BEPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 9 



ing an unconformity distinct enough to be appreciated by the layman, was 

 quarried out and shipped to the museum without breakage, where it now forms 

 a most instructive exhibit. The outcropping limestone ledge, several feet in 

 thickness, is composed of a distinctly white lower portion and a dark-colored 

 upper part, the head of the hammer marking their line of contact. This line 

 also marks an unusually clear unconformity. Both of these layers are rich 

 in fossils, those of Early Black River (Lowville) age occurring in the lower 

 white rock and those of Early Trenton in the upper dark material. Since at 

 other places in the United States 500 or more feet of strata of Middle and 

 Late Black River age intervene between these two layers, it is shown that 

 Kentucky was a land area during the deposition of the Middle and Upper Black 

 River strata. This is also evidenced by numerous worm burrows extending 

 downward from the top of the white limestone. When the material was in the 

 condition of soft mud and exposed at the surface, the worms burrowed into it, 

 as they do in the soil to-day. 



The phosphate localities near Wallace, Ky., were next visited, in order to 

 obtain illustrations of the gradual phosphatization of limestone and the types 

 of fossils in phosphatic strata. Here it was discovered that phosphate rock 

 occurs only along the joint planes of the limestone. Surface water passing 

 along these joint planes leaches out the calcium carbonate of the phosphatic 

 limestone, leaving the calcium phosphate content behind. 



GRASSES OF THE ADIRONDACK AND WHITE MOUNTAINS. 



During the month of August, 1917, Mr. A. S. Hitchcock, systematic 

 agrostologist in the Department of Agriculture and custodian of the 

 section of grasses of the division of plants in the United States Na- 

 tional Museum, visited the Adirondacks in New York and the White 

 Mountains in New Hampshire for the purpose of studying their flora, 

 especially the grasses of the alpine summits. Mr. Hitchcock reports 

 as follows: 



In the Adirondacks headquarters Avere at Lake Placid, from which point ex- 

 cursions were made to the summits of Whiteface and Mclntyre, the highest 

 peaks in the group with the exception of Mount Marcy. It was impracticable to 

 reach Mount Marcy' without the use of a camp outfit. This peak rises to a 

 height of 5,344 feet, but Mount Mclntyre is nearly as high (5,112 feet). Both 

 Mclntyre and Whiteface extend above the timber line and support at the sum- 

 mit an alpine flora. 



The White Mountains reach a somewhat greater altitude than the Adiron- 

 dacks, Mount Washington, the highest peak, being 6,293 feet. In the Mount 

 Washington group there are several peaks whose summits are above the timber 

 line. The alpine flora of these peaks and of the peaks of the Adirondacks are 

 similar, and include plants that farther north are found at a lower altitude or, 

 in the Arctic regions, even at sea level. 



Four days were spent investigating the flora of the peaks. The ascent was 

 commenced at Crystal Cascade on the east side, whence the trail led up Tucker- 

 man Ravine to the Summit of Mount Washington, thence down to Lakes-of-the 

 Clouds where there is an Appalachian Mountain Club hut for the accommoda- 

 tion of climbers. From here the head of Oakes Gulf was explored. The second 

 day was spent along the trail from Lakes-of-the-Clouds to the Mount Madison 

 hut, going by the way of the Westside and Gulfside trail, which passes near the 

 high peaks of Clay, Jefferson, and Adams. The return trip to Lakes-of-the 



