Personal and Seventifte News. 915 
MPO TE Ee way aaa) xis arte wie we rietsieiele aiaisiatel ae wiare ed Mr. G. K. Gilbert. 
Vice-Presidents....... Sir J. W. Dawson, Prof. T. C. Chamberlin. 
Secretary. . Ete nee .. Prof. H. L. Fairchild. 
PUIneNeR IED rate pate achat <A a. corse air apate al veislerare alwjsiwre Prof, I. C. White. 
Two new fellows were declared elected. An excellent memorial of the 
late Prof. J. F. Williams, of Cornell University—a fellow of the society 
—prepared by Prof. J. F. Kemp, was read by the secretary and the read- 
ing of papers was begun. The first was by Prof. I. C. White, who gave 
a short account of the development of the Mannington oil fields in West 
Virginia, under his direction, and entirely on theoretical deductions 
from the geologic structure of the country. He showed the success that 
has attended these labors by the fact that only five per cent. of the wells 
drilled in these fields had proved dry holes. The attitude of the driller 
had, he said, changed from one of contemptuous neglect to one of stu- 
dious attention. Some discussion and several questions followed Prof. 
White’s paper. 
Prof. White also made some remarks ‘on a number of specimens of 
plants which had been sent to him by Mr. E. T. Dumble, state geologist 
of Texas, which clearly indicated a Permian horizon in the Wichita beds 
of that state. Among them, as identified by Prof. W. M. Fontaine, was 
a Walchia, the first reported from American strata. 
Mr. J.S. Diller read a paper on the structure of the Taylorville region 
in California. There are, he said, 29 sedimentary and 17 eruptive 
masses. Several of fhe former are recognized by fossils. Eruptive 
rocks occur of an age from Silurian to Neocene. The Jurassic rests un- 
conformably on the Trias. The Jurassic is completely overturned and 
sheared on a thrust-plane of lowinclination. He instanced a fault which 
is believed to have athrow of four miles. The paper was full of facts 
and cannot well be condensed. 
Prof. Hyatt exhibited a very large and interesting collection of Juras- 
sic fossils in volcanic tuff, from California, and pointed out a number of 
important similarities and differences between them and their nearest 
European congeneric forms. 
The Sierra Nevada of California was the subject of a paper read, in 
the absence of its author, Mr. J. E. Mills, by Mr. C. W. Hayes. This 
work has been in progress for several years at the trouble and expense 
solely of the author. The range is, he said, due chiefly to Tertiary 
movements, but recurring uplifts took place there in earlier times. The 
older rocks occur in the axes. The twocrests of this double range lie on 
the eastern sides. The faults are normal. The Mesozoic rocks are folded 
and overturned but no arches occur, and apparently the thrust planes 
have been formed by pressure acting on blocks of strata lifted out of 
place by faults. There was apparently great difference of opinion be 
tween observers who had been at work on this field and the recorded ob 
servations in so difficult and contorted a region were not reconcilable. 
A short note on secondary banding in the gneiss of Berkshire Co., 
Mass., was read by Dr. Diller, in the absence of the author, Mr. Wm. H. 
Hobbs. 
