312 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 



25187 

 24928 

 24723 



24858 

 25181 



24720 

 24729 

 23396 



25186 

 25180 

 24724 



24737 



24734 

 25185 

 25179 

 24725 

 25109 

 25168 



24736 

 24726 

 24738 

 24739 



Name ajid Source 



Italian alfalfa (Pisa) 



Provence alfalfa (Germany) .... 



Russian alfalfa (southern Rus- 

 sia) 



Italian alfalfa (Florence) 



Pfalzer Lucern (Bavarian Palat- 

 inate, Germany) 



Russian alfalfa (northern Rus- 

 sia) 



Provence alfalfa (Germany) .... 



Hungarian alfalfa (Austria) .... 



Commercial SandLucern(Darni- 

 stadt, Germany) 



Russian alfalfa (southern Rus- 

 sia) 



Algerian alfalfa (Setif, Algeria) . 



Moravian alfalfa (Bohemia) . . . 



Russian alfalfa (northern Rus- 

 sia) 



Commercial Sand Lucern (Bo- 

 hemia) 



Provence alfalfa (Germany) .... 



Hungarian alfalfa (Austria) .... 



Hungarian alfalfa (Austria) .... 



Spanish alfalfa 



Austrian alfalfa (Vienna) 



Commercial Sand Lucern (Bo- 

 hemia) 



Spanish alfalfa 



Turkestan alfalfa 



Turkestan alfalfa 



Turkestan alfalfa 



Average 



Per 

 Cent. 

 Varie- 

 gated. 



16.6 

 15.3 



15.2 

 15.0 



13.0 

 12.8 



12.7 



11.1 



10.5 

 10.3 



9.7 

 9.5 

 7.7 

 7.5 

 6.0 

 5.4 





 

 

 

 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



At the 234th meeting of the society, held on 

 Wednesday, November 30, 1910, the following 

 papers were read: 



Regular Program 

 The Influence of Marine Currents on Deposition 



in Continental Seas: E. O. Ulbich. 



This paper tends to prove that Mr. Bailey 

 Willis's views in regard to non-deposition in con- 

 tinental seas as the result of current action are 

 in the main unfounded. In brief, Mr. Willis's 

 views are that the numerous minor hiatuses in 

 the geologic column are commonly to be attributed 

 to non-deposition and even to submarine scour, 

 resulting from marine currents, rather than to 

 emergence of the sea bottom. In preface brief 

 allusions were made to instances of local thinning 

 or absence of sediments that may be justly as- 

 cribed to current work. It is doubtless true that 

 marine currents flow at certain times through 

 sub-marginal troughs like the Laevis channel. 



Arguments were brought against Willis's views 

 under two headings, namely: the improbability 

 of the existence in Paleozoic continental seas of 

 currents competent to bring about such results; 

 and the lack of evidence of such action having 

 taken place under conditions obviously the most 

 favorable for the existence of such currents. 



Currents of sufficient intensity to cause an 

 appreciable interruption of deposition over wide 

 interior areas could only exist in great seas, in 

 which the admittedly necessary "trans-conti- 

 nental currents " of Willis might be developed. 

 Such seas have no foundation in fact. At any 

 given time the Paleozoic seas of North America 

 were far less extensive than those delineated by 

 Willis or even those depicted in Sohuchert's 

 " Paleogeography of North America." Such maps 

 are synthetic, giving the maximum development 

 of several successive seas. The Black River — 

 early Trenton submergence — having, as generally 

 believed, the greatest areal development of any 

 Paleozoic seas, may be taken as the extreme ex- 

 ample. This submergence consisted of no less 

 than five and possibly six distinct transgressions, 

 as shown by the areal distribution of the succes- 

 sive faunas and of the beds containing them. 

 These six faunas are sharply defined and any two 

 juxtaposed faunas show clearly by the varying 

 direction of the overlap of their containing forma- 

 tions that they invaded from quite different 

 oceanic basins. Moreover, no two of these faunas 



