374 1^^^^ American Geologist. June, i9co 
Therefore, the upland loess of northern Missouri may have 
been deposited beneath the sea-level and in a body of water 
having direct connection with the open ocean. However, the 
conditions were -not strictly marine, as the water was prob- 
ably brackish from the large quantities of fresh water poured 
into the inland sea by the glacial rivers — a sort of ancient 
Baltic sea. Because of these lacustro-marine conditions, 
neither lake nor sea animals could live in this body of water, 
and it existed for too short a time for the development and 
wide distribution of a brackish-water fauna. This may ac- 
count for the general absence of fossils in the upland loess. 
Shells are reported from loess in Missouri and neighboring 
states, but they are mainly from a later and more localized 
loess than the- wide-spread sheet which I refer to as upland 
loess. This latter is rarely (if ever) even to the slightest degree 
fossiliferous. 
EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
The George Huntington Williams memorial lectureship. 
Three years ago, Sir Archibald Geikie, the most distin- 
guished geologist of Great Britain, delivered the first lect- 
ures of this series. Professor W. C. Brogger, the most dis- 
tinguished Scandinavian geologist, has just completed the 
second course of lectures in this same series. 
Professor Brogger's reputation does not rest upon any 
single line of research. His energies have been devoted 
with marked success to several distinct branches of his 
science. 
His investigations, some years ago, of the paleontology 
of the Silurian and pre-Silurian rocks of Scandinavia are of 
extreme importance and his "DieSilurischen Etagen 2 und 
3 im Kristianiagebiet" (1882) is a masterly contribution both 
to paleontolog}^ and to the subject of contact metamor- 
phism. 
His famous work "Die Mineralien der Syenit pegmatit- 
giinge" (1890) has been pronounced the best single contri- 
bution to mineralogy, while the three volumes of his "Die 
