98 



SCmNCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 264. 



graphs to illustrate the structure and mode 

 of formation of the Paumotu atolls. Mr. 

 Mayer has devoted much time to the draw" 

 ing of the medusae collected. 



Judging from the temperature taken at 

 various points, 40° F. seems to be found 

 quite generally at about 500 fathoms depth. 



We made a number of surface hauls, as 

 well as intermediate hauls, with the tow- 

 nets, but obtained very little animal life. 

 The poverty of the surface pelagic life, 

 and down to 300 fathoms, is remarkable. 

 I do not think I have ever sailed over so 

 extensive an area as that of the Paumotus 

 and observed so little surface life ; on calm 

 days, under the most favorable conditions, 

 nothing could be seen with the naked eye, 

 and at night there was little or no phos- 

 phorescence. Inside the lagoons our hauls 

 were equally barren. 



The same paucity of animal life seemed 

 to extend to the deep-water fauna. All 

 the hauls we made off the islands, in 

 from 600 to 1000 fathoms, usually the 

 most productive area of a sea slope, 

 brought nothing, or so little that we came 

 to grudge the time spent in trawling on the 

 bottom, as well as towing on the surface or 

 near it, a great contrast to the conditions 

 of the Atlantic in similar latitudes, and 

 very different from our anticipations. For 

 these reasons no attempt has thus far been 

 made to make a trial of the deep-sea pump 

 while in such unproductive areas, and unfor- 

 tunately while we were in the region of the 

 equatorial current the weather conditions 

 were not suited for a trial of the apparatus. 



We expect now to coal and refit, and to 

 leave for Suva via Tonga on the 15th of 

 this month. A. Agassiz. 



THE TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 

 QEOLOGICAL SOCIETV OF AMEBICA. 

 I. 

 The Geological Society of America con- 

 vened at 10 a. m. , Wednesday, December 



27th, in the large lecture room of Columbia 

 University, Washington, D. C. President 

 B. K. Emerson called the meeting to order 

 and Dr. G. K. Gilbert delivered an address 

 of welcome, to which the President re- 

 sponded. The following officers were then 

 declared elected for the ensuing year : 



President : George M. Dawson, Ottawa, Ont. ; First 

 Vice-President: Charles D. Walcott, Washington, D. 

 C. ; Secoyid Vice-President : N. H. Winchell, Minne- 

 apolis, Minn.; Secretary: H. L. Fairchild, Rochester, 

 N. y. ; Treasurer : I. C. White, Morgantown, W. 

 Va. ; Editor: J. Stanley-Brown, Washington, D. C; 

 Librarian: H. P. Gushing, Cleveland, O. ; Count i/lors: 

 W. B. Clark, Baltimore, Md., and A. C. Lawson, 

 Berkeley, Calif. 



The following new Fellows were also an- 

 nounced as having received election : 



Irving Presoott Bishop, 109 Norwood Avenue, 

 Buffalo, N. Y., Professor of Natural Science, State 

 Normal and Training School ; Emilb Bose, Ph.D. 

 (University of Munich, 1893), Calle del Paseo Nuevo 

 No. 2, Mexico, D. F., Geologist of the Instituto Geo- 

 logico de Mexico ; Arthur Starr Eakle, B.S. (Cornell, 

 1892), Ph.D. (Munich, 1896), University Museum, 

 Cambridge, Mass., Instructor in Mineralogy and 

 Petrography, Harvard University ; August Frederick 

 Foerste, A.B. (Denison, 1887), A.M., Ph.D. (Har- 

 vard, 1888, 1890) ; John Flesher Newsom, A.B. 

 (University, Indiana, 1891), A.M. (Stanford, 1892), 

 Stanford University, Calif., Associate Professor of Met- 

 allurgy and Mining, Stanford University ; Samuel 

 Lewis Penaeld, Ph.B., M.A. (Yale, 1877, 1896), New 

 Haven, Conn., Professor of Mineralogy, Sheffield 

 Scientific School of Yale University ; Charles Henry 

 Richardson, A.B., A.M., Ph.D. (Dartmouth, 1892, 

 1895, 1898), Hanover, N. H., Instructor in Chemistry 

 and Mineralogy, Dartmouth College ; Arthur Brown 

 Willmott, B.A., B.Sc. (Victoria University, Toronto, 

 1887), M.A. (Harvard, 1891), Toronto, Canada, Pro- 

 fessor of Geology and Chemistry, MoMaster Univer- 

 sity. 



During the year the Society has lost by 

 death four of its most distinguished Fel- 

 lows, of whom two. Sir J. William Dawson 

 and Edward Orton, have been presidents. 

 The others were O. C. Marsh and Oliver 

 Marcy. Memorials were read of all but 

 Professor Marsh, whose biographer. Pro- 

 fessor C. E. Beecher, was absent, and had 



