Personal and Scientific News. 329 
rica", Theodore Gill; "A Human Bone from the Glacial De- 
posits at Trenton, N. J.", F. W. Putnam; "Report of the 
Watson Trustees on the Award of the Watson Medal to 
David Gill", Simon Newcomb. 
Four new members were chosen: J. E. Keelerof the Lick 
Observatory; Henry F. Osborn and Frank Boaz of the Co- 
lumbian University, N. Y., and S, L. Penfield of New Haven, 
Connecticut. 
The Barnard medal, which is awarded every five years, 
was given to W. C. Roentgen, the discoverer of the so-called 
X-rays. 
The new york academy of sciences, section of ge- 
ology AND MINERALOGY. Dr. Alcxis A. Julicu and Dr. The- 
odore G. White were unanfmously elected chairman and 
secretary, respectively, of the section for the ensuing year. 
Dr. Henr}' B. Kiimmel, assistant state geologist of New 
Jersey, read a summary of the information thus far collected 
in regard to the geology of "the palisades" of the Hudson 
river, illustrated by numerous views, many of them taken 
by Mr. Prince of Orange, N. J. Observers are nearly all 
agreed that the palisades are an intrusive trap sheet which 
has cooled at great depths. The basal contact is observed 
at nineteen localities, in fifteen of which the trap is uncon- 
formable upon the sandstone and shales beneath, and is pen- 
etrated by tongues of the latter, and in three is apparently 
conformable. The altitude of the lower contact increases 
from the south to the north, where it reaches 200 feet eleva- 
tion. The upper contact is seen in six localities. At three 
of these, dikes, penetrating the overlying shales occurred at 
the contacts, in two the contact is unconformable and in one 
conformable. In every instance the beds superadjacent to 
the trap are metamorphosed. In no localit)' of the Palisade 
range proper does the upper contact of the trap show any 
of the characteristics of surface cooling. Well-borings at 
Fort Lee penetrate 875 feet of trap, and the total thickness 
probably exceeds 950 feet, much erosion having taken place. 
Subsequent to deposition of the overlying sandstones the 
area was tilted, and the sandstone washed away by erosion 
of many streams, the vacant channels of which are still pre- 
sent. The largest of these stream gaps was one and a half 
miles wide and is just north of the New Jersey state bounda- 
ry. The cutting of gaps throughout the dissected tilted 
peneplane which remains was very uniform and indicates 
that the former land level was 220 feet lower than the pres- 
ent. 
In addition to the wild scenery of the palisades escarp- 
ment, the timber of this tract is the most luxurious and val- 
