316 Scientific Intelligence. 



separates the lower and middle portions ; that finally, the explana- 

 tions usually applied to the northern drift will not apply in these 

 parts of Illinois. 



(4.) A. Winchell. On sources of ti'end and Crustal Sur- 

 plusage in mountain structure. [The first part embodied views 

 embraced in a paper sent Professor J. D. Dana in 1881.] The 

 second part traced the consequences of slow subsidence of the 

 earth's equatorial protuberance resulting from the secular retarda- 

 tion of its axial velocity of rotation caused by the action of the 

 moon on the lagging tide. [The section voted to request a fuller 

 abstract of this communication, the paper being orally presented.] 



(5.) Wm. B. Taylor. On a probable cause of the shrinkage 

 of the Earth's Crust. By a singular coincidence this paper con- 

 sidered the second cause mentioned in the preceding paper. It 

 was, however, only to explain surplusage of circumference; while 

 the other employed the principle for both surplusage and trend. 



(6.) H. S. Williams. On the classification of the Upper Devo- 

 nian. Presented numerous studied sections of strata ranging east- 

 and-west in southern New York, and pointed out the progressive 

 changes in the faunas. He thought there was some ground for 

 admitting that the equivalent of the Catskill group might be 

 sought within the range of the Waverly series of the West. To 

 this Professor Hall sharply demurred, and claimed that if the 

 Catskill is made Carboniferous, then all, to the bottom of the 

 Corniferous, must be so made, since traces of a Catskill fauna are 

 found in eastern New York below the Corniferous. A. Winchell 

 recalled the doctrine of " Colonies" maintained by Barrande, and 

 instanced the case of an Upper Silurian fauna of over 3,000 feet- 

 occurring in the midst of the Lower Silurian in Bohemia. 



(7.) Edward Orton. Exhibited the records of a deep well at. 

 Cleveland, Ohio, in which over 200 feet of rock-salt were passed, 

 with a parting of 15 feet of shale and 81 of limestone, at a horizon 

 apparently below the Niagara limestone. But the final interpre- 

 tation of the section was left for future study. 



(8.) E. W. Clatpole. On the Materials of the Appalachians. 

 Held that the vast volume of the deposits and their increasing 

 coarseness toward the southeastern part of Pennsylvania imply 

 the former existence of a lofty pre-paleozoic range to the east of 

 the present Appalachians. 



(9.) N. H. Winchell. On Lingula and JParadoxides from the 

 Red Quartzites of Minnesota. Exhibited a large slab from the 

 "■ pipestone quarries," which was covered with small shells named 

 by him Lingula. The remains of the shells on chemical testing 

 showed a distinct phosphatic reaction. From the same quarries 

 was exhibited a form regarded as an imperfect JParadoxides, 

 showing the central axis and part of the pleurae of the right side. 

 As this pipestone bed is included in the quartzite of Wisconsin 

 (at Baraboo, etc.) described by the Wisconsin geologists as Huro- 

 nian, the discovery is important. 



A. Winchell stated that the so-called shells appeared to be 



