800 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 205. 



Oeological Conference, November 15, 1898. 

 Mr. J. E. Woodman presented brief notes 

 on two local features, ' Fifty Years' Change in 

 Lynn Beach,' and ' A Section through theNew- 

 tonville Esker.' Thirty years ago, according 

 to the statement of a stage driver of that time, 

 the road across Lynn Beach, from Lynn to Na- 

 hant, was passable for the stage only at low 

 tide. The constructive action, which has re- 

 sulted in the present, broad, high beach, takes 

 place chiefly during winter storms and on the 

 east side. Attention was directed to some sig- 

 niiicant bedding recently exposed in a section 

 through the Newtonville esker. The subgla- 

 cial stream cut the ice on the outside of its 

 curve, just as meandering streams cut their 

 banks to-day, for the cast of the old channel 

 shows higher beds unconformably overlapping 

 lower ones on the outside of a bend. 



Mr. A. W. Grabau spoke on the ' Siluro-De- 

 voniau Contact in Western New York.' In the 

 region considered, the Onondaga limestone, at 

 the base of the Devonian, has generally been 

 beld to rest unconformably upon the Water-lime, 

 at the top of the Silurian. Five sections ex- 

 posed in the Buffalo cement quarry, near Buf- 

 falo, N. Y. , tend to show that these beds are 

 not only unconformable, but also that they are 

 separated, locally, by a thin layer of conglom- 

 erate. The so-called ' bull-head ' limestone, 

 which forms the upper seven feet of the Water- 

 lime, contains few fossils except near the top, 

 where the following have been found : exterior 

 molds of a new coral ; two species of Leper- 

 ditia, and five species of brachiopods. All the 

 species show Lower Helderberg affinities. The 

 evidence afforded by fossils and by stratigraphic 

 position indicates that this bed is the western 

 extension of the Lower Helderberg, and that 

 the overlying limestone conglomerate, with 

 quartz sand in the cement, is the equivalent of 

 the Oriskauy. Mr. Grabau proposes to call this 

 important capping member of the Silurian the 

 Greenfield limestone. The name is taken from 

 the town in Ohio near which this bed both at- 

 tains strong development and afforded the first 

 fossils described from it. 



One portion of the contact discussed exhibits 

 an irregular, ancient fissure about ten feet deep 

 and up to two feet in width. This fissure 



penetrates the entire stratum of the Greenfield 

 limestone and a portion of the Water-lime, and 

 is filled with compact, quartz sandstone, con- 

 taining angular fragments of the limestone. 

 J. M. BOUTWELL, 

 Recording Secretary. 



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Erratum : On page 675 above first coliiinn, line 33, 

 for Wabash Creek read Walnut Creek. 



