408 T. W. VAUGHAN ^RESEARCHES ON SEDIMENTATION 



is suggested that it might be well for each State survey to take into con- 

 sideration the kinds of researches it could profitably undertake and make 

 arrangements for the prosecution of at least some of them. 



Of the privately endowed institutions, the possibilities of certain de- 

 partments of the Carnegie Institution of Washington come immediately 

 to mind. The Geophysical Laboratory has already put students of sedi- 

 ments under obligations to it through the researches of John Johnston, 

 H. E. Merwin, and E. D. Williamson. Perhaps further researches into 

 problems in sedimentation may be done by it. The Department of Bo- 

 tanical Research has issued a volume of much geologic value in its mono- 

 graph on Salton Sea. Further researches of this kind are needed, and 

 Doctor MacDougal should be urged to do all he can toward making known 

 the geologic history of the inclosed lakes of the West, including the part 

 plants play in the deposits forming there. Much work has been done on 

 sediments in connection with the Department of Marine Biology, largely 

 in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey and other na- 

 tional institutions, and other work of value is in progress. The work 

 that is being done should be encouraged. Mention should also be made 

 of the studies on diatoms by Dr. Albert Mann, who is now an associate 

 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



Besides the researches conducted by at least three departments of the 

 Carnegie Institution, it may be possible to arrange for more work on 

 sediments at some of the marine laboratories. There are, for instance, 

 the Scripps Laboratory of the University of California and the labora- 

 tory to be established in connection with the Bishop Pauahi Museum of 

 Honolulu. 



There are many problems in sedimentation that can be advantageously 

 attacked in the universities ; there are both problems dealing with specific 

 phenomena and those dealing with particular areas. The University of 

 California has set a good example by its studies of San Francisco Bay. 

 At Harvard Professor Sayles has published an important memoir on sea- 

 sonal deposition in aqueo-glacial sediments, but Harvard might do more 

 and attempt work on Boston Bay and the Gulf of Maine. There are other 

 aqueous sediments in this part of the country deserving critical study, 

 and the sand-dunes of Cape Cod are worthy of monographic treatment. 

 There are accessible] to every university opportunities for research that 

 will not soon be exhausted. Some universities are favorably situated for 

 the study of the physical characteristics of geologic formations, and as 

 instances of such work Goldman's paper on the Upper Cretaceous sedi- 

 ments of Maryland and a research by Prof. Leonard P. Dove, of the 



