BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 19, pp. 1-28 March 3o, i908 



THE PROBLEM OP THE PEE-CAMBEIAN^ 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDIIESS BY CHARLES RICHARD VAN IIISE 



{Read hcfore the Society December 11 . 1907) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



lutroductiun 1 



The original Laureutiau district 2 



The Hastings district 2 



The original Iluronian district 4 



Later work of Logan and others (! 



The Lake Snperior region 7 



Review of the investigations in this field 7 



The basement complex S 



The Hurouian series !) 



Report of the International Committee 12 



The major divisions of the pre-Cambrian 1^3 



Applications of the proposed classification to regions other than the great 



northern area 21 



Reference to studies in other areas 21 



The Cordilleran region > 21 



Scotland 21 



Finland 2:5 



China 25 



Concluding statement 27 



Introduction 



Following the precedent of many scdentitic presidential addresses, I 

 shall give a general review of one of the suhjects which has occupied 

 much of my time — the prol)lem of the pre-C-amhrian. Within an hour 

 I can not consider the merits of the questions still in controversy, nor 

 broadly cover the field mentioned; therefore I shall confine my review 

 to the stratigraphy and nomenclature of the pre-Camln'ian rocks. 



The Cambrian is defined as terminating below at the base of the well 

 recognized Olenellus fauna. In general between the Cambrian and ])re- 



' Manuscript received by Secretary of the Society February .j, 1008, 



I — Buix. Gkol. Soc. Am.. Vol. 10. 1007 (I) 



