Correspondence. 2i^j 
the letter of professor Baird to Mr. Meek, already twice published, 
and bj' the fact that it was not a subject of more than incidental 
correspondence between Hall and Henry or his successors. The 
Smithsonian acquired no title in the property and its secretaries 
recognized the fact. The documents and specimens, thus, came 
into the hands of Hall, as the property of Troost; they remained 
there because they became his own property. I am not acquainted 
with the proceedings by which this acquisition was finally effected. 
Doubtless the transfer was gradually worked out and a full equiva- 
lent rendered therefor. He has definitely stated that he had ac- 
quired the title thereto. Hall was so open-handed in his distribu- 
tion of the costly volumes of the Paleontology of New York as to- 
give the impression that these public documents were for gratu- 
itous distribution. They were not. Hall bought his own copies 
and he used them as a basis of exchange in the acquisition of 
materials. There was not in the entire .immense collection which 
his death left among his assets, a single claim which had not been 
fully extinguished either by payment of money or by transference 
of copies of his books which had cost him money. By the latter 
method the Troost title was extinguished and Hall had long before 
his death acquired full right to use the materials as he saw fit. 
John M. Clarke. 
Albany, March 20, 1905. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Thk i\ e\v York Academy (»f Sciencjs, Section of Geol- 
ogy and Mineralogy, Meeting of March 6, 1905. Notes on 
the Alinnewaska Region, Ulster Co., New York, by F. Wil- 
ton James. 
The stripping of the grit from the crest of the second 
anticline of the Shawangunk* appears to be due to a slight 
cross fold by anticlinal fracture and erosion, as the rocks 
at the southwest end of the eroded area show an upward 
pitch. Through this depression the Peterskill probably 
flowed while its own valley and Coxing Clove were dammed 
by the front of the ice sheet, and cut then the Paltz Gap in 
the crest of the first anticline, 200 feet deep, through which 
the road to New Paltz now runs. 
The basin of lake Minnewaska is vertical-walled except 
at the southwestern end. The cliffs are highest under Cliff 
house, where they stand 160 feet above the surface of the 
* Darton, Rep. 47, N. Y. State Mus. 
