NOVEMBER 5, 1897. ] 
thickness than was formerly supposed. 
Preglacial stream valleys were also treated. 
In the absence of the authors the follow- 
ing papers were read by title: 
14. ‘Progress of Hydrographic Investi- 
gations by the United States Geological 
Survey,’ by F. H. Newell, Washington, 
DAC: 
15. ‘Stylolites,’ by Professor T. C. Hop- 
kins, State College, Pennsylvania. 
Tuesday was given to the Geological So- 
ciety, and Wednesday afternoon the Sec- 
tion met with Section H, joining in the 
discussion of the human relics found in the 
Trenton gravel. 
C. H. Suytu, Jr. 
HAMILTON COLLEGE. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 
THE ninth summer meeting of the Society 
was held at Detroit, August 10th, under the 
presidency of Professor Edward Orton. 
The Secretary announced the election of 
nine fellows. 
The following papers were read: 
1. ‘The Granite Mountain Area of Burnet 
County, Texas,’ by F. W. Simonds. The 
area described embraces about fifty square 
miles, from which the overlying strata have 
been removed, and the granite reduced to a 
plain, except at Granite Mountain and 
Johnson’s Rock, which rise about one hun- 
dred feet above the general surface. The 
granite is a biotite granite and is quarried 
on a considerable scale, affording an excel- 
lent building material. After reviewing the 
opinions of Walcott, Hill and Comstock in 
regard to the age of the granite, the author 
concluded that the intrusion accompanied 
post-Carboniferous disturbances, and may 
have been as late as Cretaceous. 
2. ‘Stratigraphy and Structure of the 
Puget Group, Washington,’ by Bailey 
Willis. The Eocene and Miocene strata 
adjacent to Seattle and Tacoma are folded 
and faulted in a manner closely analogous 
SCIENCE. 
691 
to that of the Appalachian region, but the 
compressing force acted from the west 
instead of the east. The fresh-water Hocene 
is much like the eastern Carboniferous, con- 
sisting of arkose sandstones and clay shales 
containing iron carbonate nodules, with 
beds of coal or black shale every one hun- 
dred, to one hundred and thirty, feet. The 
total thickness exceeds eight thousand feet. 
When slightly disturbed, the coal is lignite, 
but as the amount of disturbance increases 
there is a passage into steam coal with 
cubical fracture, and, finally, into coking 
coals. The coals, being planes of easy 
slipping, have greatly affected the folding, 
and have themselves often been crushed to 
powder. 
3. ‘The Loess as a Land Deposit,’ by J. 
A. Udden. Observation indicates that the 
air isnot depositing dust in sufficient quan- 
tities to build the loess, which spreads over 
such great areas, at elevations ranging from 
300 to 3,000 feet. But the amount deposited 
varies greatly and may have been much 
larger in early post-glacial times. The 
loess closely resembles undoubted wind- 
blown deposits, while in its uniformity and 
prevailing lack of bedding plains it is quite 
different from most aqueous sediments. On 
the whole, the actual phenomena exhibited 
by the loess seem to accord better with the 
hypothesis of Eolian origin than with any 
other. 
4. ‘ Analogy between Declivities of Land 
and Submarine Valleys,’ by J. W. Spencer. 
With the aid of diagrams, the author pointed 
out the close resemblance existing between 
subaerial and submarine valleys, particu- 
larly in the Antillean region. He concluded 
that such similarity of topography must 
indicate a common origin, and that the 
present sea bottom must be a submerged 
land surface. This shows a sinking of ten 
to fifteen thousand feet in the Antillean 
basin, which was probably compensated by - 
an elevation in the region of Mexico. 
