepening of the inner 

 valley was permitted only as fast as the trench- 

 ing of the transverse valley advanced, but the 

 widening of the inner valley proceeded rapidly 

 because the rocks there are relatively weak, 

 while the transverse valley is still narrow, inas- 

 much as the rocks in which it is sunk are 

 extremely resistant. The movement of ele- 

 vation permitting the dissection of the High- 

 lands paused before their present altitude was 

 reached, as is indicated by a more or less persis- 

 tent bench about 150-200 feet above the present 

 river level, first brought to the writer's attention 

 by Mr. Gilbert. West Point is on this bench. 



2. Some account was given of a two-day ex- 

 cursion, November 2d and 3d, with a party of 

 Harvard students to the district about Meriden, 

 Conn. , where the contact of basal Triassic con- 

 glomerates on ancient schists in the gorge of 

 Roaring Brook, Southington, the two lava beds 

 of the Meriden quarries, and the oblique 2000- 

 foot fault from Meriden to Berlin, were ex- 

 amined. The evidence of two cycles of topo- 

 graphical development was reviewed from the 

 summit of West peak (1007 feet) in the Hanging 

 hills. The crystalline uplands on the east and 

 west represent a peneplain of Jurassic - Cre- 



taceous denudation, now uplifted and dissected 

 by narrow valleys of adolescent expression ; 

 the broad floor of the Triassic lowland between 

 the crystalline uplands represent a local pene- 

 plain of late Tertiary denudation, here and 

 there interrupted by narrow lava ridges. The 

 crest line of Totoket Mountain, next to the 

 southernmost of the eastern lava ridges, is 

 notable for its evenness. Mount Carmel and 

 the Blue Hills, an ancient volcanic neck north of 

 New Haven, rise somewhat above the level of 

 the adjacent crystalline upland. The inland 

 facing escarpment, or inface, of Long Island 

 rose faintly on the southern horizon ; ^he stripped 

 lowland between its inner base and the crystal- 

 line old land being now submerged in Long 

 Island sound. The glacial strife ascending the 

 north slope of the West peak lava ridge for at 

 least a mile, now freshly revealed along the 

 road lately made to ' Percival Park' on the sum- 

 mit, are commended to the attention of those 

 who hesitate to believe that ice sheets can move 

 up hill. (An account of the double lava bed of 

 the Meriden quarries will appear in a forthcom- 

 ing number of the American Journal of Science.) 



ACADEMY OP SCIENCE, ST. LOUIS, NOV. 18, 1895. 



The Academy held its regular meeting at the 

 Academy rooms, with President Green in the 

 chair, and twenty-two members and visitors 

 present. 



Dr. Noah M. Glatfelter read a paper on ' The 

 Relations of Salix Missouriensis Bebb, to Salix 

 Cordata.' Dr. Glatfelter stated that Salix 

 Missouriensis had been classed as a separate 

 species by Mr. M. S. Bebb, but his own re- 

 searches resulted in a diflerent conclusion, his 

 belief being that Salix Missouriensis was but a 

 variety of Salix Cordata, and in same instances 

 it was impossible for him even to detect the 

 variety, the two being seemingly identical. 

 Referred to the Council. 



Mr. F. W. Duenkel presented a model of a 

 meteorological instrument, invented by Mr. 

 Leonard Hunt and himself, called ' The Electric 

 Sunshine Annunciator,' and gave a brief expla- 

 nation of its mode of operation, stating that it 

 had been in use for a short time, but reported 

 with accuracy the amount of sunshine each day. 

 A. 'W^. DotTGLAS, Recording Secretary. 



