118 The American Oeologist. Feb. i890 
President James D. Dana, 
,T- T. ■ ^ i. (John S. Newberry. 
\ ice-Presidents '(Alexander Winciiell. 
Secretary J.J. Stevenson. 
Treasurer H. S. Williams. 
(J. W. Powell. 
Councillors \ George M. Dawson. 
(C. H. Hitchcock. 
Three fellows have deceased durino; the past year. — Prof. Geo. H. 
Cook, Rev. Prof. David Uoneyman, and Clias. A. Ashburner, of whom 
the secretary read brief biographical sketches. 
The first memoir presented Avas by president T. C. Chamberlin, 
on "Additional evidences bearing on the intervals between the leading 
glacial epochs." The so-called "Orange ISand" rests on the Tertiary. 
This contains no glacial pebbles, but only clierts derived chiefly from 
the Carboniferous. The pebbles are not Champlain, but preglacial. 
The lowest glacial member recognized he describes as the silts overly- 
ing the pebble beds, commonly known as loss. They are made up of 
particles of glacial products. They were originally horizontal and 
have received their undulatory configuration by the "creeping" of the 
materinls of the hills which they mantle. The event w'as the great 
erosion of the Mississippi valley and of the river valleys tributary to it. 
The paper was discussed by McGee, Proctor, Morrill, I. C. White and 
Chamberlin. 
The second communication was by professor Shaler, on "Tertiary 
deposits of eastern Massachusetts." He showed that since Miocone 
time there has been a great amount of mountain-building action in the 
district considered ; and also that a part of the deposits which occup}'' 
the surface are not of glacial origin, but date back to the later Creta- 
ceous. He discussed the complex structure of Gay Head' and pro- 
nounced most of the deposits Cretaceous. The paper was (briefly) 
discussed by G. K. Gilbert. 
Dr. Newberry presented an oral communication on "The Laramie 
Group." He stated that the Laramie proper, as defined by King, is 
demonstrably Cretaceous — neither Tertiary nor formed of beds of pas- 
sage. The Fort Union beds do not belong to it, but to the Tertiary. 
The proper Laramie does not, indeed, contain Tertiary plants, but 
forms analogous to those of European Cretaceous. The testimony of 
the plants and vertebrates is entirely harmonious ; and that of the ma- 
rine molluscs is quite in accord. The plants no one is authorized to 
pronounce positively Cretaceous or Tertiary ; but nothing prevents our 
regarding them Cretaceous ; the other evidences, however, are conclu- 
Bive. The communication was discussed by Cope, Heilprin, Tyrrell, 
Ward and Stevenson. Cope stated that not only is the Laramie Cre- 
taceous, but he Is inclined to entertain the same opinion of the"Puerco" 
which lies above and contains 1()0 mammalian species. Thus the 
"Wasatch" would be the bottom member of the Tertiary. 
Mr. S. F.Emmons read a lengthy and valuable memoir on "Orographic 
movements in the Rocky mountains ;" but the reading, unfortunately, 
was mostly unintelligible to the audience. 
Professor G. H. AVilliams presented some new facts proving the ser- 
pentine of Syracuse to be eruptive in origin. The evidences are : 1. It 
occurs as a dike cutting the Onondaga limestone, and slightly disturb- 
ingthe contiguous strata ; 2. Its inclusions are (a) limestone fragments, 
(b) dark or black shale, probably of the Utica shale, a thousand feet 
below, (c) granite or gneiss ; ?>. The limestone inclosures are altered 
in zones parallel to the edges of the fragments. Discussed by Kemp, 
who stated that similar evidences of eruptive action occur near Ithaca. 
Mr. I. C. Russell presented a paper on the "Surface Geology of 
