(Jeoio(jical Socielji und A. A. A. S. MeetliKjs. — Uphftni. 249 
waves, leaving very narrow and long channels, sometimes 30 to 40 feet 
deep, through which during storms the sea rushes with great fury. 
Snbdivision of the Upper Silurian in northeast Jowa. Andrew G. 
Wilson, Hopkinton, Iowa. After a brief review of the literature of the 
subject, this paper gives characteristics for distinguishing the five fol- 
lowing subdivisions, in descending order: (5) the building stone beds; ((4) 
the upper coralline beds: (3) the Pentamerus beds; (2) the lower coral- 
line beds; (1) beds of passage from the Lower Silurian. 
Supplementary notes on the Metamorphic Series of the Siiasta re- 
gion of Califo7-nia. J. Perrin Smith, Palo Alto, Cal. This paper gave 
the results of work on the Triassic fossils of the Mt. Shasta region, be- 
yond that which is reported in the Sept. -Oct., 1894, number of the 
Journal of Geology. Fully a hundred species of these fossils are now 
known and each species is profusely represented V)y specimens. Am- 
monites are especially w(»ll i-epresented, and the principal part of the 
paper related to them. In only two other localities of the world are 
marine Triassic faunas known, namely, in the Tyrolese Alps and in the 
Himalayas. In California the Karnic division of the Upper Triassic is 
especially jji-olific. There are two distinct faunas represented, which 
are usually 100 feet apart vertically, but they are also found in some 
places intermingled, either l)y means of a survival or of a migration. 
The manner in which the ontogeny and j)hylogeny of the ammonites 
are wound up together was very interestingly shown. By breaking off 
the chambers and outer coils of the shell, successively, the development 
of the individual can he traced fi'om the time when the first nucleus of 
the shell was formed. In applying this process, it was found that the 
genvis under investigation had, in middle life, the characters of a differ- 
ent genus and in earlier life the characters of a still different genus. It 
is thus possible to arrange a number of genera in phylogenetic order. 
Trachyceras and Sirenites, for example, while diverse from each other, 
both run Ijack to a Protrachyceras stage, and this to a Balatonetes 
stage, and this to a Tirolites form, which appears to be the primitive 
form for all the others mentioned. 
Recent Elevation of Ncir England. J. W. Spencer, Washington, D. 
C. The gravel and sand terraces of the river valleys of New England 
are regarded as not formed by descending rivers, l)ut are so nearly hori- 
zontal that they seem referable to bodies of standing water. The jjlat- 
forms or flats do not merge from one step to the next and therefore are 
not attributed in ttis paper to formerly higher stages of the rivers, 
which has been their usual explanation. Instead the successive ter- 
races descend abruptly, like a stairway. Thus a small meadow, near 
the level of the stream, widens out in jjassing down the valley to a broad 
and extensive plain, thnnigh which the river channel gradually be- 
comes deeper until the j)lain abruptly ends by a sudden descent to a 
lower flat, along the sides of which fragments of the upper plains coi>- 
tinue as lateral terraces. In a connected and nearly level series as mead 
ows, plains and narrow terraces, the same flats may continue even 
