140 Editorial Comment. 
outbursts of submarine volcanoes in equatorial regions sending 
out immense volumes of steam," suggesting a hypothesis similar 
to that of Prof. Carpenter. Mr. J. E. Clayton presented a paper 
to the California Acadennj of Sciences, (Proceedings, vol. E, 
pages 123-131) advocating a similar view, in which he calls at- 
tention to the sheets in question. Mr. R. C. Hills in a recent 
communication to the Colorado Scientific Society has mentioned 
the probable influence of a certain overflow in Colorado in ex- 
panding a Tertiary lake which he describes. None of these, 
however, seem to have applied the resultant heat as a primary 
agent in the transference of moisture in the manner required 
by the theory of Prof. Carpenter. 
"A sheet of lava hundreds of miles long, hundreds of miles 
broad and thousands of feet thick, like that of the western part 
of the United Stites, was an 'engine' of immense power. This 
sheet was only one of many. They would cause the transfer of 
a large amount of the precipitation, which prior to their erup- 
tion fell in middle latitudes, to the north. The moisture- 
laden air would lose none of its load in passing over these sheets 
— nay would be additionally laden by the temporar}'' elevation 
of temperature that it would experience. * * * ^j^ 
ice-sheet once established, acting as a powerful condenser, would 
exist for ages, and would disappear much more slowly than it 
was formed. The heated outpourings, occurring at intervals, 
would cause the ice-sheets to advance and retreat, thus forming 
the interglacial periods. " Prof. Carpenter will elucidate his 
theory and enforce it with facts, and calculations on the climatal 
effects of these lava sheets, in a future number of the Geologist. 
(teological Society of America. 
On the twenty-seventh of December last a national geological 
organization was effected at Ithaca, New York. This is a con- 
summation which has been contemplated for several years. 
Efforts have been initiated on different occasions for its accom- 
plishment, and though they failed temporarily, it was generally 
admitted by American geologists that an independent organiza- 
tion would necessarily arise in the fullness of time. 
The first movement was made by the geologists assembled at 
the meeting of the American Association at Cincinnati, in 1881. 
A committee was appointed to consider the advisability of the 
