September 23, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



415 



the discovery and use of a new method of 

 conducting international investigations. As 

 is vpell known, the method of appointing inter- 

 national commissions has, with one or two 

 notable exceptions, proved ineffective. Such 

 commissions were made to include the authori- 

 ties in many countries, and for obvious rea- 

 sons such a body proved too unwieldy for 

 effective work. When it was possible to bring 

 them together, discussion took the place of 

 legislation, and authority to proceed along any 

 definite line was wanting. In the Swedish 

 plan the unwieldy commission is replaced by 

 the council of the congress, whose responsi- 

 bility is evident and whose interest to make 

 the undertaking successful is immediate and 

 acute. Having responsibility, they may dele- 

 gate to any man or selected body of men both 

 the general plan and the working out of the 

 details of the inquiry. The permanent results 

 of the inquiry take the form of a published 

 report consisting of individual and generally 

 brief summary reports from specialists in 

 many countries, written in any of the four 

 recognized languages of present-day science, 

 the entire report introduced by a general sum- 

 mary of the reports written by a recognized 

 authority who is essentially the leader in the 

 inquiry. The volumes are edited by the gen- 

 eral secretary of the congress. 



The initial products of this system of inter- 

 national inquiry into geological problems are 

 two reports of great value, one dealing with 

 the iron-ore resources of the world and com- 

 prising two quarto volumes and an atlas, the 

 other a large volume devoted to the changes 

 in climate since the maximum of the last ice- 

 period. It is proposed to employ the same 

 method in an inquiry concerning the fracture 

 systems of the earth's crust — the systems of 

 joints particularly — as regards their orienta- 

 tion and interrelations. 



The Swedish geologists had determined that 

 the subjects especially discussed in the ses- 

 sions should be those of most importance to 

 their own country and also (in part) illus- 

 trated by the excursions. Two of these have 

 already been discussed as the titles of the 

 works issued at the opening of the congress. 



viz., the iron-ore resources of the world and 

 post-glacial climatic changes. Three addi- 

 tional subjects were chosen : (1) the geology 

 of the pre-Cambrian formations with special 

 reference to principles of classification and to 

 deep-seated metamorphism ; (2) the sudden 

 appearance of the Cambrian fauna, and (3) 

 the geology of the polar regions. 



In addition to the formal ceremonies of the 

 opening general session, there were read two 

 papers which had a bearing upon the two most 

 important topics of the congress. Baron de 

 Geer with the aid of lantern slides sketched 

 the outlines of his " geochronology of the last 

 12,000 years " based upon the study of the 

 banded clay deposits in relation to the minor 

 moraines of Sweden which are traced on either 

 side of the Stockholm Os. The individual 

 colored bands in the clay deposit, the hvarfvig 

 lera, are believed to represent Qach the deposit 

 of a single year within the submarine mouth 

 of a former subglacial river of which the 

 Os marks the course. Likewise there is a 

 series of low but well-formed black moraines a 

 few meters only in height and about 250 

 meters apart, which correspond each to a defi- 

 nite clay layer present on the south but lack- 

 ing on the north and thus representing the 

 delta deposit of the subglacial river for that 

 year when the seasonal halt of the ice-front in 

 its retreat laid down the moraine. With the 

 aid of a number of students during many 

 years, de Geer has worked out the entire series 

 and thus derived the chronology. Two large 

 excursion parties were taken into the field 

 during the session of the congress, and some 

 attempt was made to check the change in the 

 number of clay layers at successive excavations 

 separated by moraines. While this could not 

 be wholly satisfactory in the time available, 

 the methods of this novel and important in- 

 vestigation were learned and a corresponding 

 profound respect was acquired for the in- 

 genuity of plan and thoroughness of execution 

 of the whole investigation — an investigation 

 unique of its kind and one which will probably 

 be followed by others in distant regions. 



The other general address was by Professor 

 Van Hise, on " The Influence of Applied Geol- 



