288 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The following programme of papers was then offered : 



A. W. Grabau, Irrational Stratigraphy: The Eight 



AND THE Wrong Way of Reconstruct- 

 ing Ancient Continents and Seas. 



Ferdinand F. Hintze, Jr., A Contribution to the Geology of the 



Wasatch Mountains, Utah. 



Jesse E. Hyde, Physiographic Studies in the Alle- 



gheny Plateau, particularly along 

 ITS Western Margin in Ohio and 

 Kentucky. 



Jesse E. Hyde, A Limestone Dike in Southern Ohio. 



Professor Grabau 's paper on "Irrational Stratigraphy: The Right 

 and AYrong Way of Reconstructing Ancient Continents and Seas" was 

 of the nature of a critique. It was illustrated with paleographic maps 

 by Schuchert, Ulrich, Willis, Chamberlin and Salisbury. The thesis in- 

 dicated that these maps were too often based on paleontology alone, to 

 the neglect of the sediments themselves, especially their»^igin. There 

 are sometimes arms of the sea across where the source of a bed of con- 

 glomerate would be expected. Erosion was here left out of consideration, 

 and a "stratigraphic hash" was the result. Basins where crinoids, corals, 

 brachiopods, etc., are found are mapped too small. 



Questions followed by Professor J. E. Woodman on the width of Appa- 

 lachia and by Dr. C. A. Reeds on the connection between the Atlantic and 

 Pacific in Silurian time, on the margin of Silurian salts and on the 

 present Atlantic deep where Appalachia was once supposed to be. This 

 last would seem to argue that remarkable sinking has occurred since 

 Paleozoic time. 



Professor Grabau thinks that possibly Appalachia did not extend over 

 to the present deep, that is, it was perhaps less than 500 miles wide and 

 may have lain in part where the present Atlantic coastal plain now is. 

 He thinks the Silurian salts may have originated while the Taconic land 

 mass existed to the eastward in such a position as to cut off moisture- 

 bearing winds. 



The papers by Messrs. Hintze and Hyde were presented by title. 



The Section then adjourned. 



Charles T. Kirk, 



Secretary. 



