59G PROCEEDINGS OF THE WASHINGTON MEETING 



No evening session of the Society was held, but the Fellows of the 

 Society attended, by invitation, a reception of the Washington Academy 

 of Sciences at the Columbian University, preceded by a meeting of the 

 Academy, at which reports were presented from members of the Harri- 

 man Alaskan Expedition. 



Session of Saturday, December 30 



A recommendation of the Council was presented, that the rule (By-laws, 

 chapter 1, section 1) requiring persons elected as Fellows to qualify within 

 three months be suspended in the case of Mr A. H. Brooks, who had 

 been prevented by serious illness from qualifying within the stated time. 

 The recommendation was voted. 



The first paper presented was 



TERTIARY GRANITE IN THE NORTHERN CASCADES, WASHINGTON 

 BY GEORGE OTIS SMITH AND W. C. MENDENJIALL 



Remarks were made by S. F. Emmons. The paper is printed as pages 

 223 to 230 of this volume. 



The second paper was 



CONTINENTAL DEPOSITS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION 



BY W. M. DAVIS 



Contents 



Page 



Thoory of Tertiary Likes . r >;io 



Introduction of the lake theory 597 



Composition of the fresh-water Tertiary formations... 598 



Theories of lacustrine and fluviatile deposits 599 



Choice of the successful theory 600 



Discussion GUI 



Theory op Tertiary Lakhs 



Since the early days of our western governmental surveys, geologists have heard 

 much of the remarkable series of fresh-water deposits in the Rocky Mountain 

 region. Hay den, Marsh, Cope, King, Powell, Dutton, and other observers of more 

 recent years have united in describing these deposits as of lacustrine origin, and 

 all their reports abound with allusions to the great lakes that characterized the 

 Tertiary chapter in the development of our western territory. We may read, for 

 example, statements as emphatic as the following: " I know of no more impressive 

 and surprising fact in western geology than the well attested observation that most 

 of the [western mountainous] area has been covered by fresh-water lakes. . . . 



