The Term Sierran.—Hershey. &o 
latter.” There can be no objection to the use of the term 
Sierran in the Pacific Coast country if its true significance be 
understood, but I submit that it is not the equivalent of and 
cannot properly replace the term Ozarkian. As I under- 
stand Le Conte, Sierran is derived from the canons of the 
Sierra Nevada region and its definition may be given as, the 
designation of that period during which these canons were in 
process of formation. ‘To arrive at a full appreciation of its 
significance we shall have to know the time of the uplift of 
the Sierra Nevada province which inaugurated the canon 
cutting. 
Through the work of Whitney, Le Conte, Becker, Brown, 
Diller, Turner, Lindgren, Ransome and Lawson, the geo- 
morphology of the Sierra Nevada mountains has been grad- 
ually evolved and is now known with a fair degree of com- 
pleteness.t On a recent pedestrian excursion in that area, 
*The objection to the term Ozarkian that it had a prior use seems to 
the writer not well made. In the paper by Broadhead referred to by 
Le Conte (American Geologist, vol. xi., p. 260, 893) the word Ozarkian 
does not once occur. There is sufficient distinctness between Ozark 
series and Ozarkian to prevent confusion. Instances of the use in 
geological literature of names similar but not identical are rather com- 
mon. There is not much importance in a name, and if Ozarkian is not 
appropriate I shall welcome the substitution of a better name. At 
present, Ozarkian appears eminently appropriate because the Ozark re- 
gion is joined on the southeast by one in which the Lafayette deposits 
are typically developed and on the north by the area of the Kansan drift 
sheet. I do not know of another area which promises so well to fur- 
nish data for fixing the limits of the period. 
+The literature of the subject is voluminous .and the following is 
probably only a partial list of the published papers bearing on it: 
Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Navada of California, by J. D. 
WHITNEY. 
The Old River-beds of California; by JosepH Le Conte. Am. Jour. 
of Sci. Third series, vol. xix., pp. 176-190. 
Science. Vol. 1, March 23, 1883, pp. 104, 195. 
Geology of the Lassen Peak District. Eighth Annual Report of the 
U. S. Geol. Sur., pp. 395-432. 
Bull. Geol. Soc. of Am. Vol. 2, pp. 327, 328. 
The Ancient River Beds of the Forest Hill Divide. Tenth Annual 
Report of the State Mineralogist of California. 
Two Neocene Rivers of California. Bull. Geol. Soc. of Am. Vol. 4. 
Revolution in the Topography of the Pacific Coast Since the Auri- 
ferous Gravel Period. Jour. of Geol. Vol. 2, No.1. [Fourteenth An- 
nual Report of the U. S. Geol. Sur.. pp. 397-434.] 
a i Notes on the Sierra Nevada. Am. Geol. Vol. xv., April, 
1894. 
[Rocks of the Sierra Nevada. Fourteenth Annual Report of the 
U. S. Geol. Sur., pp. 435-495.] 
Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada. Am. Geol. Vol. xxiii. 
June, 1895. 
