Personal and Scientific News. 195 
valley became by valley erosion a rock basin. I should expect, therefore, 
to find valley erosion north of lake Cayuga as far as the broad pregla- 
cial valley extended northward. My conception of rock basin erosion 
is i li is, and not local concentration of energy to scoop out a depression. 
Cornell University, TtJiaea, X. Y.. July SO, 1894. Ralphs. Takr. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
The Summer meeting of the Geological Society of Amer- 
ica was held at Brooklyn, N. Y., August 14 and 15. The 
attendance numbered thirty-eight. Vice President N. S. Shaler 
presided, and on opening the sessiou feelingly referred to the 
great loss to the Society sustained in recent death of its 
first Vice President, George H. AVilliams, of Baltimore, and of 
Amos Bowman, of Anacortes. The Council fixed upon Balti- 
more as the place for the winter meeting, Dec. 27, 28 and 29. 
Eleven new fellows were elected. The programme showed 
twenty-six papers to be read. The following abstracts have 
been furnished for the American Gkologist: 
77" Nickel Mim nt Lancaster (rnj). Pa., and the PyrrhotiU Deposit nt 
Anthony'' s Nose, on tin Hudson. .1. F. Kemp. New York city. The paper 
described with maps, sections, lantern views and specimens, these two 
deposits of nickeliferous pyrrhotite. The former is on the con tad be- 
tween a great intruded lens of some original, basic, intrusive rock that 
is now altered to a mass of coarsely crystalline, green hornblende (i. e., 
is an amphibolite) and its walls of mica schist and pegmatite. The 
latter is a lens or pod, of the type familiar in the iron mines of the 
highlandsof New York and New Jersey, and is in acidic gneiss of the 
composition of granite. The question of origin was discussed with 
especial reference to magmatic separation, and with comparisons with 
nickel ores elsewhere in America and in Norway. 
A Connection between tin Chemical and Optical Properties of Amphiboles. 
Alfred C. Lane. Houghton, Mich. Mr. Lane alluded to the frequent 
occurrence of zones of differenl colors and optical properties in uralitic 
and other amphiboles, the bluer ones probabh containing more soda, 
and showed a diagram which indicated that with the increase in soda 
the bi refraction on the orthopinacoid decreased, becoming for about 
'■ mC soda and then increasing, but with position of the greater and 
less axes reversed. He urged i he ease and importance of making obser- 
vations on the orthopinacoid section on all those who have to investi- 
gate amphiholites. 
On a Basic Rock derivedfrom Granite. <'. II. Smyth, .in.. Clinton, X. 
Y. The paper described a dark colored, massive rock associated with 
the hematite of the Old Sterling mine in Jefferson county, X. V. The 
rock has always been called serpentine, bul its origin has been uncer- 
tain. Examination in the Held and with the microscope shows ii id he 
derived from granite, bul greatly altered from its original condition. 
The character of the changes which the rock has undergone was briefly 
outlined: and it was suggested that the alteration is due to crushing of 
the rock b\ regional disturbances, together with the infiltration of solu- 
tions derived from decomposed pyrites. 
