Fkbruaby 9, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



219 



GOBDILLEBAN SECTION OF TEE GEOLOG- 

 ICAL SOCIETY OF AMEBICA* 



A YEAR ago, as has been already reported 

 in Science, about a dozen west coast geolo- 

 gists met at Berkeley and organized the 

 Cordilleran Geological Club. The organi- 

 zation was at once recognized as temporary, 

 and the project of organizing permanently 

 as a Section of the Geological Society of 

 America formed a leading topic of discus- 

 sion at the meeting. The following spring 

 a number of fellows of the Society resident 

 in California memorialized the Council of 

 the Society, setting forth their inability to 

 be present at the meeting of the Society 

 owing to the great distance at which they 

 reside from the usual places of meeting, and 

 praying for legislation on the part of the 

 Society which would enable them to meet 

 as a geographically distinct Section of the 

 Society. The Section was formally recog- 

 nized by the Society at its Washington 

 meeting, and the Council of the Society was 

 authorized to frame rules governing the Sec- 

 tion in its relations to the main Society. 



The meeting of the Cordilleran Section 

 was very successful, and it is clear that its 

 organization will greatly strengthen the So- 

 ciety in the West. Provisionally Professor 

 Joseph Le Conte was elected Chairman, An- 

 drew C. Lawson, Secretary, and Professor J. 

 E. Talmage, Councilor, the three to consti- 

 tute an executive committee. 



The following papers were presented : 



The discovery of a goat antelope in the cave 



fauna of Pike's Peah region. By F. W. 



Ceagin, Colorado Springs, Colo. 



In having the cave-earth removed from a 

 cave in the Manitou limestone of his Glen 

 Eyrie estate a few years since. General W. 

 J. Palmer saved organic remains, consist- 

 ing of a number of bones, and submitted 

 them to the writer for determination. Two 

 of the specimens belonged to a slender- 



* First annual meeting, San Francisco, Calif., De- 

 cember 29 and 30, 1899. 



limbed horse of the late Pliocene or Quater- 

 nary age. Other remains belong to a spe- 

 cies of woodchuck, probably different from 

 any now living in North America. A hu- 

 merus and cannion bone of a two-toed un- 

 gulate were found to differ from the corre- 

 sponding bones of all the artiodactyles now 

 living in North America, but agreed closely 

 with those of the Capricorn or Goat- Ante- 

 lope (Nemorhcedus) of the Himalayan region. 

 In recognition of General Palmer's liberal 

 patronage of science the species is named 

 N. palmeri. 



The finding of goat antelopes in the ex- 

 tinct fauna of the Rocky Mountains, though 

 unexpected, is no more remarkable than the 

 occurrence of elephants, which are also of 

 Oriental origin. 



On the occurrence of ground-sloths in the Qua- 

 ternary of Middle California. By John C 

 Meeeiam, Berkeley. 



The remains of two ground-sloths have 

 recently been obtained from Middle Cali- 

 fornian deposits of unquestioned Quaternary 

 age. The first specimens found consisted 

 of large humerus fragments obtained by 

 Judge Jopdes, of Martinez, Calif., on the /^ 

 south shore of Suisun Bay. Associated 

 with them were remains of Elephas and a 

 large species of Equus. During the past 

 year, 1899, Mr. A. Huff obtained a large 

 and perfectly preserved humerus from loose, 

 horizontally stratified deposits on the east- 

 ern shore of Tomales Bay, in Marin County, 

 Calif. An Elephas tooth seems to have been 

 obtained from the same deposit. 



The specimens from the two localities 

 seem to belong to the same or closely re- 

 lated species. This form fits most satisfac- 

 torily into Marsh's genus Morotherium, 

 which was described from material ob- 

 tained in Alameda County, Calif. 



Classification of the John Day beds. By John 

 C. Meeeiam, Berkeley. 

 The John Day beds average about fif- 



