926 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol,. IV. No. 103. 



Baltimore, Maryland, entitled ' Some Paleonto- 

 logic Folk-Lore of Maryland, ' illustrated by a 

 collection of fossil cycads of the Potomac for- 

 mation. 



The ideas of the residents of the rural and 

 mining districts of the Potomac formation of 

 Maryland, respecting the nature of fossil cyca- 

 dean trunks were reviewed. One of the more 

 notable conceptions was to the effect that they 

 were a sort of stone plant endowed with a 

 kind of life and the capacity in a marked de- 

 gree, for growth. It was claimed by the owner 

 of one of the trunks, and generally believed in 

 the neighborhood, that when found, in 1830, it 

 was a small stone, and was carried in the apron 

 of Aunt Polly Jones, its discoverer, a distance 

 of not less than two miles, and that since that 

 date it had increased in dimensions until it 

 now weighs 121J pounds. 



Discussed by Prof. Ward relative to geologic 

 and paleontologic character and identification 

 of the specimens ; also by Prof. McGee and 

 Dr. J. H. McCormick. 



The second communication was entitled ' Seri 

 Stone Art,' by W J McGee. About a score of 

 more or less artificialized pebbles and bowlders 

 were exhibited. Two of these were naturally 

 shaped angular masses of stone, which had 

 been used as metates or nether millstones in 

 simple grinding operations, one so far as to 

 slightly polish the surface, and the other so 

 long as to produce a basin-shape depression 

 nearly an inch deep, in one side ; and there 

 were three or four cobblestones which had been 

 used as anvils in simple domestic operations. 

 The greater part of the collection consisted of 

 natural pebbles, more or less completely worn 

 and shaped by use as hammers, manos (or 

 grinding stones), etc.; none of these were dif- 

 ferentiated, but all bore marks of use for the 

 various purposes required in the simple domestic 

 art of the Seri Indians. The process of manu- 

 facture, or more properly evolution, of the im- 

 plements, as observed among the Indians and 

 studied in the contents of scores of their ran- 

 cherias, was described: The Seri matron, requir- 

 ing implements to crush and grind mesquite 

 beans or to crush bones and sever tendons of 

 turtle or deer, selects a suitable pebble for use 

 as hammer or grinder, with a larger stone 



which serves as metate or anvil; commonly 

 both are abandoned after a single use, but if 

 the smaller stone is found especially convenient 

 it is preserved for future use, while the larger 

 is used again only if it is near a rancheria ; in 

 use the stones are worn, and if improved 

 thereby they are retained and the smaller is 

 carried about by the matron as a part of her 

 domestic paraphernalia ; and occasionally a 

 pebble is so satisfactory at the outset and so far 

 improved by gradual reshaping in use that it 

 is completely artificialized, though still used 

 for various purposes, especially grinding and 

 crushing. Eventually the form assumed by 

 such pebbles is a flattened ellipsoid, the sides 

 of which are smoothed and polished by use in 

 grinding, while the ends and perhaps the edges 

 are roughened by battering in the use as a 

 hammer. It was pointed out that even the best 

 worn examples are not the product of purposive 

 manufacture, in accordance with preconceived 

 design, but are simply natural pebbles modified 

 by wear in use, and thus that they cannot be 

 regarded as representing either the neolithic or 

 paleolithic types of many archeologists ; and it 

 was suggested that the class be distinguished 

 as protolithic. It was observed that the Seri 

 Indians do not habitually chip stone, and that 

 their stone chipping is limited to the manufac- 

 ture of arrow-points of a common pattern, and 

 was probably acquired from neighboring tribes, 

 through contact in warfare. 



J. H, McCormick:, 



Secretary. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



At the 53d meeting of the Geological Society^ 

 held on November 25th, 1896, Mr. Arthur Keith, 

 of the United States Geological Survey, gave a 

 resume of the essential features of a communica- 

 tion presented by him at the previous meeting 

 on the structure of the Cranberry district. 



The district lies mainly in the northwestern 

 corner of North Carolina. It extends into 

 Tennessee to the northwest, but the formations 

 under consideration lie entirely within North 

 Carolina. The district consists almost entirely 

 of metamorpjiic rocks, the great body being 

 gneisses, hornblende schists and allied rocks. 

 All the ordinary features of Appalachian struc- 



