. TITLED AND ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 131 



for the occasional presence of fragments of burned wood or "mother of coal." 

 The organization present in these coals is, in fact, that which might theoret- 

 ically be expected from the carbonization of ordinary peat. The presence of 

 isolated fragments of charred wood, both in the substance of such coals as well 

 as in the petrifactions occurring in them, indicates clearly that they have been 

 laid down in open water, precisely as is the case with many lignite deposits 

 of the Cretaceous of the coastal plain. In these deposits often occur large 

 quantities of the vegetative remains of plants, isolated fragments of which are 

 in a charred condition. It is universally admitted that the Cretaceous lignites 

 of the seaboard and the coast islands were deposited in open water. The petri- 

 factions in coal accordingly do not furnish valid evidence for the in situ mode 

 of deposition of coal, as is often assumed. 



Presented in abstract extemporaneously. 



ORIGIN OF VEINLET8 IN THE LIMESTONE, SHALE, AND GYPSUM BEDS OF 

 CENTRAL NEW YORK 



BY STEPHEN TABER 



(Abstract) 



Metalliferous veins commonly furnish little or no evidence relative to the 

 mechanics of their formation, because they usually occur in regions of meta- 

 morphic rock and because such evidence as may have existed during the early 

 stages of vein formation has usually been obliterated by alterations due to the 

 vein-forming solutions or to secondary changes. For this reason the small 

 veins found in regions of unaltered sedimentary rocks furnish clearer e^ idence 

 bearing on this problem. 



Many small veins, ranging up to two or three inches in width, are exposed 

 in the limestone and gypsum quarries of Cayuga and Onondaga counties, New 

 York. These veins may be divided into two classes — one fibrous and the other 

 coarsely crystalline and non-fibrous. The former are composed either of gyp- 

 sum or calcite, the crystal fibers extending transverse to the strike of the 

 veins, which run in all directions, but are generally parallel to the bedding. 

 These veins are lenticular and continue for short distances only. The non- 

 fibrous veins usually consist of gypsum or calcite, but the calcite veins some- 

 times contain more or less quartz and pyrite. They are more persistent and 

 more uniform in width than the fibrous veins, and most of them are vertical 

 or steeply inclined. Both types frequently contain inclusions of the wall rock. 



According to the author's theory, the fibrous veins were formed by a process 

 of lateral secretion, additions of new material reaching the growing vein only 

 through the walls, while the non-fibrous veins were deposited from solutions 

 that diffused between the walls. Both the fibrous and the non-fibrous veins 

 furnish much evidence indicating that they were not deposited in preexisting 

 openings, but that the growing veins have made room for themselves by push- 

 ing apart the inclosing walls. 



Presented by title in the absence of the author. 



