TITLES AND ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 85 



A comprelieusive understanding of tlie origin of the sediments will greatly 

 facilitate the interpretation of the earth's climatic history and the evolution 

 of the oceans ; will give us far more accurate information regarding the 

 distribution of land and sea and the topography of both, and will greatly 

 strengthen our knowledge of volcanic epochs and diastrophic movements. We 

 should even be able to understand those special and peculiar conditions which 

 apparently are not now duplicated on the earth, but are implied by such de- 

 posits as the iron ores of eastern Brazil and the phosphate deposits of Idaho. 

 An understanding of sedimentation is essential to the new and rapidly develop- 

 ing method of correlating rock formations, not simply on the basis of fossils 

 or even diastrophism, but on the compound basis of life, climate, topography, 

 vulcanism, and diastrophism, with critical regard to the relative values, 

 mutual relations, and dependencies of all. 



Eead in full from manuscript. 



Discussion 



Dr. J. M. Clarke emphasized the new importance of closer study of the com- 

 position of sedimentary rocks along the lines suggested by the author and by 

 the participants in the symposium on this theme held at the Albany meeting. 



OPPORTUNITIES FOR GEOLOGICAL WORK IN THE FAR ARCTIC 

 t BY W. ELMER EKBLAW ^ 



{Abstract) 



Great areas of Greenland and the Arctic Archipelago are nearly, or quite, 

 unexplored by geologists. Ellesmere Land and Greenland offer the best oppor- 

 tunities for study of glaciers fed from great ice-fields, of the climatic condi- 

 tions under which these ice-fields are formed, and of the resulting attendant 

 phenomena. 



The Arctic Archipelago presents such a diversity of physical conditions that 

 it affords especially favorable opportunities for the comparison of physio- 

 graphic phenomena characteristic of Arctic climates with those characteristic 

 of other climates. 



Because the land is practically free from vegetation, and during the summer 

 months, when work is possible, most of the ground is bare of ice and snow, 

 the numerous structural problems which are presented throughout the Arctic 

 Archipelago are not so difficult of study as is generally supposed. 



In only a few localities is the stratigraphy fairly well known. Only scat- 

 tered observations have been made and collections of fossils are few and far 

 between. This dearth of knowledge and material is due to neglect of the field 

 rather than to paucity of exposures or fossils, for great tracts of sedimentaries 

 are bare throughout the summer season and many beds are more or less fos- 

 siliferous. 



There is no lack of opportunity for geologic work in the far Arctic ; the want 

 is men to do the work. 



Read in full from manuscript. 



1 Introduced by W. S. Bayley. 



