Shaler.] 44 ^ [February 6, 



found in the region about Attleboro at nearly the same height. 

 These deposits were clearly distributed by tidal action and as 

 we must suppose that the water lay to the depth of fifty feet or 

 so above the place of the deposit there must have been some- 

 thing like two hundred feet of depression along this shore w T here 

 the glacier left it. 



Betw T een this level of two hundred feet above the sea and the 

 present shore line the Karnes are plentifully scattered, most abund- 

 ant on the lower one hundred feet of this strip of country, but 

 evident here and there over its whole surfa*ce. Now, when we 

 bear in mind the delicate structure of Karnes, their sharp outlines, 

 their kettles and Indian ridges, we find difficulty in conceiving 

 how they escaped the cutting action of the sea beach that must 

 have been dragged over all of this surface as it was emerging from 

 the sea. A single month of exposure to such waves as act even in 

 the more sheltered bays of the shore would entirely destroy the 

 more delicate outlines of these gravel heaps. After a careful 

 examination of the evidence I have been driven to suppose that 

 at the close of the glacial period the reelevation of the land 

 must have been acomplished with a very great suddenness. 



The Curator showed two stuffed African monkeys presented 

 to the museum by Miss R. L. Learned. The thanks of the 

 Society were voted to the donor, and also to Mr. Jabez S. Holmes 

 for a spider-crab from the California coast. 



General Meeting, February 20, 1884. 



The President, Mr. S. H. Scudder, in the chair. Twenty-eight 

 persons present. 



Dr. T. Sterry Hunt discussed the relation of character of the 

 Cambrian rocks in North America, and among other points the 

 recognition of the Ordovician system and the propriety of its 

 name were referred to. 



Prof. C. H. Hitchcock pointed out in his geological map of the 

 United States the range of the Ordovician and Cambrian groups, 

 and discussed the Taconic system. 



