August 22, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



281 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. SECTION OP 

 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY 



The section waa called to order by the chair- 

 man, Professor J. Edmund Woodman, immediately 

 on adjournment of the business meeting of the 

 academy, at 8:20 p.m., March 3, 1913, at the usual 

 meeting-place in the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History. Some thirty-five members and visi- 

 tors were present. 



After calling President McMillan to the chair. 

 Professor Woodman presented the subject of 

 "The Interbedded Iron Ores of Nova Scotia." 

 The field evidences were elaborately illustrated by 

 lantern views and hand specimens — some half a 

 hundred of each. The net results seemed to war- 

 rant a modified form of the replacement theory for 

 the explanation of these deposits. 



Professor Kemp commented on the interesting 

 new evidence in the light of the older body of data 

 which seems to argue somewhat in opposition to 

 the findings of Professor Woodman, as presented 

 by workers in other regions. He concluded with 

 an invitation for remarks by Professor Van Ingen, 

 of Princeton University, a former ofiicer in the 

 New York Academy of Sciences. Professor Van 

 Ingen stated that the results of his investigations 

 into the iron ore deposits of Newfoundland were 

 as yet inhibitive, but that he had found ex- 

 tremely probable evidence of Paleozoic fauna! 

 connection between Newfoundland and certain 

 European localities. 



On adjournment of the usual business meeting 

 of the academy at 8:25 P.M., April 7, 1913, Chair- 

 man J. Edmund Woodman called to order the joint 

 meeting of the Section of Geology and Mineralogy 

 and the New York Microscopical Society in the 

 regular meeting-place in the American Museum of 

 Natural History. Sixty-six persons were present. 



On a reading by Dr. E. O. Hovey, recording 

 secretary of the New York Academy of Sciences, 

 of the invitation extended the academy by the 

 Twelfth International Geological Congress, which 

 meets in August, 1913, at Toronto, Canada, the 

 following delegates were nominated by the sec- 

 tion: Professors J. J. Stevenson, J. Edmund 

 Woodman, James F. Kemp and Charles P. Berkey. 



The paper of the evening, on ' ' The Genesis of 

 Certain Paleozoic Interbedded Iron Ores," was 

 presented by Mr. E. B. Earle. Some 50 lantern 

 slides showing both microscopic and gross struc- 

 tures and textures were presented, several being 

 projected by the splendid apparatus of the New 



York Microscopical Society. About 125 hand 

 specimens were also exhibited. Mimeographic 

 copies of a summary of the paper were available 

 for all present. 



Mr. Earle 's work has been furthered by a grant 

 made by the New York Academy of Sciences some 

 months ago. He has visited many exposures along 

 the Paleozoic bedded ore region of the Appala- 

 chians, and compared notes with many students of 

 that problem, finding that ninety per cent, of 

 them agree with Smyth's theory, as modified after 

 James Hall, giving the ores a contemporaneous 

 sedimentary origin. 



Certain evidences underground seemed to Mr. 

 Earle to discredit the theory of residual origin; 

 inadequate source for the iron seemed to argue 

 against that of replacement according to processes 

 formerly suggested. While certain cavernous con- 

 solidations containing non-ferruginous sand and 

 some granules coated with calcite argue for re- 

 placement, he finds evidence in the relatively im- 

 pervious strata above and below the somewhat 

 permeable iron formation for a different form of 

 circulation of the iron-bearing solutions than pre- 

 viously appealed to, namely, artesian. He pointed 

 out that not merely the Clinton horizon, but vari- 

 ous other geologic epochs in the Appalachians 

 carry iron formations of similar origin. 



Professor Kemp congratulated the speaker on 

 his excellent presentation, and suggested rather 

 reasonable sources of iron from bicarbonates car- 

 ried into estuaries, there deposited as hydrous 

 oxides, later to be dehydrated. He inquired as to 

 oxidation at such great depths by artesian waters, 

 as to the sources of iron, and thought that stagna- 

 tion rather than circulation would be probable 

 under the conditions as presented. 



Dr. George F. Kunz suggested that present con- 

 ditions along saline shores, inland seas, and even 

 in fresh-water bogs might be analogous to those 

 during deposition of the Paleozoic ores, and cited 

 the association of the Syracuse salts and Clinton 

 ores, as well as the Swedish bog ores. 



Professor J. J. Stevenson called attention to 

 certain fragments of the ores in the superjacent 

 sediments, and to certain points bearing on leach- 

 ing from sediments above. He thinks the whole 

 truth is not told by the new theory. 



The lateness of the hour precluded further dis- 

 cussion at this meeting, so that on motion of Pro- 

 fessor Berkey additional time for consideration of 

 the paper was granted place on the program of 

 the next monthly meeting. 



Dr. Hovey read by title a paper by Mr. Warren 



