584 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW YORK MEETING 



work to a condition for publication and it was inherited by Hayes. Sev- 

 eral of the folios are still unpublished on account of the difficulty of 

 working out the metamorphic rocks. 



Kussell's earliest geologic studies had been on the Triassic rocks of New 

 Jersey and Connecticut, and they were continued on his return to the 

 East in North Carolina and Virginia. When Powell planned the corre- 

 lation papers he was the best equipped man available for the Triassic. 

 He e^xtended the fieldwork in 1888-1889, visiting the , sections in the" far 

 West, but was interrupted by an assignment to exploration in Alaska. 

 His observations beyond the eastern districts being thus left incomplete, 

 the correlation essay was confined to the Newark formation. It is a 

 carefully prepared abstract of the literature, accompanied by original 

 chapters on the stratigraphy, paleontology, diastropliism, and degrada- 

 tion of the formation. Later studies have contributed additional details 

 of stratigraphy and structure of the Newark, but they have not modified 

 Eussell's conclusions in regard to its former distribution and the geo- 

 graphic conditions of the epoch. 



A logical development of his studies of western Pleistocene was the 

 investigation of subaerial decay of rocks, and the Triassic invited his 

 attention directly to the cause of the red color in certain deposits. 



Thus closed the third epoch of his career, during which he worked 

 against his inclination and reaped but little result from nearly four years 

 of industrious application to the tasks assigned him. 



Alaska was a field which was the antithesis of the Appalachian for a 

 man of Eussell's abilities. He first visited it in 1889, as the representa- 

 tive of the U. S. Geological Survey on the expedition of the U. S. Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey to determine the boundary with British Columbia. 

 After many weeks of steamer travel through the Yukon flats, with little 

 chance for geology, he cut loose from the expedition on the upper Yukon 

 and with three miners came out across the ranges to the coast. Alert to 

 observe the features of stratigraphic and surface geology, he made the 

 most of the somewhat limited opportunity and contributed valuable 

 observations on the general structure of the Yukon basin and the limita- 

 tions of Pleistocene glaeiation. His article on the surface geology of 

 Alaska lays down for that subject the principal lines of investigation 

 which have since been elaborated by others. 



Mount Saint Elias, then supposed to be the highest peak in United 

 States territory, had for several years been the pole of Eussell's purpose. 

 His imagination was fascinated by the snowy heights that rise in alpine 

 grandeur near the sea, yet remained untrodden. In contrast with this 

 inaccessible pinnacle of unknown geologic interest, the rich fields of 



