26 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 418. 



-Copper River basin. The paper closed with 

 a summary of the known Alaskan occurrences 

 of the Carboniferous. 



' Occurrence of Paleozoic Rocks in the 

 Southern Portion of the Great Basin Region,' 

 by F. B. Weeks. 



Mr. Weeks said in part, the Paleozoic sedi- 

 xaentary series in this region extends from 

 the Pre-Gambrian to the Permian, or possibly 

 the Trias. The granites and allied rocks of 

 the Grand Canyon section, and of southeast- 

 ern California extending into the Sierra 

 Nevada, comprise the basement complex. 

 The Pre-Cambrian consists of quartzites and 

 -schists of undetermined thickness. These 

 are conformably overlain by the Cambrian 

 -strata of alternating beds of quartzite, shale 

 and limestone, which attain a thickness of 

 10,000 feet or more. The Silurian is repre- 

 sented by two great masses of limestone with 

 several hundred feet of quartzite between 

 them. The series is very similar to that de- 

 scribed by Hague at Eureka, and the impor- 

 tant unconformity between the quartzite and 

 the overlying limestone noted at Eureka also 

 occurs in the Panamint and Grapevine ranges. 

 The Devonian limestone is exposed in the 

 ranges directly east of the Grapevine range, 

 and also forms a considerable portion of the 

 Desert range. The Carboniferous limestones 

 are exposed in the Inyo and Darwin ranges 

 and form a large part of the Charleston 

 mountains. The section in the latter range 

 consists of Lower Carboniferous limestones, 

 Ted sandstones and shales and an Upper Car- 

 boniferous limestone. Above these are other 

 limestones containing a Permian or possibly 

 a Triassic fauna. The data relating to the 

 Charleston range were obtained by R. B. Rowe, 

 who was engaged in a study of the geology of 

 this region for some months prior to his death 

 in 1902. Between the Cambrian and the Or- 

 ■dovician in the Great Basin region there ap- 

 pears to be heavy faulting in some sections, 

 and in others a thrusting of the Ordovician 

 upon the imderlying Cambrian beds. Prior 

 to the Carboniferous there was an erosion in- 

 terval and an overlapping of the Carbonifer- 

 ous upon the Devonian and probably the 

 Silurian. King's conclusion that there are 



40,000 feet of conformable Paleozoic strata 

 in the Great Basin region has not been con- 

 firmed by recent studies. The structure of 

 the Basin ranges is believed to be the result 

 of crustal movements of uplift and subsi- 

 dence accompanied by faulting, thrusting and 

 erosion at different stages of Paleozoic time, 

 orographic forms having been modified by 

 erosion and subsequent earth movements dur- 

 ing the long interval from the Permian to the 

 present. 



' The Horseheads Outlet of the Glacial 

 Lakes of Central New York,' by M. L. Fuller. 



Mr. Fuller described the nearly uniform 

 maximum altitude attained by the crests of 

 the drift deposits of the valleys both to the 

 north and to the west of Horseheads, and 

 classed them with morainal terraces rather 

 than with true moraines. The uniform altitude, 

 together with the presence at several points of 

 notches cut to approximately the same level 

 across the projecting rock points by streams 

 flowing along the sides of the ice tongues 

 occupying the lower portion of the valleys, 

 was considered as evidence of a local body of 

 standing water reaching to a height of about 

 100 feet above the present streams at Horse- 

 heads. The terraced character of the outlet 

 at Horseheads was also described, and the 

 opinion expressed that the broader terrace is 

 an erosional and not a constructional (flood- 

 plain) feature, and that it represents the out- 

 let of Lake Newberry at its principal stage. 

 The lower and smaller channel, which is nar- 

 rower than many of the channels cut by the 

 small streams now existing, is considered as 

 marking the final stage of the outlet when 

 part of the escaping waters of the lake were, 

 as the ice retreated, beginning to escape at 

 other outlets located, it seems most probable, 

 at a point some distance to the east. 



Alfred H. Brooks, 



Secretary. 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



At a meeting of the club on November 11, 

 1902, the scientific program consisted of a 

 paper by Dr. L. M. Underwood on ' The Gold 

 and Silver Ferns.' Dr. Underwood said that 

 characters based upon position and form of 



