1028 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S Vol. XVI. No. 417. 



«hell; vice-presidents, S. F. Emmons, J. C. Bian- 

 ner; secretary, H. L. Fairchild, University of 

 Kocbester, Rochester, N. Y. 



The National Geographic Society will hold a 

 meeting during Convocation Week. President, 

 A. Graham Bell; vice-president, W J McGee; 

 secretary, A. J. Henry, U. S. Weather Bureau, 

 Washington, D. C. 



The Naturalists of the Central States will meet 

 ■on December 30 and 31. Chairman, S. A. Forbes; 

 secretary, C. B. Davenport, University of Chicago, 

 Chicago, 111. 



The Society of American Bacteriologists will 

 meet on December 30 and 31. President, H. W. 

 Conn; vice-president, James Carroll; secretary, E. 

 O. Jordan, University of Chicago, Chicago, 111. ; 

 council, W. H. Welch, Theobald Smith, H. L. 

 Russell, Chester, Pa. 



The Society for Plant Morphology and Physiol- 

 ogy will meet during Convocation Week. Presi- 

 dent, V. M. Spalding; vice-president, B. D. 

 Halsted; secretary and treasurer, W. F. Ganong, 

 Smith College, Northampton, Mass. 



The Society for the Promotion of Agricultural 

 Sdenoe will meet during Convocation Week. 

 President, W. H. Jordan; secretary, F. M. Web- 

 ster, Urbana, 111. 



The Zoologists of the Central and Western 

 States will meet during Convocation Week. 

 .President, C. B. Davenport, University of Chicago. 



OEOLOQIOAL SOCIETY OF W.\SHINGTON. 



At the 133d meeting held November 26, 

 1902, the following papers were presented: 



' Some Facta and Theories Bearing on the 

 Accumulation of Petroleum,' by C. W. Hayes. 

 Mr. Hayes pointed out the great diversity in 

 conditions under which petroleum has ac- 

 cumulated in different regions and that con- 

 clusions drawn from a study of the Appa- 

 lachian field are not applicable to the Texas- 

 Iiouisiana field. The physiography, stratig- 

 raphy and structure of the Grdf coastal plain 

 were briefly outlined and the peculiar qua- 

 quaversal structure of the Spindletop oil pool 

 "was described. Spindletop is regarded as the 

 type of a geologic structure occurring at 

 numerous points in southwestern Louisiana 

 and southeastern Texas. Among the locali- 

 ties at which the same or a similar structure 

 "has been detected are the five ' salt islands ' 

 of Louisiana, Hackberry Island, Damon 

 Hound, Big Hill and High Island. All of 



these and others at which sufficient drilling 

 has been done to afford information concern- 

 ing their structure are found to be quaqua- 

 versals. Further, all are composed of essen- 

 tially the same material, viz: (1) Surface 

 clays and sands, (2) limestone (with clay 

 and sand) in part dolomitic and cavernous 

 and containing native sulphur and petroleum, 

 (3) gypsum, (4) rock salt. The thiclaiess of 

 the salt has in no ease been determined, al- 

 though one drilling penetrated it to a depth 

 of 2,100 feet. 



The theory for the explanation of these 

 phenomena was first proposed by Robt. T. 

 Hill. It is that along lines of structural 

 weakness, extending across the Gulf coastal 

 plain in a northeast-southwest direction par- 

 allel to the well-known Balcones Fault of 

 central Texas, that saline waters ascended 

 from great depths bringing up the petroleum 

 which is widely disseminated through the 

 coastal plain formations and also depositing 

 the salt and gypsum. In some cases these 

 springs were sealed over by later sedimentary 

 deposits retaining the oil and in others the 

 oil escaped. Some of the difficulties in the 

 way of the theory were pointed out and the 

 conclusion stated that, while suggestive and 

 worthy of careful consideration, the theory 

 can not be accepted in its present form. 



' Mountain Growths of the Great Plains,' 

 by Mr. Bailey Willis. Mr. Willis called at- 

 tention to three local mountain growths lying 

 within the otherwise little-disturbed area of 

 the Great Plains between the Mississippi and 

 the Rocky Mountains, viz., the St. Francis 

 Mountains, Missouri, the Wichita Mountains, 

 Oklahoma, and the Black Hills, South Da- 

 kota. Each of these groups of hills repre- 

 sents an eroded uplift less than 100 miles in 

 maximum diameter, of an approximately oval 

 form. The central massif in each case con- 

 sists, at least in great part, of pre-Cambrian 

 igneous rocks. The uplift of the St. Francis 

 Mountains occurred during late Cambrian 

 time; that of the Wichitas during the late 

 Carboniferous; and that of the Black HiUs 

 in the early Tertiary. Undisturbed Cambro- 

 Silurian strata still surround the bases of the 

 St. Francis Mountains, and the Wichitas are 



