Pleistocene PaiJers at the Rochester Meeting. 223 
great epeirogenic movements of the plateau forming the southern 
half of Africa, like the oscillations shown by submerged valleys 
and fjords of North America and Europe, ranging in depth to 
4,080 feet in the Sogne fjord of Norway, took place doul)tless no 
longer ago than during the Pleistocene or Glacial period, and the 
closing stage of the preceding Tertiary era. It seems also cer- 
tain that these earth movements had an intimate relationship with 
the origin of the great lakes of Africa and with the accumula- 
tion and departure of the North American and European ice- 
sheets. 
In discussion. Prof. Joseph LeConte directed attention to the 
occurrence of submarine valleys on the California coast where no 
rivers now enter the sea. Not only a great uplift and subsequent 
depression of the continental plateau, but also vast outflows of 
lava and the formation of mountain ranges by which river courses 
have been changed, are there referable to late Tertiary and 
Quaternary time. 
Pleistocene Geography. By W J McGee. A series of several 
maps was displayed and described, showing the extent of ice- 
sheets in North America during the first, second, and third glacial 
epochs which are recognized by the author, the extent of coastal 
submergence by the sea during these epochs, and the areas of 
the Pleistocene lakes Bonneville, Lahontan, and others, in the 
arid Great Basin of interior drainage. The deposition of the 
loess in the upper Missouri region was attril)uted to lakes and 
broad river floods, more or less obstructed by the ice-sheets. At 
present no sufficient data have been obtained for a correlation of 
the epochs of glaciation east of the Rocky mountains with those 
of the Cordilleran mountain belt and the Pacific coast. 
Distrihution of the Lafaycttf forntatioit. By W J McGee. 
The gravel, sand, and loam beds formerly called the Appomattox 
formation, for Avhich the name Lafayette is now substituted, oc- 
cupy the coastal plain from New Jersey southward to northern 
Florida and westward through the gulf states into Mexico. An 
area of 100,000 square miles has this formation at its surface; 
upon an equal area the Lafayette beds are thinly covered by the 
similar but considerabl}' later Columbia formation; and from still 
another area of the same extent the Lafayette formation has been 
removed by stream erosion. Its original extent was therefore 
not less than 800.000 square miles. It is believed to have been 
