Personal and Scientific Nevjs. 195 
that drumlins had been deposited very near the outer edge of 
the glacial sheet and were caused by acceleration of the upper 
layers of ice, causing, he said, deposition of material in the form 
of an oblong hillock at that place. To the longer ridges or eskers- 
he assigned an origin in the beds of the super-glacial streams- 
where gravel was dropped, and this, by gradual settling, at length 
came to rest on the bed of the glacier. 
Prof. Gr. F. Wright criticised some of the results published by 
Messrs. McGree and Salisbury from Pennsylvania, and summarized 
the indications of submergence during the Columbian era, in the 
Susquehanna valley mentioning terraces rising to a hight of 130 
feet above the river at Harrisburgh with others at a lower level. 
He went over the subject in detail tracing the "fringe," as it has 
been called, into New Jersey, and maintaining that in some cases 
decomposed gneissoid rock had been mistaken for northern drift, 
especially as stones bearing the marks of creep-striae are abundant 
in several places. Tkis paper called forth considerable contro- 
versy, the extreme views of some on the age of the early drift 
being actively contested liy others. 
Some phases in the metamorphism of the schists in southeast- 
ern Berkshire, Massachusetts, was read by Mr. W. H. Hobbs and 
illustrated by photographs of microscopic sections. One by Mr. 
David White showed a new form of Tjeniopteris or an allied form 
from the Coal Measures, and illustrated the afflnit}' of the genus,, 
and Mr. A. S. Tiffany gave a few interesting facts regarding the ex- 
cavation of the palaeozoic strata in Iowa by very ancient cataracts. 
Some of that may become of considerable importance in connec- 
tion with the subject of interglacial drainage. 
The council received a cordial invitation from the Royal Soci- 
ety of Canada and the Greological Survej^ to attend its winter meet- 
ing at Ottawa, which was accepted. 
At the late meeting of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, Prof. Jos. LeConte, of California, pre- 
sided over the Association, and Prof. H. S. Williams, of Ithaca, 
N. Y., over Section E. The meeting was attended by the usual 
excursions, receptions and other social diversions. About 500 
members attended. The next meeting will be at Madison, Wis. 
Following is a list of papers read in Sec. E. Mr. G. K. Gilbert 
also gave a public address under the auspices of the Rochester 
Academy of Sciences, on "Coon Butte and the theories of its ori- 
gin," illustrated by lantern views. 
Terminal moraines in New England. By C. H. Hitchcock. 
A Passage in the History of the Cuyahoga river. By E. W. Claypole. 
Notes bearing upon the changes of the pre-glacial drainage of Avestera 
Illinois and eastern Iowa. By Frank Leverett. 
Extra-morainic drift in New Jersey. By A. A, Wright, 
The volcanic craters of the United States. By Itob't T. Hill. 
Recent geological explorations in Mexico. By Rob't T. Hill. 
Paleobotany of the Yellow Gravel at Bridgeton, N. J. By Arthur 
Hollick. 
