290 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 425, 



Recent Investigations among the Pawnee: 



Geo. a. Dorsey. 



In speaking of his recent investigations 

 among the Pawnee, Dr. Dorsey confined 

 his remarks to the description of the offer- 

 ing to the varioxis gods of the heart and 

 tongue of the buffalo, this being one of the 

 rites of an extensive ceremony in connection 

 with a secret bundle among the Skidi band 

 of the Pawnee, which is dedicated to the 

 evening star, the mother of the Pawnee 

 tribe. 



One of the interesting features brought 

 out in this presentation was that the fire- 

 place made in the tipi during the ceremony 

 is rectangular in shape, and not round, 

 this being supposed to be the shape of that 

 garden in the west presided over by the 

 evening star, and in which the heat of the 

 sun is periodically renewed. 



Roland B. Dixon, 



Secretary. 



Hakvaed University, 



THE WASHINGTON MEETING OF THE GEO- 

 LOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, DE~ 

 CEMBElt 30, 31, 1902, JANUARY 

 1 AND 2, 1903. 



The society was called to order Tues- 

 day, December 30, in a room in the build- 

 ing of the U. S. Geological Survey. The 

 attendance was very large, from 75 to 100 

 fellows being present. An address of 

 welcome was delivered by Director C. D. 

 Walcott and was acknowledged by Presi- 

 dent N. H. Winchell. After routine 

 business, memorials of Alpheus Hyatt (by 

 W. 0. Crosby), J. E. Mills (by J. C. 

 Branner) and J. W. Powell (by W J 

 McGee) were read. The presentation of 

 papers was then begun, and the following 

 were read during the meeting. Inasmuch 

 as the society held joint sessions with Sec- 

 tion E of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, it is impossible to 



give the papers in the exact order of pre- 

 sentation. Section E had a full program, 

 as did also the Geological Society, and re- 

 lated titles were presented in succession, 

 Avithout regard to the body to which they 

 had been primarily offered. In this re- 

 port the printed program of the Geological 

 Society is followed. The companion repQ^t 

 by Dr. E. 0. Hovey covered the papers 

 primarily offered to Section E. Where 

 an author was absent his paper is only 

 mentioned at the close of this report, among 

 those read by title. 



The First Eparchcean Formation: H. M. 



Ami, Ottawa, Can. 



This paper was an extension of one pre- 

 sented at the last winter meeting and en- 

 titled 'The Ordovician Succession in East- 

 ern Ontario.' It emphasized the nature 

 of the first formation which overlies the 

 Archean crystallines in different portions 

 of North America. Dr. Ami showed that 

 the first Paleozoic sediments in the southern 

 Appalachians are fragmental and of lower 

 Cambrian age, while as we come north the 

 strata resting on the ancient crystallines 

 are successively later and later in age, until 

 in Canada we find them at the top of the 

 Ordovician. He, therefore, emphasized the 

 probability that the earliest fossils were 

 only to be expected in the south. 



In discussion C. R. Van Hise urged the 

 importance of care and exactness in the use 

 of the term ' Eparehean Interval. ' If used 

 in the sense iirst proposed by Lawson on 

 Laka Superior it would be a pre-Cambrian 

 term, whereas in the paper of Dr. Ami it 

 might as a time expression come anywhere 

 up to the top of the Ordovician. Trans- 

 gression and overlap need also to be con- 

 sidered. Bailey WiUis remarked the dis- 

 tinct faunas which occurred in the same 

 kind of rock, and emphasized the principle 

 that lithology could not stand for time, 

 nor has it faunal significance. 



