298 



SCIENCE. 



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



a mighty hunter of existing big game, he 

 was a bit weak as regards extinct types. 



Permian Elements in the Dunkard Flora: 

 David White, Washington, D. C. 

 The Dunkard series (Upper Barren 

 Measures, XVI.) includes the topmost 

 Paleozoic sediments in the Appalachian 

 trough. It lies in southwestern Pennsyl- 

 vania, eastern Ohio and northern West 

 Virginia, its maximum thickness, in West 

 Virginia, probably exceeding 1,200 feet. 

 Its age determination rests chiefly on the 

 land flora, the series being non-marine. 

 The paleobotanical and lithologieal con- 

 clusions that the series is Permian, reached 

 by Professors Wm. M. Fontaine and I. C. 

 White, have been seriously questioned by 

 some American geologists and paleontolo- 

 gists. Recent collecting materially increases 

 the Permian evidence, and seems to leave 

 little room for doubt that the beds in and 

 above the Washington limestone are refer- 

 able to the Lower Rothliegende of western 

 Europe. The data so far obtained from 

 the lower beds of the Dunkard are, in the 

 judgment of the writer, not yet conclusive 

 as to Permian age. The problem is difficult 

 on account of the great paucity of char- 

 acteristic Permian forms and the presence 

 of a transition flora. Beds of Zechstein 

 age seem not to have survived erosion in 

 the Appalachian trough. 



Dr. I. C. White discussed the paper and 

 expressed his pleasure that the Whites 

 were of the same shade of opinion for once. 



Configuration of the Rock Floor of the 



Vicinity of New York: William H. 



HoBBS, Madison, Wis. 



New York city and its approaches are 



now the focus of engineering enterprises 



never before paralleled in the history of 



the world. The revelations afforded by 



these public and private undertakings are 



of much significance from a geological 



point of view, particularly, however, as 

 regards the formation of the island and 

 the channels surrounding it. To the data 

 now being furnished have been added 

 many from earlier enterprises — the nu- 

 merous bridges, tunnels, well borings, 

 foundations, etc. Many lantern slides 

 were shown, based on the profiles of en- 

 gineers and showing crushed belts and 

 streaks of decomposed rock under the river 

 channels and depressions. The speaker, 

 therefore, developed an argument in favor 

 of faults as the cause of the depressions, 

 and as the guiding cause of the rivers in 

 opposition to the limestone belts which 

 have been hitherto regarded as the main 

 directing cause. 



In discussion J. F. Kemp stated the 

 points in favor of the limestone, while ad- 

 mitting for certain localities the force of 

 Dr. Hobbs's reasoning. He urged that 

 soft and decomposed belts sometimes oc- 

 curred without visible connection with 

 faults. J. W. Spencer spoke somewhat in 

 favor of the limestones and regarding the 

 difficulty of demonstrating faults, as did 

 also Bailey Willis, who, however, cited a 

 fault which he believed to exist, bounding 

 the southeastern edge of the ridge of Staten 

 Island. 



On the Drowned Valleys off the North At- 

 lantic Coast: J. W. Spencee, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



This paper is a sequel to the same study 

 presented to this society, and published 

 in the Bulletin in 1894. The subcoastal 

 plains were described. They have a 

 breadth of from 20 to 80 miles, or 300 

 miles ofl: Newfoundland, reaching to a 

 depth of 200 to 250 feet, with, in places, 

 an outer terrace 200 feet lower. Across 

 this Lindenkohl traced the Hudson val- 

 ley to a canon nearly 3,000 feet below 

 sea-level, while the author recognizes its 

 continuation, in the contours of the con- 



