12 The American Geologist. July, i898 
southern arm of the Sydney harbor cusp described above 
appears to be an instance of an ahiiost closed foreland of this 
origin. 
It would be unwise to extend the results of this study so 
far as to make the generalization that all cuspate forelands are 
derived by means similar to this; but before assuming that 
they are not so formed it seems that we should have distinct 
evidence that they are not. Is there any place where the 
peculiar eddying of tidal currents is known to be at work 
building these shore features? Have we any distinct evidence 
of the existence of back-set eddies from the Gulf stream, 
whose power is sufficient to move and guide the distribution 
of materials? Such eddies, to cause the prominent cusps of 
the Florida coast should, it seems, be very noticeable. It is 
possible that this evidence has been brought forward; but if 
so I have never seen it. 
As small spits and cusps may be made by waves in small, 
enclosed and nearly land-locked bodies of water, where proper 
conditions exist, so it seems possible that larger cusps, even 
those as large as Hatteras, may be made where the supply of 
material is more rapid and of finer texture, while the waves 
are greater and the shore currents of wind origin more power- 
ful and therefore able to move the fine materials. This certainly 
seems a possible explanation; and, even though it be not the 
correct one, it should at least be discussed as an hypothesis, 
and the evidence against it definitely brought forward, if there 
is such opposing evidence. 
OSAGE VS. AUGUSTA. 
By Stdart Weller, University of Chicago. 
In a recent article in this magazine* entitled. "Use of the 
Term Augusta in Geology." C. R. Keyes defends the use of 
the term Augusta (Keyes) and its displacement of the older term 
Osage (Williams) as the name of one of the major subdivisions 
of the Mississippian series. 
The science of paleontologic geology is a historical science. 
It is something far more than the mere classification of rock 
*Am. Geol., vol. XXL, p. 229, April, 1898. 
