ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 83 



the middle and upper Gondwaiia do the more northern. The lower Gondwana 

 has a basal conglomerate of glacial origin (Talchir beds). During the present 

 season a rapid reconnaissance was made of the Wadesboro area of Newark 

 rocks in North Carolina in the hope of discovering either Pennsylvanian fossils 

 or a glacial conglomerate. Faceted pebbles, but without striae, were found at 

 the base. Proceeding northward to examine the Deep River area, it was 

 learned from Prof. Collier Cobb that he had already discovered, but not yet 

 described, excellent Pennsylvanian fossils from that area, thus confirming the 

 anticipated correspondence in age with the lower Gondwana of Hindustan. 

 Geologists more favorably located should make further search for glaciated 

 pebbles in the basal conglomerates of the southern Newark areas. 



Presented in full extemj^oraneousl}'. 



Discussion 



Prof. E. W. Beery: It is perhaps unfair for one who has seen only the ab- 

 stract of this paper to pretend to criticise its conclusions, but the statements 

 in the abstract are certainly open to criticism, and I would like to point out 

 the harm which, in mj' judgment, the author does to geological science by 

 such unestablished and far-fetched comparisons as that between the Newark 

 rocks of eastern North America and those of the Gondwana system of India. 



I venture to assert that the two series have nothing in common except such 

 features as result from their both having been deposited under continental 

 conditions. 



That portion of the Newark which is fossiliferous, and this includes the 

 Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina areas, 

 is not "probably of Jura-Trias age," but is most clearly and conclusively shown 

 by its fishes, reptiles, mammals, and plants to be not older than the Keuper 

 of Europe, nor younger than uppermost Triassic. These fossils are not con- 

 fined to the northern area of the Newark, although the so-called Ganoid fishes 

 have been described principally from that area. The mammalia, many rep- 

 tiles, and the best of the plant materials have come from Virginia and North 

 Carolina. Professor Hobbs is mistaken in his statement that the lower Gond- 

 wana most resembles the soatheru Newark area, and that the middle and 

 upper Gondwana most resembles the northern Newark area. 



Paleontologically, and by that I mean both paleozoologically and paleobo- 

 tanically, there is absolutely no age distinction between the northern and 

 southern areas of Newark rocks. All of the extant evidence is in harmony in 

 pointing to a late Triassic age, and this evidence is overwhelmingly strong 

 for the Virginia and North Carolina areas. Professor Hobbs is mistaken in 

 thinking that he has discovered Pennsylvanian fossils in the Triassic of the 

 Deep River area of North Carolina. 



With very considerable faunas and floras known from the Newark rocks, 

 and with the well considered opinions as to age based on comparatively recent 

 studies of the Newark fishes by Eastman, of the vertebrates of the North Caro- 

 lina Triassic by Gilmore, and the mostly unpviblished studies of the Triassic 

 plants of the southern area by the writer, it would seem that Professor Hobbs' 

 conclusions are not in accord with our present knowledge of the subject, nor 

 do they, it seems to' me, add anything to that knowledge. 



