The Chouteau Group— Tiowley. Ill 
imay be as strong in the mass as the rocks they displace. 
It is uot, however, necessary though it would be no difficult 
task, to go on multiplying the.se difficulties by examples drawn 
from our own planet. If contraction by secular cooling is so 
.potent an influence in creating the relief of our own globe we 
should expect to see in our satellite — the moon which has run 
• out most of its history and is in astronomical parlance "dead," — 
more marked examples of linear packing and folding than any- 
thing we witness here. A car<}ful telesco})ic survey of the 
moon's surface fails to reveal anything of the sort; on the con- 
trary she is covered over with innumerable volcanic cones 
which shew no evidence of distortion or displacement by lateral 
pressure, nor do the so-called plains exhibit it either. It seems 
strange when we have above us what is described as an epitome 
of the history of our own planet, and a warning finger pointing 
to what the earth will eventually become — which parenthet- 
ically I express my disbelief in — that none of the favorers of 
the contraction theory have looked to the moon for confirma- 
tion or otherwise of their theories, or if they have they have 
been silent. 
These objections and reasons are so cogent and plain that the 
conventional scientific language of a treatise seems to me lack- 
ing in the graphic element necessary to bring them clearly be- 
fore the ordinary mind. My object has been, in which I trust 
•I have not altogether failed, to make it plain that we must look 
to some otlier cause than that of secular contraction, for an ex- 
planation of the building of mountain chains. Elsewhere I 
have attempted a systematic theor}' on other lines but it was 
not my intention, nor have I space, to expound it here. 
For the final establishment of any theory much more infor- 
mation than we have is required concerning the actual struct- 
ure of mountain ranges, and as American geologists have done 
so much in the past to suppl}'^ us Avith what knowledge we pos- 
sess, I trust that in the future they will not bo found wanting. 
THE CHOUTEAU GROUP OF EASTERN MISSOURI. 
By K. 11. IloWI,KY, CDRKVVII.I.K, Mo, 
To the Missouri fossil collector there is no more interesting 
series of rocks tliau the beds denominated, in the old geological 
