546 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 379. 



gypsiferous. In Indian Territory and Okla- 

 homa the limestones thin out and disappear 

 from the section approximately along the 

 Arkansas River. The striking feature of the 

 series south of the Arkansas is the transition 

 of brown sandstones and carbonaceous shales 

 with coal beds to red sandstones and shales. 

 The line marking approximately the limit of 

 the red color cuts diagonally across the strati- 

 fication. The Eed Beds, so-called, are accord- 

 ingly equivalent in part to divisions 2, 3 and 

 4 of the Kansas section, with which they are 

 in strike. Their lower portion is Coal Meas- 

 ure or Pennsylvanian in age, and the higher 

 horizons in -western Oklahoma are true Per- 

 mian. 



Mr. F. B. Weeks presented a paper on 

 'Gold-bearing Quartzites of Eastern Nevada.' 

 In the Great Basin region the base of the 

 sedimentaries is exposed in only a few locali- 

 ties. It consists of a coarse conglomerate of 

 loosely cemented fragments of the underlying 

 crystalline rocks, which passes rapidly into 

 well-defined quartzites. These quartzites vary 

 •in thickness from a few hundred feet to 

 twelve thousand feet, and are succeeded by a 

 shale band carrying a Lower Cambrian fauna. 



In many of the Great Basin ranges the low- 

 est sedimentaries exposed are quartzites, hav- 

 ing similar stratigraphic relations. They are 

 usually light-colored, fine-grained rocks, and ' 

 are known to be auriferous at a few localities. 

 In these areas the strata have been faulted 

 and crushed, and the series is composed of a 

 succession of massive -beds and of zones of 

 crushed quartzites. No dikes or evidences of 

 injection of vein material which affected the 

 deposition of ore-bearing solutions have been 

 found. At certain localities veins have been 

 supposed to exist, but examination of the ma- 

 terial in thin section reveals its quartzitic 

 character. The pay ore is found in the zones 

 of crushed quartzites and along fracture 

 planes in the massive beds. 



From well authenticated reports of assays 

 of material derived from prospects in the 

 massive beds, which had not been affected by 

 faulting, it was found that these beds contain 

 from five to ten dollars in gold. It was sug- 

 gested that the zones of crushed quartzite had 



been enriched by percolating waters which had 

 derived their ore-bearing solutions from the 

 overlying quartzite beds, and that in the lat- 

 ter the gold was probably associated with the 

 sands on the sea beach from which these 

 quartzites were formed, perhaps in the same 

 manner as we find it in certain beach sands 

 of the present day. It is desirable that data 

 should be obtained to show how widespread is 

 the occurrence of gold in the quartzites of 

 this region. 



A paper entitled 'Notes on a (Hitherto Un- 

 described) Meteorite from Admire, Kansas,' 

 was presented by Mr. G. P. Merrill. The Kan- 

 sas meteorite was described by Mr. Merrill as 

 belonging to Brezina's rokicky group, of 

 which the meteorite of Eagle Station, Carroll 

 County, Kentucky, is the only representative 

 thus far found in America. The mineral 

 composition was given as olivine, metallic 

 iron, schreibersite, troilite, chromite and law- 

 rencite. 



The striking and most interesting feature 

 of the stone as described was the pronounced 

 brecciated ' structure, the olivines which 

 occurred in single crystals and aggregates from 

 one to thirty millimeters in diameter being 

 ahuost universally fractured, and many of 

 them in a decidedly angular condition. The 

 metallic iron was described as occurring in 

 the form of a binding constituent, the meteor- 

 ite being therefore a breccia of olivine frag- 

 ments with a metallic cement. It was noted 

 that this metallic portion, however, occurred in 

 two forms, the one compact and taking readily 

 a high silvery polish, and the other less dense 

 and dull gray. 



Chemical analysis of the dull iron showed 

 it to be not plessite, as ordinarily assumed, 

 but a spongy mass consisting of metallic iron, 

 troilite and lawrencite, or both; the lawrencite 

 in such cases manifesting itself very quickly 

 through oxidation and the exudation of a 

 greenish iron chloride passing over rapidly 

 into an oxide. 



Starting out from the margin of these areas 

 were acicular ciystals, which it was assumed 

 were incipient crystallizations of the metallic 

 iron resulting from the reduction of the 

 chloride. From the fact that the metallic por- 



