March 13, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



405 



in the Ordovician is at the top and near the bot- 

 tom of the section. The alternating red and green- 

 ish yellow shales and sandstones (Bays) just be- 

 neath the Medina sandstone, occupying the posi- 

 tion of the Juniata in the north, are here very 

 fossiliferous, whereas in Pennsylvania and New 

 York they are practically barren of life forms. 

 Here it carries Orthoceratites, Gasteropods, 

 Brachiopods, etc., in great abundance. The 

 stratum here measures about eighty feet whereas 

 in the north it is several hundred feet thick. The 

 Hudson Eiver is virtually the same as north. Just 

 above the Trenton, however, occurs a heavy 

 stratum of alternating sandstone and shale, Tel- 

 lieo of the south. The upper Trenton is massive 

 rather impure light blue limestone, passing into 

 thin bedded dark to black limestone with some 

 shales intervening. The middle Trenton is char- 

 acterized by a development of several hundred 

 feet of black shale (Athens Shale) carrying Trilo- 

 bites and many forms of Graptolites, among which 

 are the wliorled type described by Ruedemann 

 from northeastern New York. This is followed by 

 the Black Eiver limestone, identical in almost every 

 respect, lithologically as well as in fossil content, 

 with that of New York. The same is true for the 

 Birdseye beneath. The Birdseye terminates in 

 a six-foot stratum of breceiated conglomerate, 

 with fragments of limestone and chert ranging 

 in size from one half inch to fifteen inches in 

 diameter. The Chazy, which follows, agrees in 

 its lithology and fossil content with that of Ver- 

 mont, terminating in a ferruginous sandstone, 

 which corresponds in position and character with 

 the Isle La Motte sandstone. 



Detailed work in the Beekmantown below has 

 not as yet been completed, but thus far the divi- 

 sions established by Brainerd and Seely of Ver- 

 mont with their characteristic boundaries and fos- 

 sils are believed to have been identified. 



The " Undagraph," Its Vse for the St-udy of 

 Microseisms : Otto Klotz. (Illustrated.) 



Becent Backward Extension of the Life Record in 



Geologic Time: Charles Keyes. 



The differentiation of life on our globe prior to 

 the stage represented by the Olenellus, or Early 

 Cambrian, zone, the oldest phase with which we 

 have been acquainted, has lately passed from the 

 realm of pure speculation to that of direct obser- 

 vation. The wide interest aroused by these recent 

 discoveries of abundant well-preserved organic re- 

 mains in rocks of undoubted pre-Cambrian, and 



hence pre-Paleozoic, age is secondary only to the 

 enthusiasm produced a few months ago by the 

 actual location of the fossiliferous horizons in the 

 general geological column. As definitely deter- 

 mined these oldest fossil-bearing levels are 

 stratigraphieally more than two miles beneath all 

 other known horizons yielding traces of life. The 

 revelations, of course, materially modify all our 

 previous notions on the subject. They open up a 

 more inviting field of investigation than awaited 

 paleontologists when the Paleozoics first revealed 

 their secrets. Between the bottom of the Paleo- 

 zoics and the old Azoic gneisses, as usually repre- 

 sented in the text -books of the science, we may now 

 insert the complete schemes of two great fossilif- 

 erous successions each of greater stratigraphic and 

 taxonomic importance than that of the entire 

 Paleozoic sequence as now known. 



Famna of the Pleistocene Asphalt Beds at Eancho 

 La Brea, California: J. C. Mebmam. (Illus- 

 trated.) 



Tertiary of the Great Basin Region: J. C. Mer- 



RIAM. 



The Clinton-Niagara Sand Seefs, Dime Uidges and 

 Lagoons — Bordering the Paleozoic Sea: Collier 

 Cobb. George F. Kay, 



Secretary 



ATLANTA MEETING OP SECTION G 



At 2 P.M., Tuesday, December 30, the meeting 

 of Section G was called to order by the chairman. 

 Professor H. C. Cowles. In the absence of the 

 secretary. Professor W. J. G. Land was made sec- 

 retary pro tern. The following officers were 

 elected. For member of the sectional committee 

 for five years. Dr. D. T. MacDougal ; for member 

 of the council. Dr. C. Stuart Gager; for member 

 of the general committee. Professor D. M. Mottier. 



The Sectional Committee recommended and the 

 association elected Professor G. P. Clinton, of 

 New Haven, as vice-president and chairman for 

 the Philadelphia meeting. 



The following papers were read: 



"The Evolution of a Botanical Problem: The 

 Discovery of Sexuality in Plants, ' ' address of the 

 retiring Vice-president, Duncan S. Johnson. 



' ' The Water Eequirements of Plants, ' ' by Ly- 

 man J. Briggs and H. L. Shantz. 



"Samoan Vegetation," by W. J. G. Land. 



W. J. V. OSTEKHOUT, 



Secretary 



