156 Scientific Intelligence. 



2. Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 Charles D. Walcott,, for the year ending June 30, 1921. — The 

 Smithsonian Institution ever since its foundation has made most 

 commendable use of the income at its disposal, but it has suffered, 

 with other institutions having an original considerable endow- 

 ment, from the fact that additions to its funds have been slow to 

 come by gift or bequest. The need arising from this is felt 

 peculiarly by the Smithsonian since the scope of its work has been 

 continually enlarged in directions not contemplated at the begin- 

 ning. The situation is aggravated at present by the general 

 increase in cost of materials and labor. In this connection it is 

 gratifying to learn that most of the bequest ($50,000) of Mrs. 

 Virginia P. Bacon has been paid during the past year. It is also 

 announced- that, by her will, the entire estate of Miss Caroline 

 Henry, daughter of the first secretary, Joseph Henry, will finally 

 come to the Institution; she has in addition made special gifts 

 immediately available. 



Among the numerous varied lines of scientific exploration 

 being carried on, none is more important than the work of 

 Dr. Walcott that has already yielded such valuable results. His 

 recent field work in the Canadian Rockies had as its main objects : 

 " ( 1 ) the determination of the character and extent of the great 

 interval of nondeposition of sedimentary rock-forming material 

 along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary, 

 Alberta; (2) the clearing up of the relations of the summit and 

 base of the great Glacier Lake section of 1919 to the geological 

 formation above and below." 



Dr. Walcott describes the solution of the two problems as fol- 

 lows : ' ' The Rocky Mountain front is formed of masses of evenly 

 bedded limestone that have been pushed eastward over the softer 

 rocks of the Cretaceous plains-forming rocks. This overthrust is 

 many miles in extent and occurred long before the Devils Gap, 

 Ghost River Gap, and other openings were cut through the cliffs 

 by running water and rivers of ice. Great headlands and high 

 buttes have been formed by the silent forces of water and frost, 

 many of which stand out against the western sky as seen from the 

 distant foothills and plains. 



It was among these cliffs that we found that the first great cliff 

 was of lower Middle Cambrian age, and that resting on its upper 

 surface there were 285 feet of a yellowish weathering magne- 

 sian limestone, named the Ghost River formation, which repre- 

 sents the great interval between the Cambrian below and the 

 Devonian above. Sixty miles to the west, over 4 miles in thick- 

 ness of limestone, shales and sandstones occur in the break in 

 sedimentation of Ghost River cliffs. Returning to Bow Valley, 

 the party left the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Lake Louise and 

 went north over Pipestone Pass to the Siffieur River, which is 



