34 rROCEEDINGS OF THE CfllCAGO MEETING 



tured satellite, especially if it were a relatively large one, would malve an 

 immediate change in tlie equilibrium of tlie globe. It would set up new stresses 

 of world-wide character and would increase the degree of oblateness of the 

 earth's figure. In order to explain displaced strand-lines, Suess postulates a 

 recent change of the figure of the sea from a less degree to a greater degree 

 of oblateness. The same force would act on the solid globe and set up new 

 stresses in it. The unity of the Tertiary mountain belt, extending around the 

 whole earth, requires a cause beginning with relative suddenness and with 

 powerful world-wide action and to continue for a long time. The capture of a 

 large satellite about at the beginning of the Tertiary would explain the facts 

 as no other hypothesis yet suggested can. 



Presented by title in the absence of the author. 



AN ORIGIN OF CRYSTALLINE SCHISTS 

 BY CHARLES R. KEYES 



{Abstract) 



Concerning the genesis of the crystalline schists, it is commonly regarded 

 that it is the direct result of intense compression, aided by new chemical re- 

 actions and recrystallization along closely parallel lines. On a small scale the 

 same foliation takes place along shear planes. For the larger scale, where 

 great mountain ranges and Cordilleras are involved, there seems to be another 

 interpretation. A belt of sedimentary or igneous rocks simply sinks down 

 into the zone of rock flowage. On its return to sky it comes back schist. 



The central massif of the southern Rocky Mountains appears to reflect 

 clearly such conditions. No less than four times since the close of the Paleo- 

 zoic era do the present surface rocks of the area seem to have been depressed 

 into the zone of rock flowage. As in the Piedmont Plateau of the Middle At- 

 lantic slope the old Paleozoics and pre-Cambrian sediments are changed over 

 into massive schists. But these schists, instead of being the most ancient 

 rocks of which we have knowledge, as was not so very long ago believed, are 

 in all probability post-Paleozoic in date of formation. 



Presented by title in the absence of the author. 



SECTIONAL MEETING 



The section which met at 2.10 o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, for the con- 

 sideration of stratigraphic and related topics, convened in Rosenwald 

 Hall, under the chairmanship of President I. C. White, with E. S. Bassler 

 serving as secretary. The first paper on the program was 



DEVONIAN OF MINNESOTA 

 BY CLINTON E. STAUFFER 



{Abstract) 



About 1,200 square miles of southern Minnesota are known to be covered by 

 Devonian deposits. Limestone boulders carrying a similar Devonian fauna 



