JUI.Y 22, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



125 



observation with numerous telescopes, and all 

 were given an opportunity to view the planets, 

 Saturn, Venus and Mars; and variable, double 

 and other stars. 



Professor Pickering pointed out that many of 

 the subjects with which astronomers have to deal 

 are related to those of the geologists. He said 

 that important results may be secured by coopera- 

 tion, and there is reason to believe that a fund 

 that could be used for geological work would be 

 as valuable as it would be in astronomy. For 

 example, a college professor in geology is often 

 unable to carry on investigation for lack of the 

 proper material needed for his work, for the lack 

 of a trained assistant or for lack of the means 

 of publication. He becomes absorbed in the duties 

 of teaching, where a small sum given to him 

 would enable him, in his leisure hours, to carry 

 on work of the greatest importance. Great ad- 

 vances can be made in any science by using money 

 in this way, giving it to scientific men who can 

 work at home among their own surroundings 

 much more advantageously than if they were 

 taken to another city, in an institution devoted 

 to such work. 



Three methods of discovering variable stars 

 were exhibited, i. e., by means of their spectra, by 

 means of a series of successive images taken the 

 same night and by superposing a negative upon a 

 positive of a negative taken on another night. 



The field of work occupied by the observatory 

 is a very broad one. It has occupied a station 

 in Peru for the last twenty years to photograph 

 the stars not wsible in Europe or the United 

 States. Last year it sent an observer to South 

 Africa to see if the atmospheric conditions there 

 would be better than they are in South America. 

 The complete plan if carried out would involve 

 securing a large tract of land in the place having 

 the best climatic conditions, probably in South 

 Africa, offering sites to any observatory that 

 might wish to establish a station there. A large 

 telescope should then be provided, and photo- 

 graphs taken with it which should be guarded as 

 the property of the world and not of a single 

 institution. These could be distributed among 

 the astronomers who could make good use of 

 them, and who would thus be provided with 

 material, which they themselves could have ob- 

 tained only by an expenditure of hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars. 



' "Various questions were asked Professor Picker- 

 ing by his guests, which he declared himself 

 unable to answer, saying that he considered his 

 function the accumulating of facts, particularly 



those relating to the stars, which he hoped would 

 thus furnish the material for the establishment 

 of theories which might hereafter be advanced, 

 those having special bearing on certain problems 

 which have a connection with geology and as- 

 tronomy, such as the formation of worlds, the 

 distribution of the stars, and the existence of an 

 absorbing medium in space. 



EECEPTIOlSr GIVEN BY PKOFESSOR JAGGAB 



On Monday afternoon Professor T. A. Jaggar, 

 Jr., invited the geologists and geographers to a 

 reception at his home at Chestnut Hill. Owing 

 to a snow storm of unusual depth for the region 

 of Boston, transportation was very difficult, but 

 with commendable zeal Professor Jaggar overcame 

 the almost insurmountable difficulties caused by 

 the heavy fall of snow, and those who reached his 

 house enjoyed a most delightful afternoon and 



ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS BEAD BEFORE SECTION E 



Sotne Physical Features in China: Charges K. 



Edmunds, Baltimore,! Md. {Read by title.) 



(a) Some recent views of the limestone pin- 

 nacles and palisades of the Fu River valley, 

 Kwongsai. 



( 6 ) The locks of the Grand Canal between the 

 Yangtze and the Yellow rivers, and their opera- 

 tion. 



(0) A recent break in the Y''ellow River dyke, 

 and its repair. 



The views accompanying this paper were ob- 

 tained during field work for the department of 

 terrestrial magnetism, Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, during 1907 and 190S. 



Structure, Origin and Stratigraphic Significance 



of the Shawangunk G-rit : Paxil Billingsley, 



New York City. 



The Shawangunk grit forms the ridge known in 

 New York as the Shawangunk Mountains, in New 

 Jersey as Kittatinny Mountain, and in Pennsyl- 

 vania as Blue Mountain. This is a monocKnal 

 ridge for the greater part of its length. 



The Shawangunk grit rests unconformably 

 upon the Martinsburg shales, and is separated 

 from the overlying High Falls red shale by transi- 

 tion beds in the south, and a disconformity in the 

 north. It varies from a coarse, poorly assorted 

 conglomerate to a fine sandstone or even red 

 shale. The details of its structure bedding, lith- 

 ologic character and fossil content suggest a 

 probability of its non-marine character, and point 

 toward a torrential or alluvial-fan mode of origin. 



