hie 
SRS a, 
Cincinnatt Society of Natural History. 
bo 
Turspay Everntnc, March 1, 1881. 
Dr. R. M. Byrnes, President, in the chair. L. S. Cotton, Secretary 
pro tem. Present, 20 members. 
Joseph F. James read a paper on the geographical distribution of 
plants, etc., which is published elsewhere in this No. of the J OURNAL. 
Dr. A. ‘J. Howe exhibited a drawing (one tenth of the natural size) 
of the whale on exhibition in this city. He showed that it had been 
erroneously called the Greenland or Right whale, whereas it is the 
Balenoptera boops, or fin-whale, or rorqual of the Norwegians, a mam- 
mal not less interesting than the true Balena, though of much less 
value both for oil and baleen. He described its peculiarities in a very 
interesting address, that was warmly received by the members present. 
S. A. Miller made some remarks upon the glacial theory, taking the 
position that the so-called continental glacier and glacial period of this 
continent are purely the work of the imagination, andare not founded 
upon any of the known geological facts. He followed the views of 
Dawson respecting the Pliocene period, in the region of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, Lake Champlain, Hudson river, and the New England 
States, and showed that the drift of the central part of the Continent 
was not connected with the drift ofthe eastern part, and therefore not, 
necessarily, contemporaneous with it. He dwelt upon the absence of 
drift phenomena in the Rocky mountain region, and claimed that the 
castellated rocks of the Bad Lunds of the west, and the outliers of 
pinnacled sandstone, in Wisconsin and other parts of the country, are 
unimpeachable witnesses, bearing lasting testimony against the con- © 
tinental glacier and the so-called glacial period. 
Dr. O. D. Norton announced that Geo. Graham, a life member of 
the Society, had that evening departed this life, and on motion of Dr. 
A. J. Howe, a committee, consisting of Dr. A. J. Howe, Dr. O. D. Nor- 
ton, and U. P. James, was appointed to draft suitable expressions of 
the esteem in which he was held by the Society, and such remarks up- 
on his life and character as might seem desirable. On motion of V. 
T. Chambers, the committee were authorized to place their report in 
the hands of the publishing committee, for appearance in this number 
of the JourRNAL, without waiting to have it first read to the Society 
and entered on the journal. 
Prof. Mickleborough presented a Cephalopod from near Province- 
town, Massachusetts. 
