gio The American Naturakst. [October, 
involving them in a considerable but not an extreme amount of dis- 
turbance and metamorphism.”’ 
The hypothesis seems to account for the difference between the rocks 
of the two areas and for the abruptness of their contact, while at the 
same time it explains the conformity along this contact, and the fact 
that this boundary and the axes of the synclinals are not coincident. 
(Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. II., pp. 301-322, pl. 12.) 
The Triassic of Massachusetts.—Mr. Benjamin Emerson does 
not accept the theory that the Triassic deposits of Massachusetts are, as 
a whole or in part, of glacial origin, but that they result from cur- 
rents. This will explain the sudden and irregular transitions from 
coarest to finest sediments, and the derivation of many of the coarse 
beds from rocks not known in place among the crystallines of the sur- 
rounding region. He believes the region to have been a narrow bay, 
with tides that swept up the eastern and down the western side, and 
left the center of broad, shallow mud-flats at a considerably higher 
level than the shoreward portion, so that they alone were regularly 
abandoned by the water at low tide. It follows from this that the 
deposits were contemporaneous, and this is shown by the position of 
the trap sheets. (Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. II., pp. 451-456, pl. 17.) 
The Relations of the Traps of the Newark System in 
New Jersey.—Mr. N. H. Darton makes known the following facts : 
‘ The trap outcrops inclosed by the Watchung Mountains of North- 
eastern New Jersey, and the outlying mass near New Germantown, are 
lavas, contemporaneous with the inclosing ae while all the 
other traps described are intruded sheets and 
‘ The igneous rocks are basalts, the apy i are fine-grained and 
generally somewhat glassy, and the intrusives are coarser-grained, gen- 
erally being dolerite, in some cases including considerable biotite and 
often near gabbro in structure. 
‘“ The great hooks characterizing the southernmost outcrops of the 
Watchung traps are mainly due to flexure, and the bowed course of 
their northern terminations and of Towakhow Mountain are due to the 
same cause.” (Bull. U.S, Geol. Surv., No. 67.) 
The Iron Ore District of East Texas.—The second annual 
report, 1890, of the Geological Survey of Texas contains an interest- 
ing account of the iron ore district of East Texas, by Mr. E. 
Dumble. The territory described lies east of the 96th degree of longi- 
tude and north of the 31st parallel of latitude. From this area is | 




