Hunt.] 810 [March 5, 
suggested the name of Montalban), and the Labradorian or Norian 
(the Upper Laurentian of Logan). He considers that there may 
probably be found other distinct series besides these four among 
the eozoic crystalline strata of North America, where stratigraphi- 
cal breaks, great unconformities and extensive denudation in eozoic 
times are evident. He objected to giving the name of Cambrian to 
any of these eozoic formations, since the rocks to which this term 
was applied by Sedgwick included only uncrystalline sediments 
holding the first and second faunas, and containing paleozoic forms 
nearly to their base in Great Britain, where they rest on crystalline 
strata. Similar crystalline rocks are elsewhere in that region di- 
rectly overlaid by the strata of the second fauna, and were hence, in 
opposition to the views of Sedgwick and Phillips, erroneously re- 
garded by Murchison as the altered equivalent of the missing Cam- 
brian strata, so that the name of Cambrian became wrongly applied toa 
series of eozoic or pre-Cambrian schists, apparently of Huronian age. 
As regards the Norian, which had once been joined by the Lau- 
rentian, Dr. Hunt had elsewhere shown that we had reason for sus- 
pecting that it might be more recent than the Huronian, and possibly 
than the Montalban, a conclusion which appeared to be confirmed by 
the facts made known by Hitchcock. He alluded to the interest at- 
taching to the seeming fact that chiastolite schists occur at two hori- 
zons in the White Mts., one with the great White Mt. series of 
gneisses and mica-schists; which, according to Hitchcock, are over- 
laid successively by.a Norian, and by a second series of chiastolite and 
staurolite schists. He congratulated Prof. Hitchcock on the zeal and 
industry with which he had pursued this difficult investigation, and 
believed that by adopting, as Prof. Hitchcock has done, the view that 
all these rocks are of eozoic age we escape the insuperable difficulties 
which environed their study so long as they were regarded as 
altered paleozoic sediments. ; 
Dr. Jackson announced the death of one of the original 
members of the Society, Dr. Henry Coit Perkins, of New- 
buryport. Dr. Perkins first proposed the formation of the 
Society, and drew up the original prospectus in 1828, which 
was signel by him, by Dr. Bemis, of Chicopee, and by 
Francis Alger and the speaker, and later by Dr. Amos 
Binney. Dr. Binney actively engaged in procuring more 
signatures, and in 1830 succeeded in founding this Society. 
