i^J '.K^SL ^\j| ... vV%^*-^ W:^7'- . A&9^ \J /^0Hb£n LIBRARY NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN. ^ 1^ < TRANSACTIONS OF THE New York Academy of Sciences LATE LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. V L lUI E XII. October, 1892, to June, 1893. 'JBRARV Edited by the Recording Secretaky. NEW YORK: PUBLIHHKD BY THE ACADEMY. /\ I ,HU OFFICERS OF THE ACADEMY. 1893—1894. President : H. CARRINGTON BOLTON. Ist Vice-President: J. A. ALLEN, 2d Vice-President: HENRY F. OSBORN. Corresponding Secretary: THOMAS L. CASEY. Recording Secretary: N. L. BRITTON. Treasurer: CHAS. F. COX. O. P. HUBBARD, I£AROLD JACOBY, Councilors: A. A. JULIEN, D. S. MARTIN, Librarian : JAMES F. KEMP. J. K. REES, R. P. WHITFIELD, Curators: BASHFORD DEAN, AliTHUR HOLLICK, GEO. F. KUNZ, JOHN TATLOCK. Jit. H. T. VULTE. Finance Committee: HENRY DUDLEY, J. II. IIINTON, SETH LOW. TABLE OF CONTENTS. ,v york AMCAL Volume XII. QARDEN. PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ACADEMY. MARCUS BENJAMIN. PAGE The Development of Science in New York City (published by title only). . 242 H. CAKRINGTON BOLTON. Progress of Chemistry as Depicted in Apparatus and Lal)oratories (abstract) 128 N. L. BRIXTON. R((]iH)icttlns repens and its Eastern North American Allies 2 Note on a Species of Hieracium (published by title only) IT The North American Species of the Genus Lespedeza 57 Note on the Genus Lechea (published by title only) 188 F. M. CHAPMAN. On the Origin of Bird Life in the West Indies (published by title only) . 50 O. F, COOK AND F. S. COLLINS. The Myriopoda Collected by the United States Eclipse Expedition to West Africa in 1889 and 1890 (title only; paper published in the Annals) 1^^ The Chordeumida? of North America (title only; paper published in the Annals) ■ — ~^^ CHARLES F. COX. On Recently Discovered Deposits of Diatomaceous Eartli in the Adirondacks • ~ ^^ LD CD CD i IV CONTENTS. BASIIFORD DEAN. Dionaui, its Life Habits under Native Conditions "•* Trachosteus and MyJostonia : Notes on their Structural Characters (abstract") TO Tlie Marine Laboratories of Eurojx' (pubUslied by title only) fl-') On tlie Mode of Origin of the Paired Fins (abstract) 1~1 Contributions to the Anatomy of Dimchlhys (abstract) 1H7 On the Orj^ans of Special Sense in tlic Coccosteids (published by title only) 188 D. (}. ELLIOT. Tlie Life and Services of John James Audubon (title only: ])a])er lo be published in Vol. XIII. of the Tuansactions) '.2iy C. H. EMERSON. Fact and Fallacy in the Boomerang Problem 77 HERMAN LE ROY FAIRCHILD. iV Memoir of Pi-ofessor John Strong Newberry 153 O. K. CJILBERT. A Tlieory of the Formation of Lunar Craters (abstract) 93 WILLIAM IIALI^OCK. Investigations of the Temperature of the Earth's Crust (abstract) . .. lS(j ARTlUll IIOLLICK. Additions to tlie PaIieol)otany of the Cretaceons Formation on Statcn Island (Plates I.— IV.) 28 I'lant Distribution as a Factor in the Interpretation of (Jeologic-al Piienomena, with special reference to Long Issland and Vicinity... lb!) Preliminary Contribution to our knowledge of the Cretaceous Forma- tion on Long Island and Ivistward (Plates V.— VII.) 232 O. 1', IirRRARD. Notes on Indian T'oir: S CONTENTS. V G. S. HUNTINGTON. On the Ileo- colic Junction of Procijon lotor 50 Anomalies of Pectoralis, major and minor (abstract) 138 On a recent Preparation of the Kidney of the Elepluuit (published by title only) 219 HAROLD JACOBY. > The Parallaxes of (.i and 6 Cassiopeia; Deduced from Rutherford Photographic Measures (abstract; paper published in the Annalsj. oG A. A. JULIEN. Suggestions in Microscopical Technique (abstract) 50 A Study of the New York Obelisk as a Decayed Boulder (litleonlv: paper published in the Annals) jsy .J. F. KEMP. A Review of Work liitherto done on the Geology of tiie Adirondarl.s. . 11) On an Occurrence of Gabbro (Norite) near Van Artsdalen's yuai i y, Bucks County, Pennsylvania 71 Bibliography of Professor J. S. Newberry lT;i J. F. KEMP AND ARTHUR HOLLICTC. The Granite at Mounts Adam and Eve, Orange County, N. \ . ;ind its Contact Phenomena (abstract; paper to be publislnd in the Annals) -2z\ F. S. LEE. The Functions of the Internal Enr (abstract) !)5 L. McI. LUyUER. On the Optical Properties of Cacoxenite from various LocaliLiis (published by title only) 70 The Optical Properties of Muscovite from tlie Kingsbridge Siiip Canal (published by title only) 70 1\ S. MARTIN. Tlie Influence u;)on Science of tlie Discovery of llie Nev,- World (published by title only) 7 VI CONTENTS. W. I). MATTHEW. On Pliospliate Nodules from the Cambrian of SoutluTii New Brmiswick (illustrated) 108 On Antenna- and other Appendages of TriarHiriis Bcckii (Plate VIII.). 2:i7 A. .T. 51 OSES. Rare Faces on Pyrite Crystals, from the Kingsbridge Ship Canal (abstract) 69 On an Api)arently new Sulpliate from Arizona (abstract) GO H. F. OSBORN. A New Artiodactyl from the Lower Miocene (published bj- title only). . 56 A New Suborder of the Ancjdopoda (abstract) 95 The Evolution of Teeth in the Mammalia and its Bearing upon (lie Problem of Phylogeny (abstract) 187 ALPH^US S. PACKARD. Studies on the Life-History of some Bombycine Moths, with Notes on tlie Seta' and Spines of certain Species (title only) 138 C. A. POST. A New Driving Clock for Equatorials (abstract) 138 M. I. PUPIN. On tlu; probable Relation between Solar and Terrestrial Activity 26 The Bearing of Electrical Discharges on Solar Physics (abstract) 48-4 'i .T. D. {^UACKKNBOS. Tlie Sunapee Saibling: a Fourth New England Variety of Salveliinis. . 139 .1. K. HKES. D- Obscrvations of the Partial Solar Eclipsr of October 2()tli, IS'.CJ (pub lished l)y title f^nly) 26 Observations of tin' Periodic Variation of Latitude (published l)y title only) 26 'I'hc Life and Works of Lewis Morris Ruthciruid ii)ul)lislie(l \>\ title on) v) 27 CONTENTS. vii HEINRICH RIES. Notes on the Clays of New York State and their Economic VaUie 40 T. A. SAFFORD. The Construction of a Catalogue of Standard Polar Stars (abstract). ... ISO FRANCIS p. SMITH. A New Form of Condenser for Water Analysis, and a compact Distilling Apparatus 55 C. H. SMYTH, JR. A Geological Reconnaissance in the Vicinity of Gouverneur, N. Y. (with map) 97 Petrography of the Gneisses of the Town of Gouverneur, N. Y. (illustrated) 203 O. S. STRONG. The Components of Cranial Nerves of Amphibia (abstract) 5G E. B. WILSON, Artificial Production of Twins and Multiple Embryos in AmpMoxiis (published by title only) 17 On Regeneration and the Mosaic Theory of Development (published by title only). 138 J. L. WORTMAN. On the Mammalian Fauna of the Lower Miocene (published by title only) 50 The Relationship of the Puerco Beds to the Laramie (abstract) 60 VIU CONTENS. PUHLIC LECTURES, COURSE OF ISO^^iSOH. October 31, 1892. PROF. CHARLES F. CHANPI.TCU. Aluminium niid its Alloys 25 November 21, 1892. PROF. HENRY F. OSBORN. Tl ic Rise of tlie Mammalia 53 December 19, 1893. PROF. W. B. SCOTT. Fossil Hunting in the Northwest 55 January 16. 1898. PROF. CRARLES R. CROSS. Tlie Determination and Recent History of Musical Pitch, especially in this Country (19 February 20. 1893. COURTENAY DEKALB, E. M. Tliree Thousand Miles up the Amazon 90 March 20, 1893. COMMANDER THEO. F. JEWELL. Torpedoes IT;! AjirU 17, 1893. I'lloF. W. LE CONTE STEVENS. Naples and its Surroundings ISS May 15, 1893. DIt. KDWAKl) (1. LOVE. Photographing Microscopic Objects 220 TRANSACTIONS OF THE New York Academy of Sciences, Regular Business Meeting. October 3rd, 1892. Vice-President, Dr, Bolton, in the chair. Thirty persons present. The minutes of the Stated Meeting of June Gth were read and approved. The report of the Council was read, recommending: 1. The change in issuing the Transactions, by which Fellows and Members may have Signatures or paper bound volumes as they may elect. 2. The election of Dr. Morris Loeb as a Resident Member. 3. The plan of holding a general meeting of the Scientific Alliance, during the Autumn. The recommendations were ap- proved and the Secretary was directed to cast a ballot electing Dr. Loeb. The Secretary reported having cast the ballot and Dr. Morris Loeb was declared duly elected. The following proposals for Resident Membership were read by the Secretary: Alfred J. Moses, Columbia College. Lea McI. Luquer, Columbia College. Francis P. Smith, U. S. Navy Yard, N. Y. For Felloivs : Henry F. Osborn, Columbia College. James F. Kemp, Columbia College. Arthur Hollick, Columbia College. Teans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. XII. No. i, November 22, 1892. 2 TEANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 3, The names were referred to the Council for action. Dr. Bolton read a communication from Cairo, Egypt, dated, August 29th, 1892, and containing a sealed envelope enclosing a drawing of an apparatus for producing perj^etual motion. The pajier has been deposited with other papers of the Academy. Dr. Britton rejiorted that the Audubon Monument was near- ly completed and that the ceremonies of unveiling would take place in the course of a few weeks. Prof. D. S. Martin called attention to the death of Prof. Wm. P. Trowbridge and on motion the chair appointed Profs. Chand- ler, Martin and Bees, a committee to draw up and present suit- able resolutions to the Academy. A paper was read by Dr. N. L. Britton on Ranunculus re- pens L. and its Eastern North American Allies, illustrated by specimens. RANUNCULUS REPENS AND ITS EASTERN NORTH AMERICAN ALLIES. By N. L. Britton. Owing to the tendency to keep the number of species as small as possible, which has characterized the work of many American botanists from the time of Nuttall to the latter years of Dr. Gray's life, many of our plants have been imperfectly under- stood. This is notably true in the case of the Buttercups here discussed. In the Torrey and Gray Flora of 1838, the group was divided among B. repens, L., with two varieties, and li. hir'sutus, Michx. In the first edition of Gray's JManual (1848), hirsidus was dropped and 11. fa!«:icularis, Muhl., admitted; and this arrangement was maintained in the subsequent editions including the fifth (18G7), and was also followed by Wood in his Class-Book, and Botanist and Florist. In Dr. Gray's books the difficulty about B. repens was disj^osed of by the statement that it is "extremely variable in size and foliage." Meanwhile everybody that looked at the plants at all critically was unable to determine them satisfactorily. In 188G, when Dr. Gi'ay took up the Ranunculacea? for the Synoptical Flora (Proc. Am. Acad., xxi. 3G3 et seq.) he 1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 3 had quite changed his miud on the limitations of species, having had the experience of unraveling the Gamopetalre behind him, and the advantage of much more material for study accumulated in the Cambridge Herbarium. He then recognized three eastern s'i^ecies, B. repens, L., B. mpteninonalis, Poir., and R. fascicidaris, Muhl. The name R. hispid us, Michx., used by Torrey and Gray in 1838 for one of the sj^ecies, was now employed by Dr. Gray for a different one, in this following Hooker, Fl.Bor. Am. i. 19. My observations have led me to conclude that R. repens, L. and R. fascicular is, Muhl., are well defined in this last paper of Dr. Gray. But under his R. sep)lenlrionahs , Poir., it seems to me that there are at least two species. He notes that he takes this " to include the greater part of the assemblage of forms which have passed for R. rcpens m this country.'' 1. Ranunculus kepens L. Sj). PI. 55-1 (1753). This European species is sparingly naturalized in south- eastern New York and New Jerse}-, being much less abundant than eitheri?. bulbosus, L., or R. acris, L., the common field buttercups of the region. It occurs from Nova Scotia and Ontario to Virginia and is reported from various places in the interioi'. Dr. Gray notes that it is indigenous in some places, but I have no other evidence of this. On the label of a specimen collected by Mr. Coville at Oxford, N. Y., in 188G, Dr. Gray has written "truly indigenous," but Mr. Coville tells me that this is a mistake. Dr. Gray indicates that it extends to New Mexico. It is a creeping, stoloniferous plant, with some of the branches ascending, and grows in dense patches along road- sides, etc., preferring moist soil. It is quite glabrous or somewhat pubescent ; its leaves are pinnately tri-foliolate, very broadly ovate or orbicular in outline, the segments broad, deeply incised and lobed, and usually, so far as I have observed the fresh plant, blotched at the base of the lobes ; the flowers are as large as those of R. aci'is, the petals much longer than the spreading sepals ; the mature achenes are oval, slightly longer than broad, narrowly margined and abruptly tipped with a short, subulate, nearly straight style, not more than one-fourth of their length. 2. Ranunculus Macounii. Ranuncidus hisjndus Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. i. 19, (1830), not of Michx. This is a si^reading or trailing hirsute species, not stoloni- 4 THANSACTIONS OF THE [oCT. 3, ferous, &o far as I know, occurring- from western Ontario to British Columbia, ami soutli in the Eocky Mountain region to Arizona and New Mexico. It is readily distinguishable from B. repens by its larger leaves, stronger habit, obovate petals scarcely or not at all longer than the reflexed sejKds, and almost marginless, slightly larger and Hatter achenes, which are tipped with a shorter, slightly stouter style. B. hispidus of Michaux is, as will be shown, one of the long- styled plants included by Dr. Gray in B. mptenirioiialiH. B. Macoanii has its nearest affinity in B. Fentn^iih-anivus which differs in its erect stem, smaller flowers, more linel}' divided leaves with still narrower segments and oblong or cylindric head of more numerous and smaller acheues, and is of eastern distribution. 3. Ranunculus hispidus Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. i. 821 (1803). I have seen the tj'pe of this plant in Michauxs Herbarium at the Jardin des Plantes, and it is clearly a common plaiit of the Eastern and Middle States and not at all the western s^jecies called hi^/>idu!< by Hooker, which Michaux, in all probability, never saw, Dr. Gray's remarks (Proc. Amer. Acad. xxi. 375] to the contrary notwithstanding. It is an early-blooming woodland species, often Howering about New York as early as April 15th, and much before any of the other buttercviijs. It is not stoloniferous so far as I have observed; the young stems are usually densely villous-pubescent but become gla))rate or appressed-pubescent in age; the roots are numerous, thick and fleshy, the leaves are pinnately three-divided (very rarely pin- nately five-divided), very i^ubescent, at least when young, the segments ovate, oblong or obovate, nearly cuneate at the base, and sharply cleft and lobed; the flowers are a half irich to one and one half inches broad, with petals considerably louger than the spreading sepals ; (usuall^^ twice as long) the head of fruit is usually somewhat longei- than thick, tfiough often globose; the achenes are nearly orbicular, lenticulai , narrowly margined and, when mature, abruptly tipped by a subulate- curved style of about one-half their length. The species was taken for yi'. /rrsv/r'^/or/s Muhl., by Sdih cht- endahl, Auiinad. ii. 30, t. II., (bSltt), who gives a veij good figure of it, and it was also so-called by Austin, Leggett and other New York botanists. In Torrey and Gray's Flora, N. A. and in Torrey Flora, N. Y. , it aj)!)* ared as B. rejx'iis, var. Jllari/landicax. In my catalogue of tiie Plants of New Jersey it api)eared as B. fcmdoularu, and I take this opportunity of stating^ that so far as I know, ii'. fa.-letion, his remarks have especial value and interest as he was a specta- tor of both ceremonies. The following paper was then read : 1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 19 A REVIEW OF WOEK HITHERTO DONE ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE ADIRONDACKS. J. F. Kemp. A.bstract. The paper was illustrated witli| specimens of rocks and min- erals and with a series of lantern slides. After a brief topographical description of the region, of its historical importance and economic resources, the subject proper was taken up. Reference was made to the small amount of geological work that had been done ujoon it. Peter Kalm, who visited Crown Point in 1749, has left a few notes, and an occasional traveler in the later years of the last century has done the same. The iron enterprises in the early years of the present century brought the geological structure into promin- ence. Mr. A. E. Jessup contributed to the Journal of the Philadelphia Acad, of Sci. , Mar. 19, 1822, a few pages on the " Geology of the Northeast Part of N. Y. " which were published in Vol. II. p. 185 . He speaks of the secondary and primary rocks of Lake Champlain and of the primitive trap at Willsborough, which was visited by Dr. Wm. Meade in 1810. The next paper of importance is that of W. C. Redfield, * who was one of a party interested in the magnetite mines at Lake Henderson. He describes their trip to the sources of the Hudson, and mentions labradorite rock, trap dikes and the great (so-called) dike at Avalanche Lake. In 1836 the bill was passed establishing the New York Survey, and in the spring of 1837 the geological parties took the field. Ebenezer Emmons received the second district, which included the mountains. For the first year James Hall was his assistant. Emmons' first annual report (1837) describes his reconnoissance of the east and west portions of the Adirondacks, and then the three sections that he made from east to west. One was at the lat- itude of Lake George, one at Cedar Point (Port Henry), and one on the north side. Up to Emmons' visit Whiteface was thought to be the highest peak. It was called 2,600 ft., being supposed to be 1,200 lower than Round Top in the Cat- skills. Emmons made it 4,885, and was the first to discover that there were higher peaks to the south, affording thus a sig- nificant commentary on the little that was known of the region. His second annual report (1838) is chiefly filled with details of St. Lawrence and Essex counties. The latter is stated to contain * W. C. Redfleld. Some account of two visits to the mountains of Essex. Co.'' N. Y. 1836-37. Amer. Jour, Sci. I., xxxiii, 301. 20 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 24^ the following formations : 1. The Primary, embracing granite (i. e., labradorite rock) and gneiss. 2. The Transition {i. e., Cambro-silurian). 3, The Tertiary or newer Pliocene, {i. e., the glacial clays, etc.). Emmons makes an extended argument to prove the igneous character of certain limestones, and in the report on the iirst district, Mather corroborates the idea. Emmons' second report contains also man}- details about iron mines, and an account of his ascent of Mt. Marcy, Avhich he determined to be 5,4G7 ft. The third annual report (1839) describes Hamilton, Clinton and Warren Counties, but is mostly devoted to the discussion of various economic minerals, peat, marl, etc. The fourth report, 1840-41, takes np the iron ores at length, especially those at Lake Henderson. The final report appeared in 1842. The classification of for- mations is as follows : A — Primary. I. Unstratified. a. Granite. b. Hypersthene rock. c. Primitive limestone. d. Serpentine . e. Kensselaerite. II. Stratified. a. Gneiss. b. Hornblende {i. e., hornblendic-gneiss.) c. Sienite. d. Talc or Steatite. III. Subordinate. a. Porphyry. b. Trap. c. Magnetic and d. Specular oxide of iron . B — New York Transition System. Champlain Group. a. Potsdam sandstone. b. Calciferous sandrock, c. Chazy limestone. d. Birdseye limestone. e. Trenton limestone, y. Utica slate. g. Lorraine shales. h. Grey sandstone. C— Tertiary. 1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 21 It is a curious fact that the porphyry and trap classed with the primary are described as penetrating the Utica slate, and that sienite of the Statilied division is also said to occur in dikes. After a chapter on the ill-starred Taconic system, the counties are taken up in order and described. In discussing the primary system, Emmons says little of the respective ages of the subdivisions, but he saw clearly the contrast of the "granite" {i. e., the labradorite-hypersthene rocks) and the gneiss. It must be remembered that he worked in a wilder- ness and, considering his opportunities, he deserves the highest praise. He writes with extraordinary abilit}^ and clearness, and though, for instance, we have no confidence to-day in the igneous character of his limestones, we must realize that con- ceptions and knowledge of metamorphism have greatly advanced since his time. The dearth of papers in the next thirty or forty years is remarkable. The Canadians had country of much the same character to deal with, and the problem of the subdivision of the old crystalline rocks was attacked by them. The Adiron- dacks are often referred to, but no detailed field-work was done in them. The relations of the gneisses, the norites or anor- thosites and the crystalline limestones have been and^are the problems meriting attention. As is well known the gneisses were generally called Lower Laurentian, and the norites. Upper. A number of papers remain to be noted, which treat of restricted parts of the subject. The late Dr. T. S. Hunt published in 1871, a valuable contribution on the Mineralogy of the Laurentian limestones (21st Annual Report N. Y. State Cabinet, p. 47, 1871), but has comparatively little to say of their geognostic relations. James Hall presented to the American Association at the Buffalo meeting, 1876, a paper on the Age of the Serpentinous Limestones of Northern N. Y. It was published in the Biift'alo Courier, Aug, 25th, and from this was abstracted for the American Journal of Science of October of the same year. Professor Hall regarded the limestones as later than the Laurentian and earlier than the Potsdam, but whether Huronian or not he does not say. The paper is rather general in character and gives no actual sections or data of localized character, at least in the printed abstract. In 1877 Dr. Albert R. Leeds published a paper entitled " Notes on the Lithology of the Adirondacks '' (Chemical News, Mar., 1877; 36th Ann. Rep. N. Y. State Cabinet, 1877, p. 79). Dr. Leeds' material came mostly from tke Keene Valley and consisted of varieties of norite and of several diabase dikes. Very careful chemical analyses are given, and some microscopic 22 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 24,. determinations by Dr. A. A. Julian. The rocks (except the dia- base) are shown to contain j^lagioclase (largely anorthite), hyper- sthene, hornblende, diallage, magnetite, menaccanite, and gar- net. They are both massive and gneissoid. Dr. Leeds gives six conclusions. I. The rocks of Essex Co. are parts of the Norian system and are composed of norites like those in Canada, V/estern Scotland, Norway and elsewhere. II. That they are a stratified rock, which has undergone a metamorphism so profound as to cause them to be regarded by Emmons and others as massive. That the dolerites have come from another portion of lower lying, stratified rocks and have tilted the norites in their extrusion. III. The norites are marked by a paucity of silica due to the presence of bisilicates and to anorthite among the plagioclases. IV. The alkalies are deficient. V. Menaccanite is universal in both labradorite and pj-roxenes VI. The men- accanite contains chromium. The additions made b}' thisjoaper to our knowledge of the chemical composition of these rocks are most praiseworthy, but the conclusions under II. are warranted by no commensurate field-work as evinced by the paper, and, remembering the mineralogy of the rocks, they would be considered in the estimation of petrographers as untenable. (See also A. R. C. Selwyn, Rep. Prog. Can. Sur., 1877-78.) In 1879 C. E. Hall published a paper on the " Laurentian Magnetic Iron Ore Deposits in Northern N. Y.'' (32nd Annual Report of the N. Y. State Cabinet, 1879, pp. 133-140.) The geology of the eastern Adirondacks is dirscussed very briefly by townships. The Archaean rocks are divided into : I. Lower Laurentian Magnetic Iron Ore Series. II. Laurentian Sulphur Ore Series. III. The Crystallina Limestones. IV. Labrador Series or Upper Laurentian with titaniferous ores. The relations of II. and III. are said to be uncertain, but later in a note the limestone of III. is stated to be later than IV. A geological maj) accompanies the report. G. P. Merrill, of the U. S. National Museum, has given attention to the serpeutinous limestones as having somebesiring on the Eozoon Canadense. This problematic association of serpentine and calcite had been previously announced from "Warren Co. by A. M. Edwards. (Lyceum of Natural History, N. Y., Proc, 1870, p. 96.) Two papers have come from Mr. Merrill, the one on the " Ophiolite of Thurman, Warren Co., '^ etc., Amer. Jour, of Sci., ^Far., 1889; and the other, "On Serpeutinous Rocks from Essex Co., N. Y. etc.," Proc. U. S. National Museum, XII., 595, 1890. The serpentine appears to be both an alteration product from a white pyroxene, cores of 1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 23 which it surrounds, aud also an infiltration product that has replaced calcite. Professor R. Pampelly has made one or two suggestions in connection with another subject that are worthy of mention. He states in his paper on "The Relation of secular Rock-dis- integration to certain transitional crystalline Schists,'' (Geol. Soc. Amer. II. 218, 189U,) that he walked from Fort Ann to West- port and noted often in the limestones and near their lower edges, fragments of the crj'stalHne rocks on which they reSt. These fragments, Pumpelly suggests, are the results of surface disintegration preceding the deposition of the limestone, in whose substance they thus became involved. In the summer of 1889 aud 1890, J. F. Kemp and V. F. Mars- ters were in the field studying the trap dikes of the region, (" TrajD dikes in the Lake Champlain Valley and the neighboring Adirondacks," Tians. N. Y. Acad. Sci. XI., 13, 1891. 'The full paper has been accepted as Bulletin 10 of theU. S. Geol. Survey). A large number were found, including diabase and related rocks and feldspar porphyries (Bostonite). They also visited a great reported dike at Avalanche Lake, which had been noted by Redfield in 183G. It proved to be a shear-zone or a crushed and dynamically metamorphosed strip along a fault. (J. F. Kemp, " The great Shear-zone at Avalanche Lake, in the Adirondacks," Amer. Jour. Sci., Aug., 1892, p. 109.) Remarks on other faults aud shear-zones conclude the paper. Reference should also be made to the reports of the Tenth Census, in Vol. XV., on iron ores. Many details of local geology near the ore bodies are given. Tbe report was issued about 1885. Similar mention should be made of J. C. Smock's Report on the Iron Mines of N. Y., 1889, Bulletin VII. of the State Museum. Valuable work on the fossiliferous rocks, although chiefly on the east bank of Lake Champlain, has been done by President Brainerd and Professor Seely, of Middlebury, Vt., and Professor Whitfield, of New York. Their discoveries relate especially to the Calciferous and Chazy formations. Mr. C. D. Walcott, of the U. S. Geological Survey, has given much attention to the fringe of Potsdam. In Bulletin 81, of the Geol. Survey on the Corre- lation of the Cambrian Strata, cross-section, plate II, he has colored a strip on the east of the mountains as Algonkian. This presumably refers to the limestones and indicates for them an age later than the Laurentian. The past summer (1892) the writer was in the field and -will later present through the N. Y. State Museum the results of detailed observations in Moriah and Westport townships, which, 24: TRANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 23, however, are only a begiuninj^f of future work. On the west side Dr. C. H. Smyth, Jr., of Hamilton College, was working in close association. In summing up on the geology of the Adirondacks, it may be stated that the following views relative to the stj'atigraphy of the crj'stalline rocks have been held. I. It has been usually believed, that the gneisses are the oldest and are metamorphosed sediments ; that the norites are later, some regarding them as igneous, others as metamorphosed sediments ; that the limestones are latest of all. If this be admitted and the norites be regarded as igneous intrusions, how is it that no dikes or apophyste have ever been mentioned as radiating or offsetting from this enormous mass ? II. That there is a core of central and oldest norite, having later gneiss as a metamorphosed sediment on its flanks, and still later limestone on both norite and gneiss. One or the other of these views has been held by almost every one at all familiar with the region and they have been in many minds, if not so definitely stated in print. It must be recognized that the region is badly faulted and broken, as the mines, the topography and the geology indicate. "N^'hile any one of the three generally received divisions are easily recognizable in typical cases, they yet have been so suV)ject to metamorphism that there are intermediate members of great obscurit}-. The region requires careful and systematic field-work, with parallel microscopic determinations. It is remarkable how little detailed work of any stratigraphical value has yet been published on the crystalline rocks. Geological Department, Columbia College, Oct., 1892. Prof. Osborn spoke of a singular rounded and polished hole in rock on the place of F. A. Church Esq., on the Hudson River. It is evidently a gigantic pot-hole. Dr. Bolton asked for information concerning the supposed fitid of buffalo remains at Plainfield N. J. Dr. Dean and Prof. Osborn replied that they could as yet see no evidences of these remains being other than those of deer, and further that the newspaper reports of interviews were not strictly correct. Prof. Kemp remarked that he had a hippopotamus tooth said to have been discovered near Eamapo, N. J. Meeting adjourned. 1892.] NEW YOKE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 25 Stated Meeting October 31st, 1892. The President, Dit. Hubbaed in the chair, two hundred and lifty persons present ; in the absence of the Secretary the reading of the minutes was omitted. The President introduced Prof. C. F. Chandler Ph. D. of Columbia College, who delivered the opening lecture of the Course of l\ Heer under the above name (Fh Foss. Arct. VII. 37, PI. LXII f.7,,7b. and PI. LVIII. f. 3). Locality : Kreischerville clays. Dewalquea Haldemiana, Sap. ? PI. IL f. 10, 2a. Locality : clays at Kreischerville. * Since writing this paper I have received Monograph No. XVII. of the U. S. Geol. Survey (The Flora of the Dakota Group ; Lesquercux), in ■which is de.scribeil and figured (p. 77, PI. XII. f. -2) under the name FicKs iirotupoiiles, sp. nov., a leaf identical with one figured 1)V me as I'votacoidef ]>apliimften found between the layers of the clay at a depth of 15 or 20 feet. Staten Island Clays. The clays of Staten Island are chiefly Cretaceous, as proven by the fossils found in them. (A. Hollick, Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. xi.) The chief outcrojis are at Kreischerville, Green Ridge and Arrochar. Besides the clay there are several kaolin deposits. In many instances the clays have been much disturbed by the passage of the ice over them, and in some cases the sections show overthrown anticlines, as on the Fingerboard Road at Clifton. Mr. "NV. Kreischer informed me that the clay at Kreischerville curs in isolated masses or pockets in the yellow gravel and 44 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [DeC. 5 sands. If such is the case, and if these beds, as is usually sup- posed, are a continuation of the New Jersey ones, they must be explained as follows : Either the original beds have been torn apart by the ice whick bore down iipon them, or else by the extensive erosion of the currents which deposited the overlying sands and gravels. The writer favors this latter view. A. boring made on the site of Kreischer's fire-brick factory showed : Sand and soil .... 30 feet. Blue clay .... 90 feet WliiteSand .... 2 feet Sand and ciaj' alternating 78 feet Total thickness . . . 2i)0 feet. Next to the church at Kreischerville is a bank of stratified sand standing some iO feet back from the road. It appears to have been dug away considerably, but Mr. Kreischer informed me that there was once a large mass of clay at this sj)ot, which was surrounded by the sand. To the north of this, near the shore, is a bank of blue stoneware clay overlain by four to six feet of fine yellow laminated sand, and southeast of the church is a similar bank, but the clay is of a more sandy nature. A third opening is opposite Kilmeyer's Hotel at Kreischerville, where a yellow fire-clay is dug. This is overlain by about 20 feet of sand and yellow gravel and underlain by a whitish sand. A fourth opening is situated on the shore in a bluish clay. Borings made at various points between Kreischer's factory and Y/ood & Keenan's brickyard penetrated a blue clay at a depth of a few feet. This latter is no doubt of a very recent origin. At the xinderson Brick Company's pit, near Green Eidge, the lower clay, which is of a black color, shows signs of disturbance, and slicken-sided surfaces are common. The upper portions of the bank are of blue and gray colors, and at one spot there is a thick seam of lignite. This clay is not sufficiently refractor}' for fire-brick. Fragmentary plant remains were found b}' the writcj-. In the pits of the Staten Island Kaolin Comjoany, the upper portion of the kaolin has been disturbed by tlie ice and the kaolin is intermixed with the till. The kaolin is here underlain by a sandy clay. Glacial clays also occur on Staten Island, and are being used for the manufacture of brick. Long Island Clays. The clays are found along the north shore of the Island and 1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 45 iu a belt through the centre, so that in describing' them I have gone east along the shore and come back through the centre of the Island. In a paper on the Geology of Lonpj Island, read before theN Y. Acad. Sci., in Nov. 1884, Dr. Merrill describes in detail the forina- tions exposed on the island, and mentions the insufficiency of data necessary to afford definite conclusions concerning the se- quence of geological events. Examination of the various clay- outcrops of Long Island during the past season showed that eight years had made some changes, permitting the collection of additional data and obliterating many localities described bv Dr. Merrill. On Elm Point is a bed of stoneware clay over 30 feet thick and covered with 15 to 20 ieet of yellow gravel and drift. The gravel has sandstone concretions similar to those found on Staten Island, but none were found containing fossils. The clay is of a dark gray color and contains streaks of lignite in a good state of j^reservation. Leaves are said to have been found in this clay. It is no doubt of Cretaceous age. There is an extensive outcrop of clay at Glen Cove, on the east shore of Hempstead Harbor. This has long been known to be Cretaceous, as proven by its contained plant remains, which are in concretions in the clay. The layers of the latter are blue and red. They are considerably tilted. Near this lo- cality and on the shore of Mosquito Inlet is an outcroft of a pinkish claj^ used for fire-brick and stoneware. Dipping under it in a northerly direction is a bed of alternating layers of quartz pebbles and clay. Associated with this is a bed of kao- lin, but the exact relations of the two deposits are not known. Kaolin also crops out from under the gravels on the Avest shore of Hempstead Harbor. Farther up the harbor at Gleuwood we find a yellowish brown clay underneath the yellow gravel. Ferruginous sandstone concretions were found at a number of localities in the sands and gravels overlying the clays, but no fossils were found in them. Silicified corals were discovered in the sands associated with the yellow gravel on the shore of Cold Spring Harbor. There is a deposit of fire and pottery clay at Northport. It is of white, blue and red color and is stratified. The layers are separated by thin sheets of sand. The owner claims to have frequently dug up leaves. This is probably another Cretaceous outcrop. The other clays along the north shore have a certain amount of similarity and are considered by Merrill to be of probable Tertiary age. 6 feet. 2 feet. ] foot 4 feet. 4 feet. 3 feet. 46 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [DeC. 5 One of the most interesting clay banks is that on Fisher Island. The clay is of a reddish color similar to that on West Neck, and Centre Island, in Oyster Bay, and in its normal con- dition Avas horizontally stratified and overlain by 20 to 30 feet of stratified sand. But the whole deposit has been disturbed by the ice sheet passing over it. The layers have been ground and crumpled. On toj^ of all is a heavy deposit of till with large boulders. There is a rather extensive deposit of stonj' glacial clay between Greenport and Sovithold. At West Deer Park is a clay bank of unique appearance. The section is : Yellow gravel Containing j Flesh-uolored clay concretions j lied claj' .... Black claj" with pyrite Black sandy clay Red sandy clay Total thickness ... 20 feet. The nest time I visited this locality the section showed only a brilliant red clay on top, with the black clay underneath, and in the centre of this latter a large lenticular mass of gray sand. The black clay burns white. About four miles below this the clay bank presents a totally different appearance. Sand and gravel .... 6 feet. Red sandy clay .... 6 feet. Yellow and red sand, wavy laminations 2 feet. Reddish yellow clay ... 6 feet. Blue clay 2J feet. Micaceous sand, cross-bedded . — Total thickness ... 40 feet. These two last-mentioned deposits are just south of the moraine. At East Williston is a local deposit of blue sandy clay, also mentioned by Dr. Merrill. On my last visit to this locality I found a number of stems and fragments of leaves in it, although nothing sufiSciently well i^reserved for identification. Most of the clay beds on Long Island show signs of disturb- ance In some, as at Cold Spring, overthrown anticlines have been formed. Therefore, a knowledge of the dip and strike of the beds is not alwaj's of great help. Economic Impo7iance of the Clays. The economic value of the clays of New York State is becom- 1892.] NEW YOEK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 47 ing of more importance each year. There are about three hun- dred and fifty yards which manufacture building brick alone, giving an annual production of about 1,300,000,000 brick. The income from this branch of the clay industry' alone amounts to about $8,500,000 annually. In most cases the yards are situated so as to afford the great- est ease and facilitj' of working. Along the Hudson River the claj' is rarely hauled over 300 feet, and this on a down grade; the barges for transporting the brick can be brought to within a few feet of the kiln. All the Hudson Eiver yards mold their brick by the soft-mud process; indeed, this is the one commonly used in most jDarts of the State. The Hudson River yards send their product chiefly to New York City. The yards in the north an;:! west portion of the State are usually situated on some line of railroad, and their product is chiefly locall}' used. In many of these we find the artificial drying of the brick to be the favorite method. They use in most cases stationary kilns. The re-pressed brick made at Newfield are found to stand one of the highest pressures on record, viz., crushing at 240,000 pounds. The Syracuse paving brick will stand even more. These were tested on edge. In the western portion of the State many drain-tile are made. Sewer-pipe are manufactured at several localities, the native clay being mixed with a certain proportion of Jersey fire-clay. Roofing-tile, terra cotta and paving-brick are among the clay products of the State. Shale is another substance which has come into use within the last few years for the making of brick. In this State the Ham- ilton, Chemung and Salina are being employed. The shale is pulerized first in a dry-pan to a very fine powder and then ground with water, and in this state is jilastic and can be molded into brick, etc. It very often gives better results than the clays. Future experiments will no doubt show the availability of shales of other formations than those now used for the manufac- ture of clay-products. Certain it is that we have in this State an abundant supply of clay and a still more abundant store of shales. The Astronomical Section having organized with Prof, Rees in the chair, Dr, M. I. Pupin read a paper entitled : 48 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [DeC. 5 The Bearing of Electrical Discharges on Solar Physics. [abstract.] A.. luJirect evidences favoring an electrical theory of the solar corona. 1. EviiJence^ obtained from the visiible spectrum of the corona. — Tiie assumption that the visible coronal glow is due to electrical disturbances in the coronal regions has just as much probability in its favor as any other assumption. That part of the coroual light which is reflected sunlight may be due to a decomposition of the coronal vajjors produced by the action of the ultra-violet light of the sun, or by the action of the electrical disturbances in the coronal regions. 2. Enidences ohlainec^ from the idtra-vioJet spectrum of the co- rona. — These evidences seem to indicate that the maximum energy of the coronal spectrum is near its violet end. If so, this fact would speak very forcibly in favor of the assumption that the coronal light is due to electrical disturbances in the coronal regions. B. On the admini^Me causes which are capable of jiroducing elec- trical disturbances in the coronal regions. These causes are shown to be the electrical oscillatory dis- charges in the solar atmosphere, resulting from the electrical tensions which are produced by the heterogeneous nature of the solar atmosphere, by internal friction and possibly also by chemical process. G. The effects of the electrical waves propagated through interplanetary space are then discussed, especially those due to the absorption of these waves by the gases which constitute the solar corona. Various cases are considered, and it is pointed out that all the various coronal forms can be explained in a sci- entifically legitimate manner by the abovementioued absor]itioriS of the electrical waves. Lines of laboratory' research capable of throwing more light upon these evidences are then discnssed, and the author concludes his remarks with a promise of exhibit- ing very soon before the Astrouomical Section some experiments which have a direct bearing upon the various questions dis- cussed in the paper. Prof. Rees then referred briefly to the observations of Holmes' comet made at Columbia College Observatory by himself and by Mr. Jacoby and Mr. Monell. These observations will be published in the AstronomicalJournal. He also gave an account 1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 49 of a shower of meteors seen by him on the 23d of November. Mk. Ewing had also seen the meteors, and Dr. Bolton had heard of them. Addendum to the Abstract of Dr. Pupin's Paper "On the Bearing of Electrical Discharges on Solar Physics." Among the lines of laboratory research one was especially recommended and that was the investigation of the fluorescence of perfect gases under the influence of the light of powerful electrical discharges. Dr. Pupin stated that he believed that these gases are rendered fluorescent by the action of the light of very powerful oscillatory jar discharges. [In one of his experiments, which he showed to Professors Rees and Van Am- ringe, of Columbia College, ten days before the reading of the paper, he thinks that he succeeded in rendering hydrogen fluor- escent (with a faint bluish color) by the action of the light of exceedingly powerful jar discharges ; but no conclusive evi- dences of the phenomenon could be obtained on account of the difficulty of excluding the direct visible light of the sj)ark from the fluorescent light.] December 12, 1892. Stated Meeting. Vice-President Dr. Allen in the chair. About forty -five per- sons present. The reading of the minutes was omitted. The Section of Geology and Mineralogy was oi'ganized, re- placing the older one of Mineralogy. The following officers of the Section were elected : R. P. Whitfield, Chairman. James F. Kemp, Secretary. The following Advisory Board was appointed : T. Egleston, A. HOLLICK, G. F. KuNz, J. J. Stevenson. Transactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. March lOth, 1893. 50 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [DeC. 12 The iBiological Section then organized, Prof. H. F. Osborx in the chair, Dr. Bashford Dean Secretary. [ The following papers were read : J. L. "NVoRTMAN, "On the Mammalian Fauna of the Lower Miocene. (White Eiver formation).'' F. M. Chapman, "On the Origin of Bird Life in the West Indies." G. S. Huntington, "Note on the Ileo-colic Junction of Pro- cyon loio7'.'' H. F. OsBORN, "On a New Artiodactyl from the Lower Mio- cene.'' The paper of F. S. Lee, "On the Functions of the Internal Ear,'' was unavoidably postj)oned. Prof. Osborn gave a brief description of the Miocene Proto- ceras celer, Marsh. Both male and female skulls of this remark- ably horned artiodactyl were reported as among the recent additions to the American Museum of Natural History. On the Ileo-colic Junction in Procyon lotor and Allied Forms. BY GEO. S. HUNTINGTON, Professor of Anatomy, Columbia University, New York. In presenting some points in reference to certain forms of the ileo-colic junction in mammalia for the consideration of the Section, I desire to make my communication a iDreliminary note, and to report, at a later date, the results of more detailed nvestigations at present in progress. The presence of a caecum in some form is such a widely dis- tributed f eatui'e of the mammalian alimentary canal as to render the absence of this structure a fact of considerable morpholog- ical interest. More especially does this become the case if we leave out of consideration the orders of Insectivora and Chiroptera, in which the absence of the cascum is characteristic, and confine our attention to the isolated instances of lack of this structure in other groups. Narrowed down to these limits the absence of a distinct ctBcum is noted in several Cetaceans, Phy>^eter macro- oephalus, Delphinus deljyhis, Monodnn monoceros ; further, in 1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 51 the carnivorous marsupial Dasyurus, in the single instance of -3Iyoxt(s among Rodentia, in certain Edentates, Tardigrada and Manidfe, and notably in certain members of the carnivorous groups of Arctoidea. In taking a general view of the Carnivora, it appears that in respect to the structure of this portion of the alimentary tract, as well as in reference to other features, the Cyuoidea, including the dogs, the wolves, jackals and foxes, form a well-marked central group, with highly developed and convoluted ciieca, from which on the one hand the Ailuroidea, including cats, civets and hyenas, depart, with caecum uniformly present, but short and markedly pointed at the termination, suggesting the degenera- tion of a formerly more develo^Ded structure, while on the other the Arctoidea, bears, weasels and raccoons, constitute a series bound together by many common fundamental peculiarities of structure, and presenting in many members of the group a complete or nearly complete absence of a caecal appendage. In the typical Ursidte the absence of the ctecum appears to be the rule. Among the Procyonidee, Na!u Cassiopeise =0."275 + 0."024 Parallax of 6 CassiopeiiB =0."232 + 0."067 The paper will appear in the Annals of the Academy. Prof. Rees made a few remarks on the above paper, after •which Prof. George E. Hale, of the University of Chicago described some of his recent investigations in solar j)hysics. Prof. Hale exhibited lantern slides of the apparatus used by him at the Kenwood Observatory, and some very remarkable photographs of prominences and faculte which he has obtained in full sunshine. Biological Section. Prof. OsBORN in the chair. The following papers were presented : A. A. Julien — " Suggestions in Microscopical Technique," in- cluding : (A) A carrier of cover impressions (mycoderm blood), utilizing as clamps a coil of brass wire mounted in a phial. The same device, with a platinum coil, serves as a convenient staining phial for cover glass prepara- tions. (B) A suggested medium for mounting delicately contrac- tile protoplasmic objects. (C) Devices for avoiding inclusion of air-bubbles in mounts. (D) Balsam-paraffine as a ring varnish. O. S. Strong — "On the components of cranial nerves of Amphibia." In the seventh a dorsal root was shown to pass off into a branch representing Ophthalmicus superficialis facialis and Buccalis of Fishes, and innervating the lateral sense organs of 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 57 the head. In vagus a root of similar internal origin jiasses into the R. lateralis innervating the lateral sense organs of the body. Another component of the facialis is the fasciculus com- munis of Osborn, which was believed to represent the lobus vagi of fishes. This passes off into the palatinus and mandibularis internus, innervating the mucous epithelium of the oral cavity ; while in the glosso-pharyngus and vagus similar components derived from this fasciculus innervate in like manner portions of the alimentary canal and its appendages. The relation of the results to segmentation of head was discussed. THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS LESPEDEZA. BY N. L. BRITTON. About ten years ago I was lead to observe the species of Les- pedeza growing in the vicinity of New York by failing to iden- tify certain forms from the descrijitions at my command in the botanical text books. Dr. Watson's "Bibliographical Index" had then recently been published, and the hints there given gave me a great deal of light on the question, but still the species and varieties there accepted were not wholly satisfac- tory', and as I thought I detected some errors I determined to accumulate specimens, in order to endeavor to determine by long series of the various forms and a study of their geographi- cal distribution, which of them were entitled to specific rank and which were mere conditions of development. Nearly all the forms that I have been able to recognize in the great num- ber of specimens now contained in the Columbia College Her- barium, and the other herbaria which I have consulted * have been named by one author or another, as species or varieties. I have endeavored to ascertain by an inspection of the types employed by these authors for their descriptions, which names * Those in the National Herbarium, that of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Harvard University, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the British Museum of Natural History, the Musee d' Histonv Naturelle at Baris, the Boissier and De Candolle Herbaria at Geneva, the Herbaria of Cant. John Donnell Smith. Prof. T. C. Porter, Hon. Addison Brown, and Dr. Wm. E. Wheelock. 58 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 9 are the oldest available for tlie various forms, and Lave suc- ceeded in seeing most of the type specimens which would in- fluence the result. I have adopted the earliest available name in all cases, discarding such as have originally been applied to different species than those with which they have been asso- ciated by some authors, on the jDrinciple that a name once pub- lished for an organism belongs to it and to no other. Michaux, who founded the genus * recognized four species, all North American, viz : 1, L. sessilifiora, based on 31edicago Virginica, L.; 2, L. procumhem^ ; 3, L. cajntata, and 4, L. poly- Htachya, based on Hedymram hirtinn, L. Persoon, four years later, f accepted all of these excejot L. sesdliflora, which he redescribed as L. reliculata, basing it on Hedymrum reticidalum^'V^iWd.., admitted Hedymrinn violaceum, Ij. into the genus as L. violacea, and added live Asiatic species, together with one of whose halaitat he was uninformed Pursh, in 1814, maintained eight sjDCcies, all of which are accepted in the following pages, although mainly under older names. Nuttall, in 1818, admitted eight, suppressing one of Pursh's and adding L. Stuvei. Torrey and Gray in, 1840, reduced the number to six, recognizing, however, a large number of varie- ties. The genus was monographed by Maximowicz | in 1873, who described 33 species, six of them North American, follow- ing very closely the treatment of Torrey and Gray. Dr. AVat- son's Bibliographical Index of 1878 admits nine species, includ- ing the introduced L. striata, and in the sixth edition of Gray's Manual he recognizes the same number. I am confident that the difficulties found in naming these plants from descrijitions are on account of too few species being admitted. It seems to me that there are twelve distinct species in eastern North America with a possibility of one or two more claiming recogni- tion when more specimens of them are obtained. As to the characters which I have mainly relied upon to de- termine species, I have not been able to detect a better wherewith to effect a primary division of our native ones than the short calyx lobes — shorter than the pod — taken with the presence of cleistogamous flowers and nearly always purple or pink corollas for one group, and the loiig calyx-lobes taken with white or ochroleucous corollas (sometime tinged with ]iurple) and absence of cleistogamous flowers for the other. The pe- duncled or sessile clusters of flowers, shape of the leaves, erect * Flor. Bor. Am, il. 70. t Syn. ii. 318. + Act. Hort. retrop. ii :!27-388. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 59 or trailing habit, character and amount of pubescence, and, very important, the geographical distribution of the various forms appear to me to satisfactorily segregate the species. Perennials ; stipules and bracts subulate ; calyx- lobes narrow. Both petaliferoiis and apetalous flowers present ; corolla usually purple or pink, pod exserted. Peduncles slender, mostly exceeding the leaves. Petaliferous flowers capitate or spicate. Plants trailing or diffusely procumbent. Glabrous or appressed-pubescent. 1. Woolly or downy pubescent. 2. Plants erect, rather stout, pubescent. 3. Petaliferous flowers loosely paniculate. 4. Flower-clusters of both kinds sessile or nearly no Leaves oval, oblong or orbicular. Foliage densely downy-pubescent. 5. Foliage glabrate or appressed-pubescent. 6. Leaves linear or linear-oblong. 7. Flowers all complete ; corolla whitish or yel- lowish ; pod included, or scarcely ex- serted. Leaves oblong, ovate-oblong or nearly orbicular. Peduncles exceeding the leaves. 8. Peduncles shorter than the leaves. 9. Leaves linear or linear-oblong ; peduncles elong- ated. Spikes capitate, denselj^-flowered 10. Spikes interrupted, loosely-flowered. 11. Annual ; stipules ovate ; calyx-lobes broad. 12. L. repens. L. procumbens. L. Nuttallii. L. violacea. L. Stuvei. L, intermedia. L. Virginica. L. hirta. L. capitata. L. angustifolia. L. leptostachya. L. striata. I. Lespedeza repens (l.) Bart, Hedymrum repens, L. Sp. PI. 749 (1753). Lei^pedeza repens, Bart. Prodr. Fl. Phil. ii. 77 (1817) in part. Trailing or diffusely procumbent, glabrate or sparingly ap- pressed-pubescent, tufted, stems slender, simple or somewhat branched, 6' — 24' long. Petioles shorter than the leaves ; stipules subulate, about 1" long ; leaflets oval, oblong or obovate, obtuse or retuse at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base, 3" — 8" long ; peduncles of the petaliferous HoAver- clusters slender, much exceeding the leaves ; inflorescence capi- tate, rather loose ; corolla purple, 2" — 3" long ; pod oval- orbicular, acute, finely pubescent, Ijj" long. 60 TEANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 9 In dry or sandy soil. Long Island to Florida, west to West Virginia, Minnesota, and Texas. Tlie species is based on the " Hedysarum caulibus procum- bentibus, racemis lateralibus solitariis, petiolis pedunculo lon- gioribus'' of Gronovius Fl. Virg. p. 8G. There is a specimen with this label in the herbarium of the British Museum of Natural History, the label bearing in addition the following : "A species of trailing Trefoil with purple and white flowers, two or three on each footstalk, coming forth from the wings of the leaves. D. Clayton ex Virginia, num. 85." "Hedysarum 2:)rocumbens, Trifolii fragiferi folio. H. Elth. p. 172, tab. 172, fig, 169." [This is erroneous. Tlie plant of plate 172, Hortus Elthamensis, as shown by the figure, is not a Lespedeza, but apparently a species of Dei^modium. It is said to have been raised from seeds from Ceylon.] Also in another handwriting, apparently written later : " Hedysarum foliis ternatis obcordatis, caulibus procumbenti- bus, racemis lateralibus. Linn. Syst. Gen. 793, n. 24. Sj). PI. 2, p. 1056, n. 30." [This is Linneeus' description of the species in Sp. PL Ed. 1, p. 749 and Ed. 2, p. 1056.] The plant of Linnaeus herbarium marked Hedysarum repens is not a Lespedeza at aW. Smith has noted on the sheet " planta Dill. Elth.," but I think he was mistaken. I did not recognize it. But the Gronovian specimen preserved at the British Mu- seum of Natural History is certainly our plant, and the type of the species. It may readily be distinguished from L. pr on umbenshj its very slender, nearlj^ glabrous steins, its equally glabrous leaves, which have a strong tendency to be obovate, and are commonly retuse or emarginate at the apex, sometimes almost obcordate. It seems to be of more southern range than L. j>rocinnben.s, but more specimens are needed to establish its geographical distri- bution. Its pod is usually shorter, more pubescent and less jjrominently reticulated than that of L. procumbens. 2. Lespedeza PROCUMfiENS, Michx. Lespedeza procumbens, Michx. Fl. Bor. Am ii. 70 (1803). Woolly or downy-pubescent, trailing, procumbent or some- times ascending, stouter than the preceding species, stems 12' — 30' long. Stijiules subulate ; petioles commonly much shorter than the leaves ; leaflets oval or elliptic, rarely slightly oV)ovate, obtuse or retuse at the apex, rounded at the base, 5" — 12" long ; peduncles of the petaliferous flower-clusters 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 61 longer than the leaves, or sometimes wanting and the flowers all apetalous and nearly sessile ; pods oval-orbicular, acute, pubes- cent, 1;-" long. In dry soil, Massachusetts to Florida, west to Missouri, Ar- kansas and Louisiana, The type is preserved in Michaux's herbarium at Paris. The plant is always cons^^icuously pubescent. The leaves are larger than those of L. repens, rarely showing any tendency to the obovate form and never approaching the obcordate in any speci- mens that I have seen. It is much commoner in southern New York and New Jersey than L. repens. There is a fruiting specimen of a Lenpedeza in Herb. Gray, collected by Chas. Wright in Texas, which I refer here with con- siderable hesitation. Mr. Edwin Faxon has collected specimens at Muddy Pond Hills, Mass., Avhich difl'er from the typical plant in their declinate but not prostrate stems and narrow leaflets. 3. LeSPEDEZA NUTTALLII, DaRL. Lespedeza NuttaUii, Darl. Fl. Cestr. Ed. 2, 420 (1837). Lespedeza virgata, Nutt. iuT. »fc G. Fl. N. A. i. 368 (1840) not D. C. Erect, simple or slightly branched, more or less villous-pubes- cent, 2° — 3° high. Stipviles subulate; petioles shorter than the leaves ; leaflets oval, obovate or suborbicular, thickish, obtuse or emarginate at the apex, narrowed or sometimes rounded at the base, dark green and glabrous or nearly so above, villous-pubescent beneath, 4" —20" long, 3" — 10" wide ; peduncles slender, usually exceeding the leaves ; inflorescence capitate, dense ; flowers purple or pink, about 3" long ; pod oblong, acuminate or acute at each end, very pubescent, 2i^"— 3" long, sometimes only slightly exceed- ing the calyx-lobes. Dry soil,^ Southern New England and New York to Pennsyl- vania, Michigan, Kansas and Alabama. Authentic specimen in the Herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. The species was treated by Torrey and Gray as a variety of L. Stuvei and this view was accepted by Darlington in the third edition of the Flora Cestrica. In my view it is abundantly distinct, being much less pubescent, having slender-peduncled heads of flowers, much longer calyx- lobes, and longer, strongly acuminate pods. €2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 9 4. Lespedeza yiolacea (l.) Pers. Hedijsarum violaceum, L. Sp. PI. 749 (1753). Lesjjedeza violacea, Pers. Sjn. ii. 318 (1807). Erect or .ascending, sparingly pubescent, usually much branched, 1°— 3° high. Stipules subulate, 2"— 3" long ; petioles shorter than or equalling the leaves ; leaflets oval, elliptic or broadly oblong, thin, obtuse or retuse at the apex, rounded at the base, G" — 2' long, appressed-pubescent beneath ; peduncles, at least the upper ones, longer than the leaves ; inflorescence loose, paniculate ; corolla purple, 3" — 4" long ; pod ovate or oval, acute, finely and sparingly pubescent, 2"— 3" long. In dry soil. New England to Florida, west to Minnesota, Kansas, Louisiana, and Northern Mexico. This is based on " Hedysarum foliis ternatis, lanceolatis, leguminibus monospermis" of Gronovius Fl. Virg. 87. The sjDecimen so labelled in the herbarium of the British Museum, while checked off in the copy of the Flora Yirginica of that institution, so that unless recently lost, must be somewhere in the collection, could not be turned up at the time of my visit in 1891, so I am not quite certain that I correctly under- stand it, although Linnseus' supplementary description in Sp. PI. 749 aj^pears to point to the plant, at least in part. In the Lin- nsean herbarium, three sheets are included in violacea. (I) A sheet bearing two good fruiting specimens from Kalm of what I call L. intermedia. (II) A sheet bearing fruiting specimens of L. repens and L. procumbens, besides a specimen of Desmodiuni paniculatum. (Ill) A sheet not marked by Linnaeus bearing two specimens of the plant here accepted as violacea, annotated by Smith "divergent, Ms. B." So as illustrated by his own her- barium the species is comjDlex, but the sisecimens are not the tA'pes of the species. It is sometimes troublesome to distinguish between this species and L. repens. The erect habit, larger leaves which scarcely show any tendency towards the obovate form and the branching inflorescence with few-flowered clusters, the larger, longer and less pubescent pod are characters, which, when taken togethei', will always mark it as distinct. Barton appears from the few specimens preserved illustrating his Prodromus of the Flora of Philadelphia to have confounded the two. I have not seen Persoon's specimens, but his description points satisfactorily to the plant understood by me as violacea. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 63 5. Lespedeza Stuvei, Nutt. Lespedeza Stuvei, 'Nuit. Gen. ii. 107 (1818). Erect or ascending, simple and wand-like or sometimes slightly branched, densely velvet}' or downy-pubescent all over, 2°_4° high. Stipules subulate, 2"— 3" long ; petioles commonly much shorter than the leaves ; leaflets oval, oblong or suborbicular, obtuse or retuse at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base, G" — 10" or rarely 15" long ; flowers of both kinds in nearly sessile, axillary clusters ; corolla jDiirple, 2" — 3" long ; pod ovate-oblong, acute, 2" — 3" long, downy- pubescent. Dry soil, Long Island [Wheelock] to Virginia, west to Michi- gan, and Missouri. The species is represented among the Gronovian plants at the British Museum by a specimen from Clayton with the following label : " Medicago cavile erecto, vix ramoso, racemo dense spicato terminato, Gron. Fl. Virg. 86." It does not seem to have been taken up by Linnaeus. Var. angustifolia, n. var. Leaves linear or linear-oblong, obtuse, mucronulate. New Jersey and Southern Pennsylvania to North Carolina, Missouri and Texas. Both the species and the variety have the habit of developing pubescent hard obliquely ovoid bodies 1" — 2" long at the t)ases of some of the leaves; these I take to be abortive branches. I have observed them on L. reticulata as well. It is possible that further collection and study of these two forms may afford characters sufficient for the recognition of the variety here proposed as a species. It has been suggested that Stuvei is a hybrid between violacea and hirta, but I see no proba- bility of this being true. 6. Lespedeza intermedia (S. Wats). L. reticulata, S. Wats. Bibliog. Index, 233 (1878) not Pers . L, Stuvei, YSiY. intermedia, S. Wats., in A. Gray, Man. Ed. 6, 147 (1889). Eedvsarum frutescem, L. Sp. PI. 748 (1753), not Lespedeza " frutescens, Ell. Sketch Bot. S. C, ii., 206 (1824). 64 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 9 Erect, simple or branched, finely appressedpnbescent or glabrate, 1°— 3° high. Stipules subulate, 2' —3" long ; petioles equalling or shorter than the leaves ; leaflets oval, oblong or elliptic, obtuse, truncate or retuse at the apex, nar- rowed or rounded at the base, G" — 18" long, glabrous and dark green above, paler and pubescent beneath ; flowers of both kinds in nearly sessile, axillary clusters, generally crowded towards the summit of the stem ; corolla purple, 2" — 3" long ; jjod ovate-oblong, acute or mucrouate, jDubesceut, about 2" long. Dr}^ soil, Ontario and New England to Michigan, south to Florida, Illinois, Arkansas, and Texas. I have to disagree with Dr. Sereno "Watson as to the alliance of this plant with L. Stuvei. If reducable to a variety at all, a position which is not here accepted, it is more nearly related to L. Virginica. I have not been able to associate any available name with the species older than the one given it by Dr. Watson. The Linnrean Hedysai'tim frufe.iceu!< is clearly the same plant, as illus- trated by the Gronovian specimen on which it is based in the herbarium of the British Museum, bearing the following label, which is the name cited by Linnaeus : " Hedysarum foliis terna- tis subovatis, caule frutescente, Gron. Fl. Virg. 174.'' In Dr. Watson's Bibliographical Index, p 233, Hedymrnm reiicidatum of Willd. Sp. PL iii. 1194 is cited as an equivalent of both this form and the following species, from which I distinguish it primarily by its broader leaves, and while the geograj^hical distribution of the two appears to be substantially the same I have not seen them growing in very close proximity. Forms occur with flowers all petaliferous, others with all apetalous and others bearing various proportions of both kinds. 7. Lespedeza Virginica (L.). Medicago Virginica, L. Sp. PI. 778 (1753). Hedymrum reticulalum, Muhl. in Wllld. Sp. PI. iii. 1194 (1803). Lp.:^pedeza sesnili flora, Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 70 (1803). Lespedeza reticulala, Pers. Syn. ii. 318 (1807). L. violacea, var. angudifolia, T. & G, Fl. N. A. i. 367 (1840). HedyHarumjanceum, Walt. Fl. Car. 185 (1788) not L. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 65 Erect, slender, simple and wand-like or branched, resem- bling the preceding species. Leaflets linear or oblong-linear, 6" — 18" long, 1" — 2^" wide, truncate, obtuse or some- times acute at the apex, finely pubescent or glabrate on both surfaces ; clusters of both kinds of flowers sessile, crowded in the upper axils ; pod ovate, acute, 2" long, pubescent or nearly glabrous. Dry soil, Massachusetts to Minnesota, south to Florida, and Texas. This is based on " Medicago caule erecto ramosissimo, flor- ibus fasciculatus terminalibus," Gron. Fl. Virg. 86. This type is preserved in the herbarium of the British Museum of Natural History. Linnfeus cites as a synonym "Loto affiuis trifoliata frutescens glabra, Pluk. Mant. 120," but the specimen of this preserved among Plukenet's plants, also at the British Museum of Natural History, is L. capilata, Michx. The type of Hedymriim reticulation is a plant sent by Muhlen- berg to Willdeuow. I have not seen it, but it was evidently seen by either Dr. Torrey or Dr. Gray as the reference to Will- deuow' s name in the Flora of North America is followed by an exclamation mark. Lespedeza [t^essiliffora, Michx. is preserved in Herb. Michaux. Persoon's L. reticulata I have not seen, but his description is satisfactory. Hedysarum junceum, Walt, is not preserved in Walter's Herbarium at the British Museum of Natural History. The calyx teeth of the petaliferous flowers of this species are quite long, sometimes equalling the pod. 8. Lespedeza hirta (L.) Ell. Hedysarum hirfum, L. Sp. PI. 748 (1753). Lespedeza pohjdachya, Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer. ii. 71 (1803). Lespedeza hirta, Ell. Sketch Bot. S. C. ii. 207 (1824). Erect or ascending, rather stout, generally branching above, villous or silky-pubescent, 2°— 4° high. Stipules subulate, 1" — 2i^" long ; petioles shorter than the leaves ; leaflets oval or suborbicular, obtuse at each end, sometimes emarginate at the apex, 6"— 2' long ; peduncles elongated, usually much exceeding the leaves; heads oblong, rather dense, y^i—iy^' long ; flowers all complete ; corolla yellowish-white or the standard purple spotted, about 3" long ; pod oblong, acute, very pubescent, about equalling or slightly exceeding the calyx-lobes. Transactions M. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. March I6th, 1893. 66 TKANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 9 Drv soil, Ontario to Florida, west to Illinois, Minnesota, and Louisiana, This is one of the most strongly marked and easily recogniz- able species. It is based on " Trifolium fruticosum hirsutum, spicis oblongis pedunculatis," Gronov. Fl. Virg. 173. There is a sj^ecimen of it from Kalm in the Linnsean herbarium. L. polystachi/a, Michx. is preserved in Herb. Michaux, and it appears from the description to be the plant of Elliott. The var. .'3. 82 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 30 • But when this rounded model (made from two pieces of a cigar box, glued together flatwise, but with a sheet of paper between them) is split apart, thus, we have two boomerangr., each flat on one side and round on the other, and in this simple change of configuration they possess the quality of returning flight to a surprising degree. In this shape they are fit for use only in sport. In the course of time discoverers reached Australia, and it is not to be wondered at that the earlier descriptions do not dis- criminate between these two distinct shapes and uses of the boomerang. In an old engraving published by J. Stockdale, London, 1798, it is named a " wooden sword." Also a drawing by Lesseur in Peron's Atlas calls it "Sabre a' ricochet " ; while Dawson calls it the " boomerang or stick with which they throw their spears." Another early explorer, Mr. Ogle, enlightens us by stating that " in every part of this great continent of Aus- tralia they have the koilee or boomerang (which the ancient Egyptians possessed). . . . It is used by them in skinning animals they have killed." Did the cunning savage purj)osely mislead enquirers? At all events it turns out that there is a wonderful diversity of opinion as to what are its really requisite points of construction, as well as to what is uses were. For instance, we read from the " Natural History of Man." by J. G.Wood, M.A.,F.L.S., etc., that "the various ])oiuts which constitute the excellence of the missile are so slight, that there is scarcely an European that can see them . . . ." And he speaks at length of the wonderful care and whole days of patience required to make a good one, and of the powerful effect produced by a single chip in the making. It is surprising to note how mere irregularities, inseparable from the crude work of the savage, have, under the miscroscopic gaze of investigators, been magnified into all-important essen- tials. For instance, no less an authority than Lieut.-Col. Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Surveyor-General of Australia, who studied the boomerang minutely, was the Jir^t to discover (1846) in the uneven splitting of the bent limb, of which it was usually made, its hitherto deeply hidden secret, as he thought at least, viz. : That this uneven splitting was in reality a carefully icroiight screw-shape warp or tivist, whence its wonderful powers. Sir Thomas (like some of the rest of us) had an eye to bene- fiting mankind, and he applied what he called the " Boomerang Principle" to a new form of proj^eller for steam vessels, and actually patented the same in England and America in 1818. 1893 ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 83 You may find in the dusty tomes of the Patent Office his inter- esting specifications, wherein he puts it on record that " Tbe * Bommareng ' (as he spelled it), is a remarkable species of mis- sile in use amongst the savages of Australia, and is a bent blade, so warped as to form a portion of a screw." Brande & Cox, in the " Dictionary of Science and Art," speak rather vaguely of this invention as "the plane of a screw equally poised obliquely about a balanced centre." But as one writer naively says, "The idea never found favor with ship builders." But Sir Thomas had, among theorists, at least, a warm and enthusiastic following — perspiring, I might add, for one professor narrates how he stood over a pot of boiling water for two hours in order to give to a boomerang he was making its requisite warp. Prof. Erdmann, of Berlin, in Poggeudorft's Annalen (1868) records how he found this essential warp or twist to amount to exactly 17 centimeters — about 20 degrees. Prof. Werner Stille says also in Poggendorff 's Annalen (1872), " The essential parts in fact are the warped surface ; when the instrument rotates in the air this surface acts similar to a screw or to the sweep of a wind-mill." But he adds, '' The problem can only be considered as solved when we possess the equations of the curves described by the instrument — the solution has not hitliefto been successfully made." And he proceeds to make it and wields the process of the calculus through some sixteen pages of convincing (?) calculations, based upon the warped surface. Lieut.-Gen. Pitt Rivers, F.E.S., \nihe Anthropological Journal, says, "The form of the returning boomerang, its curve, its twist, and its peculiar section, have long been known. It has a slight lateral twist, by means of which it is caused to rise in. the air." We read also in Smyth's "Aborigines of Victoria": "I never saw a wonguim (the boomerang that returns), made by the natives of Victoria, that was not twisted." And again, Carl Lumholtz, M.A., member of the Eoyal Society of Science, of Norway, in his book, (Among Cannibals " (1889), says : " The peculiarit}' of the boomerang, that it returns of itself to the thrower, depends on the fact that it is twisted ; the twisting is accomplished by j^utting it in water and then heating it in the ashes, and in finally bending it ; but this warp must be occasionall}' renewed."' Thus by eminent authorities the screw twist assumes a posi- tion of even greater importance among the so-called essential qualities of a good boomerang than that of the rounded upper surface. We express no wonder at the mistakes of early explor- 84 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 30 ers, but what sliall we say to these more recent aud most eminent authorities, if it shall turn out that our ideal boomerang not only has both sides flat, and no round side at all, but that each flat side is wholly within one plane, and each parallel to the other? We thus exclude all possibility of a screw-shape warp or twist. The fact is, the boomerang takes its paradoxical path, not because but in spite of a screAv-shape twist, the existance of which may be easily accounted for. Every farmer's boy knows that a round limb will split in half ; i. e., through the heart easier than any other way ; and that the split will follow the grain. Now the great difficulty would be not to get a stick that would split twisting, but one that would not. Indeed, nature is so gracefully easy in her ways that it would be next to im- possible to find the limb of a tree so precise in growth that its split side would be all in one plane. Every skilled mechanic knows that it takes tools aud machines of the utmost precision, results of the highest skill in the art, to bring any material sur- face into a perfect plane. How then could the Australian savage, from almost the lowest race of mankind, avoid a warp in his split boomerang ? You have a warped board. Wet it uj)on the concave side and apply heat to the convex side and you straighten it. Could it be that the wetting and heating which Prof. Lumholtz observes was not to warp, but to lessen or correct a natural defect in the siDlit boomerang? Prof. Joseph Lovering, of Harvard University, read a pajier before the American Academy of Arts and Science in 1859. He makes some very acute observations concerning the inclination of the throw and its consequences. His calculations were based U150U an element of "back pressure," resulting from the " throw," to solve the problem. One final instance of the black man's remarkable ingenuity finding an answer to the black man's puzzle, occurs in a recent number of Scribneys Jllar/azine, and is as follows : "The secret of its peculiar flight is to be found, not so much in its general form, as in its surface. This, on examination, is found to be slightly waving and broken up by various angles. These angles balance and counter-balance each other ; some by causing differences in the pressure of air on certain parts give steadiness of flight and firmness ; others give buoyancy, and each has general!}^ to be determined practically by experimental throwing — when these dents or angles are properly arranged, the boomerang goes through the air somewhat as a screw pvo- peller goes through the water," etc. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 85 It is 110 longer that the boomerang must have equations for a peculiar curve ; it is not that its points of excellence are so slight that Europeans can scarcely see them ; it is not that its top rounded side brings it under Newton's proposition 34: ; it is not that it must have a screw-shape twist ; it is not that an element of back pressure unveils the mystery ; but the secret of its magic power is now found to reside in a great multitude of little " dents " chipped from its surface. And so the magnifying of inherent faults or imperfections into qualities of the greatest importance, culminates in this curious way, while in fact, as I believe, these "dents" are but the evidences of rude and ijrimitive knife cuts — possibly scooped out by a sea shell or an opossum's tooth, for want of better tools, and are of aesthetic or duthropological rather than of mathematical interest ; with no further import than the much prized hammer marks in antique brass. It is these varying and contradictory theories that constitute for the most part what I have already termed the somewhat astonishing literature of the boomerang. I have reviewed them because it is necessary to rid our minds of their influence. Not that I have the presumption to intimate, even remotely, that a good physicist needs to have this pointed out to him by me, but principally because good physicists have evidently never attemped a solution of the difliculties, and so have, possibly, by their mere inattention, permitted thoroughly competent mathe- matical skill and effort to be wasted upon a misapprehended basis of fact, rei3orted by presumbly competent authority. Few people, comparatively, have ever seen a boomerang, and fewer still have ever studied it, or seen it thrown. What, then, could be more misleading than to liken the motions of a boom- erang to the sweep of the oblique of a wind-mill ? or worse still, to say that it goes through the air somewhat as a screw propeller goes through the water? The screw of a propeller rotates edgewise, but the progress of the screw is bodily, along with the ship, " broad set to the door,'' so to speak. The two motions are in different planes, at right angles with each other, whereas both motions of the boomerang are edgewise, in the same general plane and direc- tion, and cannot be compared to the progress of a screw propeller in water, except to utterly mislead the mind. Comparatively few writers on the subject have taken the pains to go beyond the matter of shape, and look into the element of artiiicially applied force and motion, for the true solution of its action. A paper published in the "Journal of the Eoyal ruitecl 86 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 30 Service Institution " in 18()9, by A. H. Lane Fox, who, by the ■way, is the same personality as Pitt Rivers, F. R. S , already quoted, correctl}' states one of the principles of action in the boomerang as parallelism of axis. This was, however, first published I believe by an American, Prof. Snell of Amherst, in 1855, in a lecture on "Planetary Disturbances," in which he said: " We find an elegant illustration of this tendency to parallel- ism of axis in the boomerang." But "Parallelism of Axis" is a condition of free motion, and so we are brought to consider the elements of artificially applied force and motion as something of the very first importance. And here we confront another surprising fact in the literature of the boomerang, viz., no mechanical means of any kind, so far as I can find, has hitherto been devised to make repeated projections under similar conditions as crucial tests. Evidently, then, the first stej) to be taken was to supply this deficiency. The usual lecture-room expedient of striking a cardboard boomerang from the side of a book, is against good mechanical principles for obtaining extended flights. The mechanism should stimulate the action of the human arm — the most perfect catapult ever devised — but unlike the arm its motive power must be subject to being held indefinitely to the same line on a graduated scale. Such, in a general way, I decided in my mind, should be the characteristics of a machine to make tests. The next step was to adapt the details of construction to the theoretically best form of missile. But that form had first to be determined. Theorj^ alone, unaided by additional experi- ment, finds reasons (as will be apparent) to decide against the necessity of either a screw-shape warp or twist or convex upper surface. So, to make a first experiment, I went to a planing mill and selected a thin, hard maple board, and had it planed down to an even thickness. The thought struck me that possibly the cycloidal curve for advancing outline would cause the minimum of air resistance. I constructed a slightly prolate cycloid, with a centroid of 4^^ inches, giving me an outline of about 16 inches. Instead of ending the curve abruptl}' at the base line, I added a spur to each end below the line, shai^ed somewhat like the prow of a boat. This received no secret touch in making. A prosaic jig-saw shaped it and left its edges square and rough . I sharpened the pioneer edges slightly to better cleave the air, taking care not to disturb the cycloidal outline of the under or bearing surface. As a precaution against being warped or twisted by exj)osure I soaked it in oil .and turpentine, and varnished it. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 87 Here, then, is a theoretical boomerang. "Will it go? Permit me to add here what may strike you as a curious oversight. Up to this time T had never seen a boomerang to notice it. In the light of all I had read about the extreme difficulty of making a good one, I took good care that no one was around to observe my first attempt at hand throAving. The narrative may interest joa. I found an open space behind a pile of lumber. I looked all about. I was alone. I determined to make a light throw at first, and the first thing that astonished me was the comj^ara- tively enormous distance that it travelled upon a slight impulse. Its weight was less than two ounces, and yet it went over 200 feet away. It rose swiftly in the air, whirling and flashing in the sunlight, and, as I thought, extremel}' beautiful in the graceful ease of its motions. And could I believe my eyes! Yes ! it was coming back. It fell within a yard or two of my feet. I picked it up, fully as delighted as ever that black savage could have been who stumbled upon its first discovery, and became a blessing to his race. I have so far carefully noted inaccuracies in defining the characteristic motions of the boomerang. Permit me to add still further of the distinct peculiarity of the boomerang : That in its motion of translation, its axis of figure turns longitudinally with it — a requii-ement as incompatible with the proper action of a wind-mill or a screw propeller as tipping a wheelbarrow bodily, end over end, would be difficult comj^ared with its proper use. Its real motions, then, correctly apprehended, practically ■constitute the instrument an aeroplane, pure and simple, in which no screw-shape warp or convex surface is required. It is a projectile with an excessive sensitiveness to atmos- pheric influences, to be controlled in flight by the qualitative and quantitative character of the mechanical projection to be imparted to it. What shall be the ratio of the speed of gyra- tion to that of transition? Is there a limit to attain? For I am seeking to obtain an ideal flight by mechanical means. That is to say, one which shall be straight away, shall rise and soar and return, without veering far from a vertical plane. It is well known that the flight of the Australian boomerang is invariably in a more or less circular orbit. Its motions when thrown by the hand are comparatively slow. I therefore furnished my machine with the means of increasing the speed at will, and of adjusting the relative speed of one motion to the other. In this connection it may be interesting to note the remark- able discovery of Scott Eussell, viz : 88 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 30 That the speed of the propagation of the free, soHtary wave in water, was the definite speed at which a horse could draw a canal boat more easily than at any other speed whatever, be it less or greater, because it agitated the water less. With these considerations noted, I pass to a brief reference to the results of actual experiments. I found that the possible variation of the flat figure in a boomerang within certain limits, was practically inexhaustible. The limit at which boomerang action was the least noticeable was the flat circular disc. In a general way it was most apparent in the shape in which much the greater part of its outline of figure oscillated from one side to the other of its centre of gyration, while even a flat, rectilinear figure developed a well-marked effort to return. My best results were with the cycloidal missile, which had an area of from 12 to 15 square inches to the ounce in weight, used with a throwing arm whose radius was 14 inches, in which the biceps muscle was represented by a spring tension of about 25 pounds. Under these conditions the straight return was repeatedly accomplished. But if the spring tension was carried to a point largely in excess of the amount noted for the same boomerang, the outward flight was one of great swiftness and precision ; but the subsequent result was truly astonishing. After reaching its outward limit, and after starting well back upon its return, it swept suddenly round again in the direction of its rotation, and started forward upon a second onward flight, like our late comet, waltzing from one vortex to another. Finally it retui-ned in a wide circle to the left. Before passing to a conclusion, possibly some further explana- tory considerations of the foregoing facts and experiments . may not be without interest. First, as to original defects : Quintillian has said : " Everything which art has brought to perfection had its origin in nature." And while in the case of the boomerang its origin may have been in nature, I believe it was not one of intent, but of accident. And the reason why the obscure defects, with which accident endowed it at its birth grew to be actually regarded as essential qualities, I believe was simply because neither art nor science had devised any mechanical or crucial tests to take the place of the variable and unreliable hand throwing. The effect of a slight change in the impulse is greatly exaggerated in the flight ; and as no man can be quite sure of throwing a missile twice alike by his arm alone,, the effect of inherent faults could not easily escape detection. Second, as to experiments with various forms : 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 89 lu the case of the circular disc referred to, its tendency was to develop a spiral trajectory, in which lirst one side and then the other was uppermost, as if there was no such thing as "parallelism of axis ' to disturb its sinuous inclination. But it is almost impossible to produce some of the finer details of action in the restricted experiments of a limited space, and this is one of them. You may have to watch sharp to detect this peculiar tendency of the circular disc. When I throw it from Ihis position, its rotation will be from right to left, and it will be its leit side that will gradually rise in its effort to develop a spiral trajectory — thus : If I reverse my position the other edge will rise thus : A lucky throw, you observed ; it turned completely over before striking the wall. Possibly this is partly due to the fact that it is more difficult to give this figure a high rate of free gyratory speed, but mostly to the fact that the motion of g^-ration on one side is in the direction of its progress, and thus directly opposed by the atmospheric resistance to progress, while at the same moment of time the other side turning in an opposite direction receives less resistance to its circular motion, and the side meeting the least resistance is forced upward by the imnd of advance, until it passes the vertical, and the opposite side succeeding to that position finds its own motion less opposed, and rises in its turn, and so the spiral motion is made continuous. Obviously this effect is present in the least degree in the boomerang missile which at a given instant of time has the larger part of its exterior outline figure upon one side of its centre of gyration. It is present also in any figure in which the parts may be on the other hand symmetrically disposed about the centre of gyration, but such that the wind of advance does not meet an unbroken surface, but has an opportunity to slip over some part of the upper surface, as you may observe when I throw these forms (which, of course, only show to a much less degree the power to return). In the true boomerang the oscillating of its frictional outline of figure about the centre of gyration, breaks or intermits the continuous effect of the wind of advance, which i^roduces in the circular disc the tendency to a spiral trajectory. It explains the cause of that remarkable effect which adds so greatly to the charming beauty of the boomerang flight, and which has been the cause of considerable speculation hitherto in the minds of 90 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [J AN. 30 investigators, referred to bj' various writers as the "nutation of its axis." You observe this form returns directly to my feet. Referring again to the matter of definite speed, ilkastrated by Scott Russell's discovery for the medium of water, I quote from Prof. S. P. Langley, of the Smithsonian Institution, who makes the entirely new proposition in a recent publication, entitled "Experiments in Aerodynamics," viz.: That for a body moving in air ' ' the more rapid the motion is, the less will be the power required to support and advance it up to some remote limit not yet attained by experiment." In this connection I venture the belief that this limit of speed has been attained for the boomerang in my exjDeriments. I have not the time to quote various authorities concerning one particularly remarkable phenomenom of the boomerang flight. So far as I can find, no explanation has been offered for it. I refer to what is usually called its reverse curve. For instance, all observers agree that the invariable result of a right handed throw is a more or less circular orbit — to the left, in the direction of its rotation. But at the end of its return course it makes a reverse curve— opposite to the direction of its rotation — the return flight tracing an imaginary letter S. I have never found a hint of its solution in the plentiful theories existing, and its cause seemed a most tantalizing and hoj^eless m}' stery, until the requirement of a definite speed dawned upon me. Then it was clear. The acceleration of its return speed, under the law of falling bodies, is sufficient to reach the definite speed required to make the boomerang soar. That is, its advancing edge is again lifted by the wind of advance as it nears the earth. Its right-handed throw gives it an inclination which it will retain throughout its course, and so it again veers to the left. But as its course is now reversed from the direction of its outward flight, of course its curve is reversed. One object of my experimentation was to attain an ideal boomerang flight ; that is to say, one in which the two motions could be so nicely adjusted, that its return flight should termi- nate just at the moment it second soaring speed should be attained, thus avoiding the reverse curve, adapting it in short target practice, wherein the target is behind the shooter. Another object was in a different direction, and in its ^Jursuit I have developed certain refinements of configuration, which are most beautifullj' adapted to illustrate certain other principles involved, exceedingly interesting in their nature, but as my time is about up, and as their application to a possible useful purpose has not yet reache'd a stage to warrant their disclosure, 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 91 I will leave the further consideration of the subject to some future occasion. I will add, however, that Prof. Langley (already quoted) has in the same publication tabulated the speed at which planes of varing angles of inclination must be driven against the air to rise and " soar," as he exj^resses it. But in his experiments a rigid arm stretched out to keep his Aeroplane constant in its field of action, and if we imagine that this support is instantly severed, just as the proper speed to cause the plane to " soar "is attained, the result is disastrous to a continuous flight. Unless the plane is whirling, atmospheric resistance immediately upsets it, and it falls in fantastic curves, lifeless and inert, like a kite with a suddenly severed string. I have stated that my boomerang is a whirling aerojilane, pure and simple. And now that we have ascertained a definite speed to cause it to soar, it is obvious that it cannot do other- wise than return in a backward flight, after it progressive force is spent. It happened that in explaining the principles involved to an enquiring friend, I used the terra a " Gyrostatic domination." He seemed to be quite satisfied for the time, but after a moment's thoughtfulness he said : ' ' Doubtless you are right — but I'll be hanged if I can see what makes it come back." I offered once a little prize for the best answer as to what makes it come back, and I was favored with a large amount of of correspondence from all sorts of people, but the most of them rehearsed that abominable description in the cyclopedias, about the oblique bars of the wind-mill, but the most remark- able one of all, in fact the one which truly solved the problem in the fewest words was from a mere child, and it was original. It was a follows : * ' Dear Mr. Emerson : " I am a little boy nine years old. God makes the boomerang come back." So to soar a little in amplification of this dear little fellow's answer, it may be said that the same invisible arm which stretches out with subtle power to hold the ponderous worlds in their awful flight, gently upbears in open palm this simple piece of whirling wood till its orbit is comjilete. But to descend to more definite and solid English, I prefer the term " gyrostatic domination " to " parallelism of axis " in exi^ressing tins sustaining force. " Fixity of the plane of rota- tion " may be equally expressive. If, then, we give to our whirling Aeroplane the definite speed required to cause it to 92 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 30 soar, its fixity in the plaue of rotation will hold it constant to its original inclination, while the wind of advance will lift its forward edge, and at its utmost reach of progressive force, still whirling swiftly, it "touches the button," if you will pardon the expression, for its return, and gravity ' ' does the rest, ' ' sliding it down to Mother Earth along the line of least resist- ance, which is the direction of its inclination, caused by the wind of advance. It is a somewhat singular fact that after several years of experiments with a great variety of shapes, the one which I have selected as best suited to popular use, is the same figure with which my first experiment was made, built upon the theory of its requirements. And I must add, that as against the unqualified assertions of very eminent authorities, viz. : That it is " impossible to aim accurately with the returning boome- rang," quite an astonishing degree of accuracy may be attained by the methods which I pursued. And it is this shape which makes possible the statement at the beginning of this pajjer, for it has not one of the enumerated essential features of the Australian Boomerang. Its curve is not parabolic ; it has no convex upper side ; it is not thickest in the middle ; it has no warp or twist, and it is not dented. "While I leave something interesting untold, I will, however, add in a general way in conclusion, that I believe my ai^plication of the principles involved will solve the problem of " stability ' for the " Ariators," which they have so long sought in vain, and for the want of which their models of flying machines, though they would rise without the aid of a bouyancy chamber of any sort, were quite as likely to proceed end over end or wrong side up, as the right yvaj. My belief is based ujDon the fact that a small flying model of my own make, not only proceeded right side up, but it alighted gently upon its feet, so to si^eak, every time. And so it mav be said that this " scientific vagabond," as the boomerang has been called, has been carrying around with it a secret, Avhich, let us hope, may some day serve a useful purpose for the good of mankind. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 93 February 6, 1893. Eegular Business Meeting. Vice-Presicleut Dr. Bolton in the chair. About fifteen persons present. The minutes of January 9tb were read and approved. The following persons were elected Resident Members : Prof, William Hallock, Mr. Delancey W. Ward. Mr. Ossian Guthrie, of Chicago, was elected a Coi*respondiug Member. Prof. D. S. Martin announced the death of F. A. Genth, a Corresponding Member, and remarked on his important contri- butions to mineralogy and chemistry. Astronomical Section. The Section was called to order at 8:15 p. m., Prof. Rees in the chair. • The minutes of the previous meeting Avere read and approved. The Secretary called attention to a subscrijition in aid of the memorial to Gauss and Weber, which is to be erected at Gottingen, and offered to receive and forward contributions. Mr. Jacoby annovinced that the Rutherford photographic measures of the stars surrounding /3Cygn\ showed certain dis- cordances which seem to indicate the existence of a large parallax for this star. The formal paper of the evening was then read as follows : A Theory of the Formation of Lunar Craters. BY G. K. gilbert. (abstract. ) The theory agrees with the meteoric theories of Proctor, Meydenbauer and others in that it ascribes the craters io the 9 J: TKANSATIONS OF THE [FeB. 6 impact of bodies colliding -witla tlie moou. It differs as to the previous bistort' of the iucident bodies. It postulates as the antecedent of the moon an annulus of many small bodies surrounding and revolving about the earth as does the ring of Saturn about that planet. The comi:)onents of this ring after- ward segregated so as to constitute a smaller number of larger bodies, and finally a single body — the moon. The craters of the moon's surface, large and small, are the impact scars of those minor aggregates which were last captured by the moon. After the moon had acquired approximately its present mass the velocity of impact for bodies of the s^^stem was about 7700 ft. per second. The energy due to this velocity, if converted into heat, was more than sufficient to fuse the colliding body, assum- ing that bod}"- to have the specific heat and fusing point of diabase. The impacts of small bodies seem to have produced deformation without fusion ; but in the impacts of larger bodies more energy was applied to each unit of surface, and parts of projectile and target were fused, producing the level plains of the larger craters. The recoil of the liquified and softened rook toward the centre produced the central hill characteristic of lunar craters. The corrugated rim of the typical lunar crater is due to outward thrust ; the inward facing cliff overlooking the inner slope, and the broken terraces below it, are due to land slips, a part of the rim falling back into the fused tract. The round maria, such as M. Crisium and M. Serenitatis, are regarded as large craters, and the Caucasus-Appenine-Car- jDathian mountain chain as the remnant of a crater rim with a radius of 400 miles. Certain parts of the surface are observed to be sculj^tured by an agency acting along lines which, for each locality, are nearly l^arallel. Grooves are plowed, crater riujs are notched, and ridged additions appear to have been made to the surface. The same districts have been flooded by liquid and viscous matter, diminishing the depth of the larger craters, obliterating the small craters, partly tilling cracks (rills), and afterward solidify- ing. In some low-lying districts the more liquid part of this matter collected, producing plains of the second order of magnitude and ever maria. The lines ol sculpture of these districts radiate from a point in the Mare Imbrium. It is believed that the collision of a large moonlet at this place, under circumstances causing much fusion, hurled a deluge of molten and fragmental rock in all directions, flooding and partially remodeling a fourth part of the visible face of the moon. The central tract of the moon lies within the flooded. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 95 area, and to this fact is ascribed the often noted contrast between its topography and that of tbe " honeycomb '' district about the south pole. The paper is to be printed in full in the Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington. Remarks were made by Dr. Bolton, Me. Jacoby and Prof. Rees. February 13, 1893. Stated Meeting. Biological Section. A paper on the ' ' Functions of the Internal Ear" was presented by Dr. F. S. Lee, based upon study of dog-fish. The results of experiments were given showing that the semi-circular canals are sensory organs for d^-namical (rotational) equilibrium, otolithic parts for statical (resting) equilibrium. Each canal appreciates movement in its own plane, and by a definite functional combination of canals all possible rotational move- ments are mediated. This theory explains compensating movements of eyes, fins and trunks. The method of experiment was that of sectioning the branches of the acoustic nerve and stimulation (by rotational movements) of the swimming fish. In a paper by Dr. Bashford Dean, on the Marine Laboratories of Europe, a series of views were shown of the stations of Naples, Banyuls, Roscoff, Plymouth, Arcachon, the Helder, and St. Andrews. Prof. H. F. Osborn described the foot of Arlionyx, the new member of the order Ancylopoda, Cope. It is distinguished from Chalicolherium by the character of ancle and ]ies, which present a marked resemblance to the Artiodact_\]a, while Chalicolherium represents these structures as found in Perisso- dactyla. Both genera are ungulate in ancle joint, but the phalanges terminate in claws, and in view^ of the double parallel- ^6 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 20 ism between these two forms and the two sub-divisions of Ungulates, it was suggested to divide the Ancylopoda into the Artionychia and Perissonychia. February 20, 1893. Stated Meeting, Vice-President Dr. Bolton in the chair. One hundred and fifty persons present. Mr. Courtenay De Kalb, E.M., delivered a lecture, entitled " Three Thousand Miles Up the Amazon," illustrated by lantern views. An the close of the discourse a vote of thanks was tendered the lecturer. February 23, 1893. Special Meeting. Section of Geology and Mineralogy. President O. P. Hubbard in the chair. Mr, Kunz remarked a new discovery of topaz crystals from Palestine, Texas, and exhibited an electrotype of one. The crystals are being measured, and will be described in full elsewhere. Mr. Kunz also announced the discovery of a meteoric stone in Phillips Couuty, Kansas, of unusual size. The following j^apers were read : 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 97 A GEOLOGICAL RECONNOISSANCE IN THE VICINITY OF GOUVERNEUR, N. Y. BY C, H. SMYTH, JR., HAMILTON COLLEGE. Introihictory. — Thoup-li noted for their minerals, tlie northern counties of New York have received little attention from geologists since first described by Emmons*. Indeed, the same may be said of most of the Adirondack region, of which these counties are, topograj^hically and geologically, an essential part. Questions in regard to the ages of certain formations have been discussed by Huntf, Brooks^, Hall§, and Walcott||, while j^the iron ores have been described by Smock^. But so much of the region remains practically undescribed that it does not seem out of place to present briefly some results of an examina- tion of a limited area lying in the towns of Gouverneur and Fowler, St. Lawrence County. Topography. — Throughout the region examined the relation between the geological structure and the topography is evident. The larger hills are composed of tough gneiss, while the valleys are excavated in limestone. The smaller elements of topography follow the same rule, the alternations of hard and soft strata inclined at high angles producing numerous short, steep ridges, trending northeast, in accordance with the general strike of the region. These ridges usually consist of bare rock and rise al)ruptly from flat meadows, which are often swampy. The maximum relief hardly exceeds four hundred feet, while the elevation above sea level reaches about eight hundred feet. Glacial deposits are of limited extent and exert little influence upon the topography, as compared with the effects produced in more southern portions of the State. The region is drained by the Oswegatchie River, a consider- able stream, rising in Cranberr}^ Lake, in the southern portion of the county. Below Gouverneur village the river's course shows a marked dependence upon rock structure, the stream flowing in several large loops roughly parallel to the strike. * Emmons, E., Geology of N. Y.. 2d District. t Hunt, T. S., 'ilst Ann. Kept. Regents University of New York, p. 88. t Brooks. T. B., American Journal of Science iii., IV., p. 22. § Rail, J., American Journal of Science, iii., XII., p. 298. II Walcott, C. D., Bulletin 81, U. S. G. S., p. 207. H Smock, J. C, Bulletin 7, N. Y. State Museum. Transactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. April 10, 1893. 98 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 The same trend is shown in the lakes north of the Oswegatchie, notably in Yellow and Black lakes, the former lying close to the river and exactly parallel to it. As would be expected, the glacial scorings have the same direction, and it is possible that the ice has been a considerable factor in cutting the valleys ; but of this no proof is at hand. Rock Formation. — The rocks of the district are chiefly gneiss, limestone, sandstone, and granite ; with which are associated limited amounts of iron ores, serpentine, pyroxenic schists, and hornblendic rocks. The areas occupied by the four important formations are roughly outlined upon the accompanying map, which, though , including only a small portion of the region examined, shows the most interesting localities. {jneiss. — The gneiss forms the more elevated portions of the region and is the oldest of the rocks, underlying the other members of the series. It has no characteristics which distinguish it from the gneiss of the southern and western portions of the Adirondack region, unless it be a larger proportion of biotite, as compared with hornblende. The usual color is gray or red, but dark colored basic layers are not uncommon. Veins of quartz and of jjegmatite are abundant, cutting the gneiss in all direc- tions. Jointing is pronounced at many points. The hillside south of Gouverneur village shows a marked step-like structure, due to jointing. North of the village, at E 4, the gneiss shows a large number of small parallel joints, running at right angles to strike and dip, and separating the rock into thin layers. Along some of these joints slipping has occurred, causing miniature faults, with a maximum throw of two feet. These are exhibited with diagramatic perfection, as they displace a black hornblendic layer about one foot wide, enclosed in red gneiss. The gneiss shows no very pronounced effects of weathering. The surface is often roughened by solution of the feldspar, the quartz remaining intact. Oxidation of iron sometimes gives a red or yellow tint, extending to no great depth. Where the rock is coated with moss, the surface layer of perhaps 5mm. thickness is commonly bleached to pure white by decomposing organic matter derived from the moss. The banding and foliation of the gneiss are quite variable, being sometimes very pronounced, and again nearly or quite lacking. As they decrease the gneiss approaches, and some- times passes into true granite. A particularly good example of 1893.] NEW YOEK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 99 One. MUe. MAP OF THE VICINITY OF GODVERNEUE, N. Y. 100 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 this is sliown at B 5, where the strongly foliated gneiss passes by insensible stages into coarse red granite, showing no trace of banding or foliation. It is possible that the granite is younger than the gneiss, the gradual passage from one to the other being due to the finer grain of the intruded rock near the contact and the subsequent effects of dj-uamic metamorphism. But the transition is so gradual that this explanation seen)S improbable, and it is rendered more so by the perfect agreement in the mineralogical composition of the two rocks when examined under the microscope. It seems necessary to regard the gneiss and granite as different phases of the same rock. The cause of the difference may be explained in two ways : either the granite is an unchanged remnant of a plutonic mass from which the gneiss is derived ; or it is a result of fusion of the gneiss by intense metamorphism. For a choice between these two explanations little evidence is at hand. It is, however, a fact that the gneiss of this locality shows unusually pronounced foliation, whence it Avould seem that metamorphism was strong here, and would be more likely to i^roduce fusion than to leave a considerable area unaffected. Limestone. — As shown on the map, a large portion of the region examined is underlain by limestone, which extends in an irregular belt many miles east and west. In age it is evidently next younger than the gneiss. This limestone is the source of most of the interesting minerals of the region, of which tourma- line, amphibole, pyroxene, scapolite, and serpentine are, perhaps, most common. But while these are developed only in certain localities, the limestone nearly everywhere has disseminated through it abundant scales of graphite and light brown mica, sometimes associated with grains of pyrite. The rock varies from dark grey to white, and is always coarsely crystalline. Where large surfaces are exposed a . distinct banding is often apparent, but in most outcrops this is not shown, and the rock presents such a massive appearance that it is impossible to make out the strike and dip. Thus, in spite of numerous outcrops, it is a matter of much difficulty to ascertain the thickness of the formation, and its relations to the underlying and overlying rocks. The limestone is always greatly weathered, the most evident result being a gray to black surface coloration. When pyrite is present a yellow stain extends to some depth. Some curious effects have been produced by solution along the abundant joint planes, many outcrops being completely honeycombed in this way. A rounding of all edges and corners is invariably shown, 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 101 and cavities often contain considerable quantities of rock frag- ments, in which the proj^ortion of insoluble constituents is largely increased. Weathered surfaces often show many projecting lumps of silicates, which ultimately become entirely freed by solution of the surrounding rock. Ilelalion of Limestone to Gneiss. — From a stratigraphic stand- point one of the most important problems of the region is presented in the relation between the limestone and the gneiss. As is well known, Emmons* regarded the limestone as an igneous rock that had broken through the gneiss, which latter he held to be of undoubted sedimentary origin. Brooksf was led by his studies in Rossie to consider the limestone uncon- formable with the gneiss, and in this opinion the later investigators, with the exception of Hunt, seem to coincide. The precise character of the relations between the two forma- tions, however, cannot be definitely settled, until the true nature of the gneiss is determined. If the gneiss is a metamorphosed sedimentary mass, whose foliation and banding are identical with jDlanes of deposition, it must be ascertained whether or no there is discordance between this foliation and banding and the the bedding of the overlying limestone. For several reasons it is difficult to procure exact data bearing upon this point. One of the obstacles is the massive character of the limestone ; another the variability of the gneiss, making it impossible to tell whether or not the limestone is always in contact with the same horizon of this formation. A third difficulty lies in the rarity of contacts between the two formations. Thus, while a general parallelism in the structure of the formations is plainly apparent, it is not easy to decide whether or not there is true conformity. Such a parallelism might readily exist in uncon- formable formations, being the result of two distinct periods of folding in the same direction. But in spite of this general parallelism between the gneiss and limestone, two localities were found that showed a marked discordance, while at several other points this was strongly indicated. This discordance between the bedding of the limestone and the foliation and banding of the gneiss may be general, but before it can be called an unconformity between sedimentary deposits the foliation and banding must be proved to be identi- cal with sedimentary bedding. Until this is done two other suppositions must be considered as possible explanations of , . — .14 * Geology of N. Y., 2d District, p. 37 et seq. t American Journal of Science, iii., IV., p. 23, 102 TRANSATIONS OF THE [FeB. 23^ structure. Either the gneiss is younger than, and has been introduced into, the limestone, or else it is a metamorphosed plutonic rock, which formed the floor of the sea in which the limestone was deposited. The absence of anything like an irruptive contact between the two rocks at once excludes the first sui^position, and therefore the gneiss has been called, without hesitation, the older rock. The second supposition, which has been already mentioned, is somewhat favored by the structural relations of the rocks. Regai'ding the foliation as a secondary feature resulting from pressure, it would natiirally be parallel to the folds of the limestone, which are due to the same cause. The foliation may date from the same period of metamorphism as does the folding, or it may have been complete before the deposition of the limestone. But even in the latter event, it seems probable that the pressure of the second stage of metamorphism would act in the same direction as that of the first, thus leading to a general parallelism between the foliations of the gneiss and the bedding of the limestone. This view of the gneiss as a metamorphosed pkitonic rock seems to afford the simplest explanation of the facts thus far observed, but it cannot be accepted even conditionally until sustained by much more extended investigation. That some j)ortions of the gneiss will j^rove to be of igneous, and other portions of sedimentary, origin, is extremely probable. Schists. — Near the base of the limestone and imbedded with it are some peculiar schistose rocks, which outcrop near the gneiss, north and south of Gouverneur, and again in the village. These schists are variable in color, usually dark, and weather to a rusty color. They offer greater resistance to denuding agents than does the surrounding limestone, and, therefore, form low, steep ridges. Containing feldsj^ar, quartz, biotite, hornblende, and augite, they somewhat resemble igneous rocks in composition, but their field relations indicate that they are of sedimentaiy origin, and have been subjected to metmorphism sufficiently intense to produce complete recrystallization. Sandstone. — Overlying the limestone is a heavy mass of sand- stone, often so much indurated as to be better called quartzite. The color varies from yellow to red, and the grain from very fine to that of coarse conglomerate. The rock outcrops in prominent ridges on both sides of the river, three miles north of Gouverneur^ and extends several miles east and west, but was not traced to a limit in either direction. It is composed chiefly of quartz^ 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 103 with a little mica, and varying quantities of ferric oxide. The latter is sometimes so abundant that that the rock has been mined as an iron ore. Where much folded, the sandstone often has the appearance of a breccia, made up of thin, angular fragments. On close examination, these fragments prove to be bits of sandstone, and the brecciated character is seen to be due to a shattering of the rock by pressure, as stated by Emmons*. It is easy to find every stage between the unchanged rock and that which has been reduced to small fragments, recemented by subsequent infiltration. Comparing this result of pressure with that i^roduced b}- the same cause in the limestone, a marked contrast is presented. In the sandstone the effect is largely mechanical — a breaking of the rock. In the limestone, chemical changes and crystal- lization are the prominent result. Crossbedding on a large scale is very conspicuous in the sandstone, often obscuring the true dip. Concretions also are abundant in some localities, two apparently distinct kinds being- found — small si^herical and large cj^lindrical. The former have been mentioned by Brooksf, the latter by Hough|. The small concretions resemble closely those that are found in many other formations, but the large ones are peculiar. Of cylindrical form, one to twenty feet in diameter, and perhaps six feet, they usually stand perpendicular to the bedding, and their appear- ance is striking. The material of the concretions does not differ from that of the surrounding rock, and the causes are obscure, which explain why it should be arranged as it is, in successive layers, concentric about a line. The age of the sandstone was stated by Emmons to be Potsdam, and such it has been always considered by later writers. Though no fossils have been found in this immediate vicinity, there seems to be no reason for doubting the correctness of this view. Relation of Sandstone to Limestone. — There is some confusion in Emmons' discussion of the relation between the sandstone and the limestone. He classes the limestone as primitive and yet plainly implies that it is younger than the sandstone. For he desci'ibes disturbance and contact metamorphism in the sandstone produced by the supposed intrusion of igneous * Geology of New York, 2d District, page 104. t American Journal of Science, iii., IV., p. 25. t Hough, F.B., 3d Ann. Kept. Kegts. Univ. N. Y., p. 32; also Amer. Associa- tion Proc. IV., p. 362. lOi TEANS ACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 limestone*. In another placef be speaks of the sandstone as lying unconformably upon the primary. Brooks was led by his observations in Kossie, to conclude that the limestone was conformable with the sandstone^, and, therefore, of Lower Silurian, or, as it would now be called, upper Cambrian age. The data upon which Brooks based his conclusion seems to the writer unreliable ; for at Rossie the limestone and sandstone are separated by considerable bodies of iron ore and a peculiar serpentine rock of doubtful origin. Until the true character of this member of the series is ascer- tained, it is unsafe to base conclusions upon observations made at that locality. North of Gouverneur the limestone and sandstone are in direct contact, and opportunity is afforded for a study of their relations. The evidence here presented, though often obscured by the character of the rocks, indicates unconformity. From the irregular line of contact it is clear that the material of the standstone was deposited upon a limestone surface that had been subjected to erosion. An interesting confirmation of this conclusion is seen in the presence of narrow, irregular cracks extending several feet into the limestone and filled with sand- stone, ifvidently the limestone was completely lithified, and not a calcareous ooze, when the sandstone was deposited upon it, and this implies discordance. This unconformity j^roves only that the limestone is older than upper Cambrian. For any more definite determination of its age the data are wanting. Granite.— In the southern part of the area examined granite forms a prominent ridge extending east and west. Besides this main mass, there are many small patches breaking through the limestone, some of these consisting of a pegmatitic variety. Emmons' theory of the igneous origin of limestone was largely based upon the character of the contact between the main body of granite and the surrounding limestone. He regarded the granite as a massive phase of the gneiss, and, holding the latter to be sedimentary, was forced by the undoubted irruptive contact between granite and limestone to look upon the latter as igneous. Were the identity of gneiss and granite a fact, ready explanation of the origin of the former would be a * Geology of N. Y., 2(1 District, p. 53. t Fourtli Ann. Report, Geol. Survey of N. Y., p. 322. t American Journal of Science, iii., IV., p. 22. 1893.] NEW YOEK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 105 aflforded. But such is not the case; tliey are entirely distinct, the granite being younger. This conclusion is not based upon actual contact relations between the two rocks, for no contact was found. But it is believed tbat the marked difference in petrographic character and degree of metamorphisni affords sufficient evidence for regarding the fonnations as distinct. The granite of the main ridge was traced, with occasional breaks, over a distance of ten miles, without reaching a limit. The height of the ridge varies from nothing up to two hundred feet, the width averaging perhaps a quarter of a mile. A peculiar topographic feature is j^resented in the presence of several basins in the ridge, partially enclosed by precipitous walls and with flat meadow bottoms. These may represent masses of limestone, that have been weathered out from the surrounding granite. The village of Hailesboro is built upon the granite and affords a favorable locality for its examination. In the angle between the creek and highway, E 9, a low hill of granite shows well the general character of the rock, together with a jieculiar modification. The average rock is a coarse grained aggregate of quartz, white feldspar, and biotite, the latter constituent varying greatly in quantity, and often entirel}' absent. No muscovite has been seen, even of secondary origin, and the rock must, therefore, be classed as a granitite. Gneissoid structure is seen in a few areas of limited extent, but is not so marked as at some other localities. Near the northern edge of the outcrop the granite shows a fine grained, white phase. This crumbles under the hammer and looks much like a white sandstone, though showing no parallel arrangement of constit- uents. Microscopic examination shows it to be a fine mosaic of quartz and feldspar, with numerous coarser grains of garnet, often with crystal outline. That this rock is simply a peculiar phase of the granite is shown by the passage of one into the other by imperceptible stages. This modification of the granite, which may be distinguished as granulite, occurs at many points in the region, and alwaj's shows the same gi-adunl transition into ordinary granite. Several patches of dark silicates enclosed in the gi*anite, being sharply separated from it and made up chiefly of horublende, are presumabl}' inclusions brought up from deep-seated rocks. Quartz veins are abundant, and represent at least two periods of fracturing and infiltration. This outcrop also shows well the contact with limestone. The granite breaks through the limestone causing great disturbance of strike and dip, and completely enclosing masses of the rock many feet in diameter. The effects of contact metamorphism 106 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 are not as conspicuous as would be the casein a non-crystalline limestone. Still, there is a whitening of the limestone and an increase in the amount of silicates, while the graj)hite scales become much larger than usual. In the river gorge at Hailesboro the granite is very micaceous and dark colored, and at the lower end of the gorge becomes decidedly gneissoid. The same transitions into granulite and non-micaceous varieties are also shown . "West of Hailesboro there is a break in the granite ridge where Matoon Creek flows, and beyond this, about two miles from the village, the rock shows a gradual transition into a very dark variety which has the mineralogical composition of a diorite though perfectly continuous with the main body of granite. Several alternations between the ordinary granite and the more basic phase, are seen in this vicinity. There are also many dikes of jjegmatite, which ma}' be regarded as the com- plement of the basic masses, the two together illustrating well the tendency towards differentiation of rock magmas, which is such a potent factor in the development of igneous rocks. The small bodies of granite which are scattered over the region sometimes resemble closely the granite of the main ridge, but oftener are coarse aggregates of quartz and feldspar. Sometimes the grain becomes finer, and they assume the char- acter of graphic granite. The ordinary granitite always occurs in the form of irregular bosses, but the pegmatite, both as bosses and as sharply defined dikes, cutting either gneiss, limestone, or granite. The pegmatite masses are usually of limited extent, but at B 4 there is an outcrop covering several acres. The rock here shows, what is not uncommon elsewhere, considerable tourmaline very irregularly distributed, and occasionally some mica. This outcrop exhibits a perfect irrup- tive contact with the limestone, like that of the main body of granite described above. The pegmatites often show traces of metamorphism in the production of incipient foliation, and the shattering of small rock masses. Mechanical Effects of Metamorphism. — Attention has already been given to certain mechanical effects of metamorphism, in speaking of gneissoid structure and the brecciated sandstone. But some other instances seem of sufficient interest to merit description. At the corner of Clinton and Barney streets, in Gouverneur, is an outcrop of limestone containing abundant fragments of a nearly black schist. These fragments constitute, perhaps, one- 1893.] NEW YOKK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 107 third of the rock mass, vary in diameter from one-quarter of an inch to two feet, are decidedly angular, and are scattered through the limestone in the most irregular manner possible. At first glance they might be taken for abundant inclusions in a light colored igneous rock, and it is strange that Emmons did not mention the occurrence in support of his theory of the igneous origin of limestone. Examination of other outcrops of a similar nature shows that the schist fragments are the remains of once continuous sheets, either interbedded with or intruded into the limestone, which have been completely shat- tered in the course of metamorphism. Between extreme cases, like that described, and those where the schist is but slightly distorted, there is every possible stage. The schistose layers pass from gentle folds into the most elaborate contortions, in these the schists are often stretched apart, their edges on each side of the break being drawn out to thin wedge shape, some- times with a few flattened lenses partially connecting them. Complete obliteration of the original continuity is rather excep- tional. A peculiar feature of this distortion and fracturing, is that the limestone shows almost no tiace of it. It has the ajDpearance of a plastic mass in which the schists could move with considerable freedom. The conspicuous result of meta- morphism in the limestone is crystallization, and this has obscured the mechanical effects. The true character of the schistose rocks is often greatly obscured by this contortion, with the accompanying mineralogi- cal changes ; and it is sometimes very diflScult, or even impossible, to decide whether they are interbedded strata or intrusive sheets. The smaller masses of pegmatite have been much shattered, and are often reduced to small lumps of quartz and feldspar, scattered throvigh the limestone. But so lar as observed, the pegmatite yields to strain only by fracturing, and never shows the j^reliminary contortion that is so general in the schistose layers. Date of Metamorphism. — A comparison of the different forma- tions serves to fix the time of metamorphism only in the most general way. It leads to the conclusion that the most intense metamorphism, which produced such marked changes in the limestone and associated rocks, occurred before upper Cambrian time. A second stage of metamorphism is recorded in the sandstone, and must therefore belong to post-Potsdani time. In conclusion, it may be added that the writer hopes to do further work in the neighborhood of Gouverneur, as well as in 108 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 other portions of the western Adirondack region. A second contribution on the petrograj^hy of the region will shortly follow. Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. ON PHOSPHATE NODULES FROM THE CAMBRIAN OF SOUTHERN NEW BRUNSWICK. BY W. D. MATTHEW. Introduction. — Nodules and beds of phosphatic material are best known in the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations, but they also occur in many places in strata of Cambrian and Silurian age. The deposits of these older rocks are sometimes of economic importance, and are always interesting, both on account of the various theories of their oi'igin, and because they are generally considered as due, directly or indirectly, to organic life. To account for the little changed phosphate deposits of the Cretaceous and Tertiary, has proven a matter of no small difficulty, and many hypotheses, more or less plausible, have at different times been advanced. With the older deposits thei*e is even greater difficulty, because they are usually so altered that their original structure is pretty well obliterated. Division of the Saint John Group. — Those described here are from the St. John Group of Southern New Brunswick, a series of gray slates, shales, and sandstones, mostly of Cambrian age, which formerly filled the bottoms of a number of long, parallel, northeast and southwest valleys, but which have been mostly swept away or covered by later deposits, except in the southern one, near the western end of which the city of Saint John is situated. The St. John Group is divided as follows : division 1, OR ACADIAN STAGE. a. Coarse gray sandstone or quartzite. b. Coarse gray sandy shale. c. Fine gray and dark gray shales. d. Fine dark gray carbonaceous shales. division 2, OR JOHANNIAN STAGE. a. Coarse gray slates with thin seams of gray sandstone. b. Coarse gray slate and gray flagstone, the latter predominating. c. Gray flagstone and gray slate, in frequent alternations. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 109 DIVISION 3, OR BRETONIAN STAGE. a. Black shales alternating with dark gray shales. h. The same as the last, but finer, c. Black carbonaceous shales. ? . Same as the last, fauna unknown. d. Similar shales, with a few sandy seams. In Band b of Division 1, has recently been found a consider- able fauna of Lower Cambrian age. Bands c and d of the same division contain the Paradoxides or Middle Cambrian fauna, while Division 2 and part of Division 3 appear to correspond with the Upper Cambrian of the United States. The upper part of Division 3 is of Lower Silurian age. OccuEREiscE OF THE NoDULEs. — The phosphate nodules occur at Hanford Brook, near the eastern end of the southern basin, in Division \b, which is here subdivided into the following zones : 1. Dark gray sandstone, - - - 40 feet 2. Dark gray sandy shales, - - - 50 " 3. Hard, purple streaked gray sandstones, 30 " 4. Olive gray shale, - - - - 30 " 5. Gray sandy shale, - - - - 20 " In Zone 2 there is a layer of nodules about 2" thick, and they also occur scattered through the hard sandstones of Zone 3. They are of considerable importance to the palaeontologist, as it is chiefly in and near them that the Lower Cambrian fossils have been found. Description. — The layer in Div. ]6' consists of small, round or oval nodules, averaging about ^" in diameter, black and comparatively soft, and set in a matrix of soft, green, coarse- grained sandstone, which fades out iiTCguhirly into the finer gray sandy shales. Those of Div. 1/;^ are larger, more irregular in shape, and much harder, and do not break out of their matrix as do the smaller ones. The latter have almost always a trilobite test, or a number of trilobite fragments, at or near the centre ; the larger ones are generally barren of trilobites, though such as do occur in this zone are mostly associated with them. These nodules are conspicuously seen on the surfaces of the great blocks ot sandstone which have fallen down fi'om the steep bank of the brook ; they are also, however, sparsely scattered all through the mass of the rock, and in the upper part are more numerous, and are often fused and run together in masses of larger size, uj) to 3" or 4" in diameter. 110 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 The green sandstone which accompanies the nodules is also met with at Hanford Brook, in the Basal or Etcheminian series of rocks underlying the St. John Group. In Division 16- of the latter it is found as an irregular layer 2" to 4" thick, with fine gray sandstone on one side, and the layer of nodules, followed by a thin seam of fine shale, on the other. Only loose blocks were esjjosed at this point, the bed-rock not being- accessible, and hence the actual position of the layers could not be determined. In Div. Ib^ the green sandstone is found in spots and patches scattered through the lower and middle part, and at the toj) makes an irregular bed averaging some 6" thick as far as exposed ; but there may be considerably more. It is accompanied by hard phosphatic nodules, and with them contains what few fossils are found in this zone. The nodules of Ib^ have been mentioned by G. F. Matthew, in connection with others occurring higher up in the series, near the city of Saint John, and have been considered to be probably coprolites, due to some large soft-bodied animal. Appearance in Thin Section. — When examined in thin section under the microscope, the nodules of Zone 2 are seen to be composed of an amorphous, flocculent or granular, light brown substance, which, judging, from the analysis of the nodule, is probably a mixed j^hosphate of lime and iron. It is full of fragments of tests of Protozoa, aj^parently of more than one kind ; some look like Foraminifera, others resemble very much the microscopic bodies occurring in supposed sjiionge-rock from Caton's Island on the St. John River, and which have been described* under the name of Monadites. These may be gemmules of sponges. Besides these, there are seen in the sections three-rayed bodies, which may be spicules of lithistid sponges ; and here and there is a section of a much larger test having the outline of a crustacean, and which may generally be referred to Protolenusf , which is almost the only fossil, not microscopic in size, found in this seam. The tests are for the most part preserved in calcite, but often also in chalcedonic quartz, and sometimes in a jiale yellow, highly refracting mineral, which shows an aggregate polariza- tion in low colors. This may be a variety of phosphorite. The more perfect tests are, when complete, usually filled with calcite, less often with glauconite or the pale ^^ellow mineral just mentioned. When partly broken, they are generally filled by *G. F. Matthew. " On Cambrian Organisms in Acadia," in Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Vol. VII.. See. IV., p. U7. t A genus created by G. F. Matthew, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc. N. B., p. u. to include a number of allied forms of Olenoid trilobites of Lower Cambrian age. 1893,] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. Ill the flocculeut, light-brown material, containing fragments of other tests. The trilobites are preserved either in calcite or the bi'own phosphate, with usually a dark line or band at the edges, to which, doubtless, is due the black, shining surface which they show when broken out of the rock. The foraminiferaare many chambered, with the cells grouped apparently much like Globigerina ; but they are not perfect enough to determine exactly. The smaller bodies referred to MonadUes are numerous, and of three forms — round or oval, pear-shaped, and urn-shaped. They sometimes have two chambers, and rarely three. They show very often, long, straight or curved, slender spines, and also what seem to be stems on which they grew. (The spines very probnbly repre- sent the whip of the flagellate infusoria, to which sponge- gemmules have been referred.) Towards the surface of the nodvile, the brown phosphate becomes more dense, and an opaque ring sharply separates it from its matrix. Sometimes the central j^art is darker, and separated from the outer zone by a similar dark ring ; or it may be distinct on one side, and fade out into the lighter part on the other. The matrix may be of the same phosphatic material, but is more generally of glauconite grains, mixed with small angular fragments of quartz. Its coarseness then contrasts strongly with the fine grain of the phosphate. The glauconite is in irregular masses, averaging aViu diameter, and often appearing as if made up of a number of small coalescing grains. Smaller round or oval grains are also common. The gray sandy layers are composed of small grains of quartz and plates of mica, the latter almost always- lying in the plane of bedding. In the fine shale there is an abundant groundmass, probably argillaceous, and comparatively few of the larger fragments. The nodules from Zone 3 are rather different from those of Zone 2, and show considerable variety in structure. The mass of the sandstone is made up of angular fragments of quartz, and more rounded ones of calcite, with a tine dark-colored cement, more or less ferruginous. Near the nodules, grains of glauconite almost entirely replace the quartz, the calcite still being abundant. Sometimes each grain is coated with a thin dark layer of phosphate, and the cement is largely or entirely the flocculent phosphate. The nodules themselves are much less pure than those of Zone 2, and contain much foreign material, mostly minute plates and shreds of mica. The large grains of quartx and calcite. 112 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Feb. 23 however, are almost entirely absent. A bedded structure is sometimes noticeable in tbe arrangement of the mica. Protozoan tests or sponge gemmules complete enough to recognize are rare ; only two or three were certainly observed. Larger tests are more common, some referable to trilobites or ostracods, others appearing in the section as narrow straight rods, preserved in silica, often with a layer of phosphate at the edge. Innumerable minute fragments preserved in calcite are very likely comminuted tests of protozoa. Plate 1. Most of these appear to be ]\[onadUei<. Figs. 2 and 8 may be foraminifera, and also, perhaps, Fig. 10. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 113 The outlines of these nodules have little regularity ; they are, as a rule, tiattened in the direction of the bedding. Usually they have the same distinctly marked surface as those in Zone 2, but occasionally they fade out into the surrounding sandstone. In the accompanj'ing figures are shown some of the most perfect of the small bodies in the nodules of Zone 2. The first three plates represent those referred to as perhaps gemmulea of SY>onges (Monadi/es), and the supposed Foraminifera. The last plate contains the most distinctly outlined of the forms which can be considered as sponge spicules — though some, if not all, of these may be sections of broken tests of foraminifera or Monadiles. In the lower part of this plate are shown the shapes characteristic of the glauconite grains. The calcite which usually fills the interior of these bodies, and I Plate 2. These are probably Monadilex, Fig. 3 being the urn- shaped form [M. urceiforrnis). Fig. 9 is perhaps a Foraminifer. Trausactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. April 18. 1893. 114 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Feb. 23 often constitutes tbeir walls, is left unsliaded ; the liglit yellow phospLorite is indicated by a faint shading, and the brown amorphous phosphate by a darker shade. Id a few of the bodies, minute round grains of carbonaceous matter also occur, though the general absence of any organic matter visible to the eye is rather remarkable, considering the abundance of fossils in this seam, and the little altered character of the beds. The identification of the figures, as far as made, is by my father, G. F. Matthew. Plate 3. Figs. 5, 7, and 8 are probably Foraminifera. rest are 3Io7iadites. The 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 115 n V ^-& w Plate 4. Spouge spicules?, and glauconite grains. These, like all the preceding, are from Division 16- at Hanford Brook, and are enlarged 42 diameters. 116 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 A chemical analysis of tlie nodules from Div. 16^ gives the following results : SiO. 24.74 Alzba ----- 11.85 FesOa 11.44 CaO . - - . - 22 35 Mg O 2.29 K,0 0.59 Na,0 1.41 P,05 14.99 CO. 3.53 -j^^gg] atllO° - . - - 3.43 j below red heat . . - 3.44 lOO.OG This shows an unusually large percentage of iron and alumina, and a low one of phosphoric acid. Much of the silica seems to be in the form of quartz or of silicates insoluble in acids. Other Phosphate Nodules in the St. John Group. — The only other occurrence of phosphatic nodules in the St. John Group is in Div. 2c, at the City of Saint John, where beds containing an abundance of Linguloid shells bear also irregularly rounded or flattened nodules of small size, which are composed of com- minuted Lingulee, and have been considered to be coprolites. The occurrence, shape, and composition of these are quite different from the Hanford Brook material ; they are black and shining, showing the little polished surfaces of the comminuted shells. They are not accompanied by glauconite sand. Comparison With Other Phosphate Deposits. — Phosphate beds are well known in many other parts of the world. Those of the Cambrian and Lower Silurian of Wales, where one naturally looks for the nearest analogy to those of the Sf. John Group, have been described by Mr. Davies'-^^, and their origin is discussed by Dr. Hicksf in an article on Phosphates in the Cambrian Rocks. They seem to be much more altered than those at Hanford Brook, but of much the same general character. They contain, however, a large amount of carbonaceous matter, and no mention is made of any glauconite accompanying them. * Quart. Jour. Gol. Soc, London, Vol. XXXI ■, p. 357. t Op. cit., p. 368. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 117 JoLann Moberf? has recently* described a Cambrian fauna from sandstones in Sweden, containing glauconite layers. One type of a rock was a greenish, mostly laminated, fine-grained blending of light-colored quartz fragments, small white mica scales and glauconite grains, the two latter esi^eciall}' plentiful in certain layers. Another type was a fine light blue-gray sandstone, with abundant quartz, scattered glauconite grains, and calcareous cement. These rocks appear to be the same in character as the glauconite layers and quartzose sandstone of our Div. Ib^ at Hanford Brook. No mention, however, is made of jjhosphate nodules. The presence of glauconite with the nodules suggests analogies to those found in the Cretaceous Greensands of England. These have been studied very thoroughly by Mr. "W. Sollas"}", Rev. Osmond Fisher^, and others. In the presence of sponge spicules, foraminifera, etc., and in the glauconite accompanying them, they show a great resemblance to ours. But the form is different, being irregular or finger-shaped, with usually a hollow centre. The spicules are Hexactinellid, and seemingly much more numerous, and are often connected as if in place, which I have not been able to observe in any of ours. The English nodules are considered to be Yentriculite sponges, in which the organic matter has combined with and been replaced by phos- phate of lime. The Tertiary nodules of South Carolina are very variable in their character and, as mined, are mostly rolled and water- worn. They do not seem to be generally associated with glauconite. Some varieties contain abundant fossils, mostly shells ; others are dark and compact, with no fossils. With them are found great numbers of bones and sharks' teeth. They are generally irregular in shape, often in large flattened masses. Dr. Penrose§ considers that they are the result of the phosphatization of mai'ly deposits, and that the nodular shape is due to the tendency of the phosphate to collect in concretionary forms. Dr. Shaler|| considers that their most probable mode of origin was by the aggregation of lime phosphate at the bottom of swamps. *0m en nyupptiickt fauna i block af Kambrisk sandsten, insamlade af dr. N. 0. Hoist— Af J. C. Moberg (Aftryck ur Geol. Foreu i Stockholm Furhaudl., Bd. 14, Haft 2, 1892.) t Quart. Jour. Geol. See, London, Yol. XXIX., p. 76. $ Op. cit., p. 52. § U. S. Geol. Survey. Bull. No. 46, p. 69. II Op. cit., introduction. 118 TEANSATIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 The other clei^osits of phosphates kuown to me do not show very close analogies to ours, or are similar in their occurrence to those above mentioned. Origin. — The origin of the Hauford Brook nodules cannot be considered as decided by this investigation ; but some con- sideration may be noted, bearing on what seem to be the most probable methods of formation. The only one that has as yet been suggested for them is that they ma}' be coprolites. In this case ttiey must be referred to some animal much larger than any known from this formation ; the animal might, however, as has been suggested by G. F. Matthew, have been soft-bodied, and hence not preserved, and there are indirect evidences of the existence in the Cambrian seas of some large soft-bodied animal probably related to the squids. But the trilobites found in the nodules are only occasionally comminuted ; generally they are complete heads ; occasionally complete bodies. In Zone 2 especially, but to some extent also in Zone 3, there is usually a nucleus which is sometimes a single trilobite test, sometimes two or three, or a number of fragments. The material collects rather on the inner side of the test than on the outer. Were the nodules coprolites, one would expect to find the tests thoroughly comminuted, and evenly distributed throughout the mass. Another view, applicable especially to those of Zone 2, would consider them as fossil sponges which, like those of the English Greensands, have had their organic matter replaced ^by .phospate of lime or iron. The occurrence of spicules and gemmules, the regulfir shape and uniform size, and the frequent presence of a central part of different tinge from the rest, indicating perhaps a cuj^-shaped or hollow centre' favor this view. The darker rim of the nodule is similar to that observed in those of the English deposits. The compara- tive scarcity of Si^icules and absence of any trace of canals, might be exi^lained by considering the sponge to have had keratose or calcareous spicules, and to have been much decom- posed and shrunken before phosphatization. Or there may never have been any canals, but only the central opening. The presence of the foraminifera and other foreign bodies might be explained b}' supposing them to have drifted into the openings after the death of the sponge. But the trilobites are not so easily accounted for, as they often traverse the nodules from side to side in a way that would seem inconsistent with the view of the latter being fossilized sponges, And they are not cup- shaped, as far as can be seen by the eye, but regularly round 1893,] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 119 or oval ; and it would seem as if the part of different tinge noticeable in some, is rather concentric with the rest than forming- a core, or filling a cup-shaped hollow. The presence of trilobite tests at the centre may indicate some form of concretionary or aggregative action, the material having collected around these as a nucleus. If this he so, three suppositions might reasonably be made : i. That the material collected as gelatinous phosphate of iron and lime thrown down b}' ferruginous and calcareous waters coming in contact with phophoric acid liberated in the decay of organic matter. 2. That it originally collected as carbonate or iron and lime, but was converted into phosj^hate by the downward leaching of phosphatic waters passing through the sandstones and sandy shales. 3. That it was originally in the form of organic matter which was afterwards replaced by phosphate which formed a comjjound with it during its decay. In process of time the organic matter would disappear and the i^hosphate alone be left. The nodular form might have been its original structure, or, more probably, caused by the strong tendency of phosphatic deposits to assume such a shape. The first hypothesis supposes that during the deposition of the seam in Zone 2, there was for a short time a stoj^page in the deposition of sand, giving the phosphate time to collect and form a comparatively jDure layer. The strong afiinity of phos- phoric acid for organic matter would cause it to collect, especially around the bodies of trilobites. The latter may have been also the principal sources of phosphorus, biit were probably largely assisted by other organisms, minute or soft-bodied, and of the presence of which we have little direct evidence, except perhaps the glaucouite. Iron phosphate is one of the most sticky and gelatinous precipitates that ever vexed the soul of the chemist, and appears to tend strongly to collect together in masses. The layer of fine shale next the nodule bed would indicate a rapidl}^ decreasing influx of sediment, followed, perhaps, by a total cessation immediately afterwards, while the nodules were forming. Then there would seem to have been a period when the water was muddy and the sediment deposited rapidly, which, perhaps, caused the animals supplying the phosphorus to forsake that neighborhood. When they came in again with the clearer Avaters shown by the sandstone zone above, the phosphatic deposit recommenced. But it was not in quantit}"- enough to form a bed, and only collected in scattered masses, which, suspended above the heavier sand, were mixed only with 120 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 2S: the finer particles in the water. "When there was not enough 'phosphate to form nodules, it merely coated the grains of sand, or mingled with the mud which afterwards formed the cement of the sandstone. The second hypothesis has been applied especially to the. phosphate beds of South Carolina. The difficulty especially in the way of its application here lies chiefly in the regular shape and distinct boundaries of the nodules. These seem almost too. regular to be due to the concretion of either carbonates or phosphates. Moreover, the entire absence of the coarser grains composing the rock around would seem to be against this theory. A second infiltration would seem to be required to exf)lain the filling of the fossils with carbonate of lime unless, for some reason this crystalline carbonate was not attacked by phosphoric acid. The impermeable laj'er of clay or mud in. Zone 2 would, perhaps, serve to prolong the action of the phos- phatic waters on the lime, and thus make a specially rich layer. In Zone 3 there was, perhai)s, only enough phosphoric acid leaching through, to convert into phosphate such carbonate of lime as was in an amorphous and uncompacted condition, leaving the crystalline grains but little changed. The replacement required by the third hypothesis has been, shown to have very probably occurred in the Cretaceous phos- phate beds of England, to which these deposits seem to be very nearly related. The apparent objections to its adoption have been already discussed. With our present knowledge of the nodules, it is not easy to say which of these supj^ositions is the most probable one. Altogether, it seems very likely that they originated as. organic bodies, or by some form of concretionary action. The large amount of iron is a somewhat unusual feature. I have come across only one or two analyses showing so high a percentage of iron, but iron phoshate is probably not uncom- mon in this form, though the dejiosits of economic importance are chiefly lime phosphate. Further study of these beds will probably bring to light a. large and interesting fauna, and will also, it is to be hoiked,, throw more light on this rather obscure problem. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 121 Note on the Mode of Origin of the Paired Fins. by bashford deax. (abstract.) Since the time of the observations of Balfour on the origin of the paired fins from continuous lateral derm folds, an exten- sive literature upon the subject has been steadily accumulating-. At the present day it is very generally admitted that this mode of origin is well substantiated by embryological studies upon elasmobranchs, and in the " Gliedmassenskelet" of Wiedersheim the most recent view is given tracing from this primitive form the evolution of the various limb tyjies, Archiplerycjiam, Actinopterygium and Cheiropterygium. It is especially interesting that within the past five years the actual primitive conditions in fin structure are coming to be provided by paleeontology, and these now appear to directly confirm the conclusions obtained on the side of embryology. The earlier fossil fin structures can no longer be looked upon as in a measure supporting the archipterygial doctrine of Gegenbaur, In a recent article Smith "Woodward* has reviewed the evolution of fins in the light of his studies upon fossil forms, and shows how perfect is the evidence which reduces the structural characters of the paired fins to the type of the unpaired fins, on the ground of concentration and fusion of the supporting elements. These processes are first manifested in the basal parts and subsequently are produced into the rachis of the fin. The important contribution to the problem has been the structural characters in the pectoral and ventral of the Carboniferous Xenacanthids as studied by Fritsch, Doderlein, and Wiedersheim. In Xenacathids the pectoral is in all essentials dipnoan in character, while the ventral, always more primitive in structure, retains a typical monoserial archipterygium. The most ancient form of fin suggested by these studies appears to be represented by a lateral derm fold not unlike the embryonic structure of sharks, — this was primitively strength- ened by parallel hair-like rays, trichinosts, passing from body Avail to fin margin, developed in close connection with ectoderm from mesoderm (Ryder). In this'derm fold cartilaginous rays make their appearance, "radials," passing rod-like from fin margin to body wall, each of which is attached primitively to a similar — ♦Natural Science, March, 1892. 122 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23 cartilage rod, "basal" firmly inserted in the body tissues; there may here be disregarded the questions of additional segmen- tation prosimall}^ and of the continuity of radials throughout the length of the fold. When concrescence takes place the basals become fused into a lateral horizontal bar of cartilage, more or less segmented in character ; from this trunk of basals embedded in the body wall, the radials are seen to take their oi'igin. This stage in the evolution of the fin is clearly suggested in the pelvics of Xenacanthids and in the almost as primitive pelvics of the cartilaginous ganoids, notably in Polyodon. The next stage of the evolution is represented by the gradual out turning of the trunk of the basals, v^hose posterior terminal comes to protrude from the body wall, and whose anterior end tends to become proximal. This out-turning of the basal fin stem brings with it a most important change in the functional capacity and indicates the point of divergence for s^iecialized fin strvictures. Up to this point the entire fin was but a compressed remnant of the lateral fold, whose line of motionwas little more than dorso-ventral. The protruding distal end of the trunk of basals now becomes the fin stem and as its motion becomes developed in many planes two prominent characters become evolved, — a tendency to concentration of elements about the distal fin stem, and second a growth of the dermal margin of the fin. The first causes the radials, Avhich were formerly rod-like and j^arallel, to become so concentrated that extended fusions take place, and appears to be the cause of the jointed character that the rays now present, perhaps also of the branching and splitting structure of terminal elements, including doubtless those of the fin stem itself. The second character acquired by a fin in this evolution is the development concomitantly of a wide fin margin strength- ened by dermal rays. The extended fin surface becomes doubtless of great advantage as the fin requires its additional movements, — and the formation, neomorphic (?), of light strong horn-like derm rays answers no doubt this requisite more fittingly then could a fo]-m of specialization of the cartilaginous radials. It would in fact appear in further evolution that the radials become reduced, encroached upon and outmatched in function. A fin type represented by a jointed fin stem protruding from the bod}^ wall, articulating with the basals therein remaining\ furnished on one side with a row of rod-like radials, is the actual condition in the pelvics of Xenacanthids, or cartilaginous ganoids. The radials are, however, becoming specialized; they become jointed and are tending to concentrate, fuse or sj^lit in the region of the distal fin stem. The derm margin of the 1893,] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 123 fin has, in addition, encroached upon the older fin elements, and constitutes more than half of the fin surface. The fin structure of the modern shark may readily he reduced to this type. Fusion in the radials has reduced these jointed rods to a compressed mosaic of polygonal plates, — the tin stem is consolidated into a basal cartilage band ol three prominent elements, fore, middle, and aft. The dermal fin margin has greatly encroached, and the component raj's have often grown and strengthened in the exposed (pre-axial) margin of the fin. In all of these specializations the ancient fin stem is coming to be directed caudad, and lies near the side in the direction of the axis of the body. The evolution of the second type of fin is readily understood in the structure of the pectoral of Xenacanthus, — here the 2>rotruded and jointed fin stem has acquired in all essential characters the archipter^^gium of dipnoan and ancient crossoji- terygian ; — the concentration and splitting of the radials is carried to its utmost si3ecialization, the tendency to concrescence distall}'- has caused them to spread around the fin tip and be carried proximall}^ in their develojiment on the opposite side of the fin stem ; this itself in the process of concrescence has probably received distal increments. In this specialized type environment has had, doubtless, a large share in preserving the rigid axis in the middle of the fin, for uses which have been often alluded to in the case of Geratodus. While palaeontology has rendered material aid in the under- standing the mode of origin of shark and di^Dnoan fin structures, until recently it has afforded little clue to the still more primi- tive types. Smith Woodward has referred to a shark from the Ohio Waverly (Lower Carboniferous), described by Newberry and assigned provisionally to the genus " Cladoclus," as exhibit- ing the most primitive fin structures extant. The paired fins he regards as functional remnants of the lateral folds, supported by nothing more than unjointed rods of cartilage passing from body wall to fin margin and apparently lacking in basal supports. He notes the significance of the concentration of the rays at the fore-margin of the pectoral fin, and in the absence of basal supports regards it as jDrobable that in this region the concrescence, fusing, and splitting of the radial elements would give rise to a:i archipterygium.-^ In this view, however, Smith Woodward is directly opposed in a recent pajjer by Jaekel,"}" who had also examined the type specimens in the mus- *L. c. t Sitz. Ber. der Gesell. nat. Fr., Berlin, 1892. No. G, p. 92. 124 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 23^ eum of Columbia College. This author finds, in fact, that the fins of " Gladodus " afi^ord no evidence as to lateral fold origin, asserts the presence of basal plates, and adduces the structure of the ventral fin to support his view as to the essentially modern character of the paired fins. The unique character of the body terminal as figured by Newberry, Jaekel regards as the restoration (in a grajihite oil color) of the collectoi". While he emphasizes the modern structural charac- ters he notes, however, the phylogenetic importance of the circum orbital ring of derm plates (Acanthodian). At the present time discovery of new material by Rev. Wm. Kepler, of New London, Ohio, has enabled some of the structural characters of this interesting shark to be more critically examined. And in a paper, now in publication, the present writer has endeavored to consider the essential charac- ters in their relation, particularly, to the doctrine of lateral folds. It would appear in summary that this shark form (which the writer distinguishes from the Cladodus of Traquair, in which a monoserial archipterygium is present, by the new genus Cladoselache), presents the most manifest evidence as to the lateral fold origin of the paired fins. The fins, as stated by Smith Woodward, are actual remnants of the derm fold. The unjointed rod-like radials proceed from body wall directly to the fin margin ; the fin surface, therefore, is as yet lacking the specialization of the dermal margin and dermal rays. It would now appear that the basal plates exist but in a most primitive condition ; their fusion into a plate is seen to occur to a partial degree in the pectoral fin, but the rotation outward of the posterior end of this trunk of basals does not as yet take place ; the entire fin stem is still imbedded in the body wall. In the ventral a most interesting condition occurs, — a more primitive arrangement would here very naturally be expected, — the hasals in the body wall are a.s yet unfused, and are represented by rod-like bars of cartilage, which outwardly resemble basal joints belonging to the radials — and were, in fact, so interj^reted by Jaekel. The proximal ends of the basals are in actual process of concentration near the anterior fin magin ; the radials, however, are still more or less at right angles to the axis of the fish. Smith Woodward has already recorded one of the most significant features in the fin structure, — the marked way in which the radials are crowded together side by side in the anterior fin margin, — giving rise, in fact, in the pectoral to the specialization of a compact cut-water. The writer suggests that this tendency to compress the radial elements in the anterior 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 125 fin margin could only occur when the line of the Lasals was still embedded in the body wall, — and would trace this conclusion still further to account for the anomalous fin spines of the Acanthodians. In Parexus, for example, it would seem quite clear that the broad fin spine is structurally compound, and may well represent the fusion of the radials in the anterior fin margin. It may, in passing, be noted that the museum of Columbia College has acquired one of the specimens of Dr. Kepler, which sets at rest the objections of Jaekel as to the character of the body terminal. In the former specimens this, as now known, rei:)resented the vertical projection of the tail region, — the tail itself being edgewise is represented only in the acutely pointed apex. The tail strixcture, as shown in lateral aspect, proves to be broadly heterocercal, and is especially remarkable in lacking hypural supports to the upper lobe. This is strengthened epurally by a cut-water plate formed of the clustered elements. The tail structure is in many regards Acanthodian. In the ventral of Cladoselache, the writer concludes, is repre- sented the most primitive condition hitherto known in the ontogeny of the paired limbs. The fin is still outwardly a body derm fold, thrice as long as broad, blunted anteriorly where the radials are begining to be clustered ; the basal supports, in number, scarcely less than the appended radials, are still unfused although the process of concentration anteriorly is clearly to be marked. February 27, 1893. Annual Meeting. The President, Dr. Hubbard, in the chair, and about forty persons present. The minutes of the meeting of January 30th were read and approved . The chairman of the Audubon Monument Committee made a report of progress which was accepted and committee continued. The Treasurer, Mr. Henry Dudley, submitted the following statement for the year 1892-1893. 126 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Feb. 27 NLW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN ACCOUNT WITH HENRY DUDLEY, TREASURER, 1892-1893. li^xpenditures. Janitorial Services $ 12G.50 Salary of Recordiug- Secretary 400.00 Expenses of Recordiug Secretary . . 64 07 Treasurer's Expenses 21.25 W. R. Jenkins, printing cards, etc 83 30 J. W. Huff, Printing Annals, etc 1,180.09 Prof. N. L. Britton, Treasurer of the Audubon Monu- ment Fund . . 50.00 Council of the Scientific Alliance 71.81 Insurance of Printed Matter 20.00 Deposited in Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks to credit of Library Fund 100.00 Balance 268.53 $2,385.55 Receipts. February, 1892, Balance from last year , $ 179.55 From Sale of Publications 52.00 Initiation Fees 70.00 Life Membership Fee 100.00 Fellowship Fees 20.'00 Annual Dues of Members 1, 750.00 Interest on U. S. 4 per cent. Reg. Bonds 152.00 Coupon Bond 12.00 C. H. Coffin for Audubon Monument Fund 50.00 $3,385.55 Lweshnent^. U. S. 4 per cent. Registered Consols . . . $3,800.00 " " Coupon Bonds 300.00 Institution for Savings of Merchants' Clerks, Publica- tion Fund 1,620.45 General Fund 1,081.00 $6,801.61 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 127 report of the kecording secrltary for the year endikg february 27th, 1893. During the year there have been : 9 Meetings of the Council, 35 Meetings of the Academy, including 7 Public Lectures, and . 7 Meetings of the Section of Astronomy, 5 Meetings of the Section of Biology, and 3 Meetings of the Section of Geology and Mineralogy. The average attendance at meetings exclusive of public lectures has been 21 persons. Forty-nine formal or announced papers have been read on the following topics : Astronomy, 7 Geology, 4. Botany, 4 Mechanics, 1 Biology, 7 Microscopy, 1 Chemistry, 7 IMineralogy, 5 Electricity, 2 Palfeontology, G General Information, 1 Physics, 2 Zoology, 2, ■ besides seven papers read by title and a number of informal communications on a variety of topics. Two new sections of the Academy have been formed, viz. : The Section of Biology, The Section of Geology and Mineralogy, and the Section of Astronomy has been changed to the Section of A.stronomy and Physics. There are 233 Resident Members, including 75 Fellows. During the year the Academy has elected 19 Resident Members, 3 Fellows, 7 Corresponding Members, Fifteen members have been lost by deathj resignation, etc. H. T. VULTE, Recording Secretary. 128 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 27 The following were elected officers for the year 1893-1894 : President— H. Carrington Bolton. IstTice-President — J. A. Allen. 2d Vice-President — Henry F. Osborn. Corresponding Secretary — Thomas L. Casey. Kecording Secretary — N. L, Britton. Treasurer — Charles F. Cox. Librarian — James F. Kemp. Councilors — O. P. Hubbard, Harold Jacoby, A. A. Julien, D. S. Martin, J. K. Rees, R. P. Whitfield. Curators — Bashford Dean, Arthur Hollick, G. F. Kunz, John Tatlock, Jr., H. T. Vulte. Finance Committee — Henry Dudley, J. H. Hinton, Seth Low. The following paper was then presented : PROGRESS OF CHEMISTRY AS DEPICTED IN APPARATUS AND LABORATORIES. BY H. CARRINGTON BOLTON, (Abstract.) From the very earliest times many arts were practiced involving chemical operations, such as working in metals, purification of natural salts for pharmacy, etc., dyeing of cloths and the preparation of pigments, brewing of fermented liquors, etc.; hence we find that long before chemistry became a science, even before it became inoculated with the virus of alchemy, furnaces and apparatus of earthenware, metal and glass, adapted to special work, were in common use. The important adjuncts to laboratory utensils for the mechani- cal operations of pulverizing, grinding, sifting, etc., and the use of scales in a general way, date from the very beginnings of human industry ; these we disregard in the main and confine our study to apparatus more strictly adapted to chemical operations. In tracing the progress of chemistry by reviewing the forms and variety of apparatus used at different periods, we do not attempt to establish definitely the date of introduction of a given instrument except in a few instances to be noted in their 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 129 places. To assign dates to the origin of apparatus that was universally emploj-ed before being si^ecitically described is obviously impossible, especially since Ave shall depend upon drawings to illustrate the subject, and these drawings are commonly far more recent than the apparatus portrayed. The Egyptians attained great skill in industrial arts at a remote period, and have left records of a most enduring character, pictures cut in their granite tombs and temples. There we see the processes of gold- washing and smelting ; the use of blowpipes and of double bellows for intensifying heat, various forms of furnaces, and crucibles having a shape quite similar to those used to-day. Some of these crucibles preserved in the Berlin Museum date from the fifteenth century B. C. Glass-blowing is a mechanical operation, but the preparation of the glass itself is a chemical process. The skill of the Egyptians in manufacturing glass is depicted on monuments of Thebes and Beni Hassan, and dates at least as far back as 2500 B. C. Siphons for decanting wine, and on a large scale for draining land, were in use in the fifteenth century B. C. (Wilkinson). The earliest chemical laboratories of which we have any knowledge are those that were connected with the Egyptian temjDles. Each temple had its library and its laboratory com- monly situated in a definite part of the huge structure ; at Edfoo the laboratory leads out of the Prosecus-halls. In these laboratories the priests prepared the incense, oils, and other substances used in the temple services, and on the granite walls were carved the recipes and processes ; these are still to be seen by the archaeologist. The Israelites driven out of Egypt carried with them to the promised land knowledge of the technical and artistic skill of their contemporaries, and the Hoi}' Bible contains frequent allusions to industrials arts. Cupellation is plainly described by Jeremiah, metallurgical oj^erations by Job, Ezekiel, and others, and bellows by Jeremiah. This subject, however, I discussed in a paj^er read to the Academy Aj^ril 12, 1892. Geber, the Arabian physician and chemist of the eighth century, wrote very plainly of chemical processes, describing minutely solution, filtration, crystallization, fusion, sublimation, distillation, cupellation, and various kinds of furnaces and apparatus amployed in these operations. Geber' s works first appeared in a Latin translation from the Arabic at Strassburg, 1529 ; since then many editions in modern languages have appeared, but the drawings in all those I have seen are obviously of comparatively recent date. Trausactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. April 29, 1893. , 130 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 27 Geber describes in detail the aludel (or sublimatory of glass), the descensory, apparatus for filtration, and the water-bath. This latter instrument, however, is said to have a more remote origin, having been invented by an alchemist named Mary, who is identified with Miriam the sister of Moses ; and the French name bain-marie is advanced as proof of this claim. Perhaps the earliest drawings of strictly chemical apparatus are those in the so-called manuscript of St. Mark, which is a Greek papyrus on the " sacred art," preserved in Venice and recently edited by Berthelot. This embraces among other treatises the Ghrysopoeia of Cleopatra, which dates from the beginning of the eleventh century. It contains, besides magical symbols, figures of distilling apparatus, the chief being an alembic with two beaks, resting on a furnace. In manuscript No. 2327 of the Bibliotheque nationale, Paris, which bears the date 1478, are interesting drawings of furnaces, alembics, matrasses, receivers, etc., of glass, earthenware and metal. Some of them are copied from the manuscript of St. Mark. Professor Maspero, the Egyptian explorer reports the discovery by natives of the subterranean laboratory of an alchemist of the sixth or seventh century, at a point not far from Siout. This concealed laboratory contained a bronze furnace, the bronze door of another larger furnace, about fifty vases of bronze provided with beaks, some conical vessels resembling modern sandbaths, vases of alabaster, and gold foil of a low grade valued at over $350. In a corner of the dark chamber lay a heap of black, fatty earth that the workmen seized upon and carried off, saying they would use it to transmute copper; "whiten" was their expression, but they evidenced a belief that this material was the " powder of IJrojection " capable of changing coj^per to silver. This was in 1885. The substance on examination proved to be impregnated with some compound of arsenic, which would of course "whiten"' copper. The balance as an instrument of precision reached a high development under the Arabians as early as the twelfth centur}'. The "Book of the Balance of Wisdom," written in the year 515 of the Hegira (1121-1122 A. D.) by al-Khazini describes minutely a water-balance of great ingenuity, and the specific gravity determinations of solids and liquids made by its aid are marvellously accurate. The author also describes a sj^ecific gravity flask of a practical make which he calls the "conical instrument of Abu-r-Raihan." This treatise, with its illustra- tions of the balances and the flask, I analysed in a paper read io the Academy in 1876. {Am. Chem., May, 1876.) 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 131 In an interior view of a laboratory of the fifteenth century, by Vriese, very sumptuous appointments are seen ; a lofty room with tiled floor, furnaces on the right under an overhauging hood, an altar on the left before which the alchemist prays on his knees, in the centre a table covered with aj^paratus, books, and musical instruments, in the foreground an alembic, over- head a lamp swinging from a ceiled roof. The whole indicates wealth and luxury contrasting strongly with later pictures of the laboratories of impoverished alchemists. The interior of workshops of alchemists of the sixteenth century have been artistically painted by the celebrated Flemish artist David Teniers. Of these interiors I am acquainted with six different styles, having, however, many features in commou. The alchemists, influenced by the atmosphere of mystical associations prevailing in astrology and the black art, affected fanciful names for pieces of apparatus bearing accidental resemblance to objects in nature ; the body of an alembic was a "cucurbit " or gourd ; an alembic-head without a beak was a "blind alembic"; if the beak was joined to the body so as to make a circulatory apparatus, it was a "pelican," owing to its outline resemblance to this bird ; two alembics joined by beaks were "twins "; a flask with a very long neck was a " bolt-head "; a flask with its neck closed before the blowpipe was a " philoso- phic egg." Again, the cucurbit surmounted by the alembic- head was symbolically called " homo galeatus," a man wearing a helmet. A special form of furnace much extolled for alchemical operations was an " athanor," deathless, because the fire could be maintained indefinitely. The residuum of any distillation was a " caput mortuum," death's head. A cone-shaped bag for filtering was early known as "Hippocrates' sleeve"; the oi^erating of closing a flask by fusing the neck was applying the "seal of Hermes"; fusing of two metals was their "marriage." A still more extravagant nomenclature was applied to chemical substances themselves, but of these and of the characters employed to designate them I have already addressed the Academy (December 11, 188'2, and March 12, 1883). A single example will suffice. Basil Valentine wrote : " The greater the quantity of the eagle opposed to the lion the shorter the combat ; torment the lion until he is weary and desires death. Make as much of eagle until it weeps, collect the tears and the blood of the lion and mix them in the philosophical vase," That is to say : " Dissolve the substance and volatilize it." In Iheronimus Brunschwick's Liber de arte distillandi comj)ositis 132 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 27 (1500) are many coarse woodcuts representing distillations conducted under different planetary aspects ; also a noteworthy interior of a pharmacy of the fifteenth century, the apothecary's assistant busy with a pestle, gallipots on shelves, scales on a book, and the licence and certificates of the master conspicu- ously displayed. The remarkable and abundant illustrations of the operations of mining, treatment of ores by washing and smelting, in George Agricola's De re metallica (1556), are too well known to need mention. The Alchymia of Andreas Libau (or Libavius), published at Frankfort in 1595, is consi^icuous for accuracy of description and systematic arrangement of topics. He treats in this work of the Encheria, or manual operations, and of the C/ij/wia, or substances, in separate books. The former he divides into two sections, one dealing with laboratory apparatus, and one with the construc- tion and management of furnaces. He describes and figures an ideal laboratory provided not only with every requisite for chemical experimentation, but also the means of entertaining visitors, including svich luxuries as baths, enclosed corridors for exercise in inclement weather, and a well stocked wine-cellar. This work, sometimes called the " First Text-book of Chem- istry," contains woodcuts of a great variety of alembics liaving peculiar forms for special uses ; also a distilling apparatus fitted with an ingenious system of condensers for very volatile liquids. Besides the usual funnels for filtering Libavius describes the now neglected method of filtering by caj^illary fibres of wool or asbestus ; a process which, however, was known as early as 400 B. C, as I have shown in a paj^er read to the Academy, October 13, 1879. Filtration was often styled " destillatio per filtrum,'' and the method just named was known as " destillatio per lacinias ;" it is practically capillary siphoning. Libavius' sumptuous plans were never realized, but towards the close of the seventeenth century the first public laboratory was opened at Altdorf (near Nuremburg) under Prof. John Moritz Hoffman. In the same year (1683), the first government laboratory was established by Karl XI. at Stockholm; of this the first director was Urban Hjiirne. A woodcut in a work published in 1570 dej^icts in a very interesting way all the steps in the manufacture of sugar, men chopi^ing the cane, others grinding and pressing it, large cauld- rons for boiling the juice, conical moulds in a frame, and the completed sugar-loafs. Distilling apparatus in great variety is figured in the Elixir vitce of the Italian author Donate d' Eremita, published in 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 133 1624. This pharmaceutical work contain nineteen full-page plates engraved with delicate skill. InKircher's Miindus Subterraneus (1665) are engraved numer- ous forms of furnaces and stillatories, lai'gely copied from Donato d' Eremita's work. J. J. Beclier, in his account of a "Portable laboratory" (1719), exhibits on a single plate sixty-four different articles, including the following : Crucibles, muffles, cupels or tests, moulds for making cupels and for casting metals, mortars, mills for grinding, bellows, tongs, forceps, a tripod for support- ing dishes, a rabbits-foot for brushing powders, a hand screen to protect the face from heat, various vessels of wood, copper, and iron, scales for Aveighing (three styles), retorts, phials, funnels, bladders, besides an apron, a towel, a linen jacket, an hour-glass, candles and tobacco-pipes ! Straw-rings for supporting round-bottomed vessels are pictured in Lefevre's Traite (1669). The interior of the University laboratory at Utrecht, under the direction of Johann Conrad Barchusen, Professor of Medicine and Chemistry, is neatly figured in his Pyrosophia, published 1698. In this, as in others of the period, the promi- nence given to furnaces reflects the importance attributed to operations by fire. Physical instruments of chemical application were slower in developing ; thermoscopes appeared early in the seventeenth century and thermometers somewhat later.* Torricelli dis- covered the barometer in 1643, and Pascal tested its utility on the Puy-de-Dome five years later. Otto de Guericke's air-pump and frictional electric machine, together with the interesting experiments conducted with the Magdeburg hemispheres are handsomely depicted in his celebrated treatise De vacuo spalio, published in 1672. This air- pump and the hemispheres are preserved in the Royal Library, Berlin. The Hon. Robert Boyle improved Guericke's air-pump in 1659, and used it in laying the foundations of pneumatic chemistry, a field that from this time occupies our attention almost exclusively. Boyle's air-jDump and accessory apparatus are figured in plates accompanying the several editions of his works. As is well known the earlier chemists paid little or no atten- tion to gases though they were familiar with processes which *Geber remarks that " Fire is not a thing which can be measured, therefore it happens that error is often committed in it." He evidently felt the need of thermometers- 134 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 27 generated them ; i^erbaps the study of gases was retarded by lack of inventive skill in handling thena. Dr. Beddoes writing of Mayow, and reflecting on this point, uses the following language : "To be sensible of the merit of these contrivances of Mayow, we have only to recollect how difiiciilt it must have api^eared to confine, divide, remove from vessel to vessel, examine and manage at pleasure fugitive, incoercible and impalpable fluids like that which we breathe.'' In 1G72 Boyle obtained hydrogen gas by the action of acids on iron filings, and showed its combustibility, but seems ta have made no attempt to collect and examine the gas. The first scientific experiments in piieumatic chemistrj' were made by John Mayow, an Oxford physician, born in 1645 and died at the age of 34 years. In 1669 he published a work entitled De sal-nilro et spirilu nilro-aereo, in which he figures his apparatus and • describes his methods. To confine and study any gas, the air, for example, he inverted a cucurbit in a pan of water, used a siphon to establish the level of the water within and without, and introduced a shelf into the wider part of the cucurbit, from which he hung substances whose action he examined. He used a burning glass to ignite substances, camphor for example, placed in the cucur- bit ; he also introduced a mouse in a cage supported on a tripod under the cucurbit. He adopted an ingenious plan for trans- fering gases from one vessel to another, shown in the engraving that accompanies his rare treatises. Maj^ow failed to distinguish different gases, but was the pioneer in the method of manipula- ting them. Of his anticipating later theories of combustion we make mere mention, as our theme excludes theory. Mayow' s contrivances were somewhat imjiroved by the eminent English botanist, Rev. Dr. Stephen Hales. In his " Vegetable Statics" (1727) he describes an attempt to analj'se the air with many ingepious devices. Hales heated substances in a retort communicating by means of a siphon with a receiver consisting of a flask inverted in a vessel of water, the flask being supported by a cord from above. He heated nitre in this way, and especially noted the permancy of the air obtained, but failed to examine the properties of the air ; and he failed to differentiate the several gases obtained by his methods. Even before Hales, however, an obscure physician in France, Moitrel d' Element, had invented improved methods of handling gases. In 1719 he published a little pamphlet containing lucid instructions for measuring and collecting gases ; especially noteworthy is the separation of generator and receiver first suggested by him. The poor physician's skill was unnoticed by 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 135 liis contemporaries. In his old age a benevolent person took him to America where he died unhonored and unsung. In 1757 Professor Joseph Black, of Scotland, determined the true characteristics of "fixed air," but seems to have made no important addition to the apparatus for studj-ing gases. In 1767 Mr. Peter Woulfe published a paper in the Philos. Trans, describing an improved apparatus for condensing vapors without loss and applied it to hydrochloric acid, ammonia, nitric acid, and other substances obtained by distillation. The apparatus still bears his name. The prodigious advance made by Dr. Joseph Priestley in the mauijDulation of gases won for him the appellation : " Father of Pneumatic Chemistry." His prime invention was the inser- tion of a shelf into the vessel containing water, and the perfora- tion of this shelf so as to admit of the gases ascending into receivers standing thereupon. This pneumatic trough is not mentioned by Priestley in his first chemical paper, published in 1772, entitled " Directions for Impregnating Water with Fixed Air." In this tract the accomj^anying figures illustrate his method of collecting the gases. A bottle for generating the carbonic acid, to the mouth of which is attached a bladder, and this in turn communicates with an inverted jar by a flexible "leather pipe sewn with waxed thread" and having quills thrust in both ends to keep them open. This simple apparatus was the forerunner of the modern soda-water machines. In the first edition of Vol. I. of Priestley's " Experiments and Observations on Different Kind of Air," published two years later than the little treatise above noticed, the author modestly says " my apparatus for experiments on air is in fact nothing more than the aj^paratus of Dr. Hales, Dr. Brownrigg, and Mr. Cavendish, diversified and made a little more simple." He then describes the pneumatic trough, both for water and for quicksilver, the method of jDOuring air upward under water, the process of generating gases by heating substances in a gunbarrel, by aid of a burning glass in thin phials filled with quicksilver, and the way to pass an electric spark through gases in a jar over water or over quicksilver. This introductory chapter clearl}- shows the greatest progress in the manipulation of gases, and the way in Avhich Priestley energetically applied his skill by the discovery of nine gases is well known to every student. After the disastrous riots in Birmingham, July, 1791, in which Priestley's house and laboratory were wholly destroyed by an angry mob, an inventory was taken of Priestley's laboratory as 136 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FeB. 27 a basis for damages. This inventory has been preserved and affords detailed knowledge of the material resources of the chemists of the period. It is divided into groups, philosophical instruments, electrical, optical, mathematical and chemical apparatus, with a small stock of substances, the whole footing up to the value of £605. The imperfections of some of the apparatus used by Priestley are shown by the fact that he experimented from December, 1782, to May, 1783, on the direct conversion of water into air by distillation only without the intervention of any other substance, to discover after all that this astonishing result was due solely to leaks in the porous earthen retorts emi^loyed in the process. The retorts, as well as other articles had been sui^plied gratis by Joseph Wedgwood; and Priestley, writing for more, desired to have them glazed within and without. (Scientific Correspondence of Priestley. New York, 1892.) Scheele, the poor apothecary in a little village of remote Sweden, had to contend with obstacles sufficient to crush any but the bravest heart. With a few bottles, bladders, common dishes, and the simple appliances of a primitive pharmacy, this man of expedients accomplished wonders. Scheele's api^aratus for generating oxygen was a simple retort, to the neck of which be tied a bladder. He was not acquainted with the pneumatic trough at the time of his chief discoveries. (Scheele's " Air and Fire," London, 1780.) In 1796 James Watt, the English engineer, published an account of a simplified " Pneumatic Apparatus for Preparing Factitious Airs." In this is figured an "air-holder'' made of tin-plate japanned inside and out, into which gas is conducted from the generating retort in a furnace, by means of a metallic tube bent at an angle of 45°, and terminating in the air-holder. AVatt lays great stress on the advantages of inclining the "lower pipe," as stated, through Hales certainly anticipated him in this point. This pneumatic apparatus was manufactured by Boulton and Watt, at Soho, in two forms ; a large size sold for £10 2s. 6d, including auxiliary articles, and a portable apparatus for £3 15s. The pam^Dhlet states that this apparatus ai'e especiall}^ adaj^ted for procuring • ' hydrocarbonate and oxygen air." Meanwhile, across the Channel, in Paris, the 02:)ulent jihysi- cist and chemist, the unfortvmate Lavoisier, enjoyed the advantages of highly specialized and admirably constructed ajiparatus of every description. An inspection of the plates in the Traite elemenlaire de chimie" (1798) shows what a wealth of excellent utensils he had at his command. Two sketches by 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 137 the pencil of Mme. Lavoisier introduce us into his laboratory while he is conducting experiments in the respiration of a man at work, and of a man in repose. After Lavoisier's legalized murder, an inventory of his laboratory was made by a govern- ment commission, among whom was the distinguished Nicholas Leblanc. Accurate balances now became most important adjuncts to chemical laboratories. Towards the close of the last century Italy contributed to chemical research two inventions of marvellous power — the Galvanic trough and the Voltaic pile, destined to electrify material human progress. To sketch the development of chemical apparatus in this century would prolong this superficial review unnecessarily ; modern appliances are distinguished by careful adaptation of the means to the end, and are improved by the introduction of coal-gas for heating purposes, by the use of india-rubber tubing and platinum vessels, and by the delicate products of the glass blowers' skill. To these features may be added novel contrivances for analytical chemistry, a field too recent to require elucidation. [The paper was illustrated with 80 lantern views of the apparatus and laboratories described, including also exterior and interior views of the following institutions : Laboratories of the Museum in Paris, of Strassburg University, Bonn University, College of New Jersey, Kent Laboratory of Yale University, University of Michigan, Lehigh University, Cornell University, College of the City of New York, Woman's Medical College of the New Y'ork Infirmary, and School of Mines, Columbia College. March 6, 1893. Eegular Business Meeting. President Bolton in the chair, and twelve persons present. Messrs. L. S. Foster, of 35 Pine street, New York, and A. Eugene Crow, of 2 West 53d street. New York, were elected Resident Members. President Bolton called attention to the recent distribution of the pamphlet containing the addresses delivered at the First Joint Meeting of the Scientific Alliance of New York, held at the American Museum of Natural History, on November 15, 1892. 138 TKANSACTIOXS OF THE [MaR. 13 SECTION OF ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS. The Section was called to order at 8:20 p. m., Professor Rees in the chair. A paper was read by Mr. C. A. Post on " A New Driving Clock for Equatorials " The apparatus described has been in successful operation for more than a year. It involves a new method of control (not electric), and a new differential slow motion for photographing. This slow motion can be applied in in either direction without stopping the clock, or changing its rate. Mr. Jacoby communicated the results of some measures made by him upon Mr. Rutheiifurd's plates of (3 Cygni. These additional measures seem to confirm the existence of a large parallax for this star. Professor Rees exhibited a photograph of a meteor trail, recently obtained by Mr. John E. Lewis, of Ansonia, Conn. March 13, 1893. Stated Meeting, Mr. Charles F. Cox in the chair, and 72 persons present. The minutes of the meeting of February 23, 1893, were read and approved. The following paj)ers were read by title and referred to the Publication Committee : "The Myriopoda collected by the United States Eclipse Exploring Expedition to West Africa in 1889 and 1890," by O. F, Cook and T, S. Collins. " Studies on the Life-History of some Bombycine Moths, with Notes on the Setse and Spines of certain Sj)ecies," by Alphaeus S. Packard. BIOLOGICAL SECTION. Professor G. S. Huntington, in a paper on "Anomalies of Pectoralis, major and minor," referred to the value of those 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 139 as often presenting reversions. He emplaasized the evolutionary tendency in man to proximalizatiou of the points of attacliment of the shoulder muscle group, referred to cleavage variations in the anterior portion of brachio-sphalic sheet, and compared these with ontogenetic characters in anthropoids. Human anomalies in this group are best interpreted by cynocephaloids, and not by the higher forms. The i^aper was referred to the Publication Committee. Professor E. B. Wilson, " On Regeneration and the Mosaic Theory of Development,' presented a brief critique of the latest results of Eoux and Weismann. The following paper was read, illustrated by specimens and maps : THE SUNAPEE SAIBLING : A FOURTH NEW ENGLAND VARIETY OF SALVELINUS. BY JOHN D. QUACKENBOS. The sudden and unaccountable appearance, in large numbers, of a valuable food and game fish in any of our inland waters, would be hailed as a most important event, both in the angling and the ichthyological world. Assume that fish to be a prolific and rapidly growing salmonid, surpassing all congeners in symmetry and brilliancy of coloration, equalling the most delicate in table merits, and excelled in game qualities by the land-locked salmon alone— and you may readily compre- hend the enthusiasm which, some seven or eight years ago, greeted the discovery of a New Hampshire charr characterized by such a synthesis of traits. Until the year 1885, but three species of trout, or more prop- erly charr (a Grelic word, meaning red or blood-colored), were recognized as native to New England, viz. : I. The Salvelinus fontinalis, or common brook trout. II. The SalueUnus namaycmh, the longe, togue, lake, or Mackinaw trout. III. The Salvelinus slagnalis of Jordan ; oquassa of Girard and Giiuther, the diminutive blue-back of the Rangeley Lakes of Western Maine — the last, closely allied to species widely spead through Arctic America, as well as to the European saibling. 140 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaE. 13 From this classification is omitted the Salmo Agassizii of Lake Monadnock, N. H., now I'ecognized as a variety of brook trout, and the Salmo hvcho, or hunchen trout, meutioned by Dr. Smith in his "Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts," 1833, and therein claimed to be related to the true Hacho of the Danube. Its forked tail, dusky hue, and reddish spots, coupled with the statement that it was brought to market in a frozen condition from lakes in New Hampshire and Maine, make it probable that the Massachusetts hucho was merely a variety of namaycufth. Even Professor Jordan, in an article on the Salmon Family, published in "Science Sketches," as late as 1888, is silent as regards a fourth New England species ; although Professor Garmau, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, in his paper on the American Salmon and Trout (1885), calls attention, under the head of Salmo font inalis to a form, Fig. 16, of which he says : " A knowledge of the younger stages of this fish from the same locality may lead to a separation of the form." Subsequent research has led to such a separation, and ichthyologists now admit the presence of a fourth variet}^ of Salvehnus in New England — the Alpinus Aureolus, a golden- hued Alpine charr, whose life history and general characteristics it is the purpose of this paper to present. As far as is known, the first specimens of this new fish to be distinguished from the well-known forms were taken in Sunapee Lake, Mei-rimac County, New Hampshire, during the summer of 1881, by Lieut. Ransom F. Sargent and Alonzo J. Cheney, respectively of New London and Wilmot — experienced anglers who immediately recognized in the three individuals captured by them specimens of a salmonoid distinct from the namaycush and from the brook trout of the region. The fish taken weighed from two to three pounds each, and were known by the name of " St. John's River trout," because they were believed to be descendants of fry planted in the lake in 1867, by the first Fish Commissioners of the State and supposed by the resident popula- tion to have come from the St. John River, N. B. The conspicu- ous development of the under jaw in the males led to the local names of " Hawk bill " and " Hook bill " ; the silvery sides of the fish in summer gave rise to that of " white trout." In the two following years, 1882 and 1883, a sufficient number of the deep-swimming stranger was taken to excite comment and conjecture on the part of outsiders who had heard of its presence in Sunapee Lake ; and in 1884, Colonel Elliott B, Hodge, of Plymouth, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Commissioner, finding confirmation in the reports that reached 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 1-il him for a view be seems long to have privately held, ventured the opinion that many Canadian and Northern Xew England lakes contained a large charr, whose habit of retiring to the deepest and coldest waters throughout the summer and of approaching the surface for a few days only at the end of October explained a general ignorance concerning its very existence. Colonel Hodge's theory received apparent substan- tiation from his accidental discovery in October, 1885, of vast numbers of a mysterious charr spawning on a midlake rocky shoal at Sunapee, He wrote at the time : "I can show you an acre of these trout, hundreds of which will weigh from 3 to 8 pounds each. I could never have believed such a sight possible in New Hampshire. The new fish differs from the brook trout in many ways. The females have a brownish back and lemon-colored sides ; the males, a bluish-black back and golden orange sides. The fins are much larger than in the brook trout, and there is an entire absence of the mottling characteristic of the latter fish." Thus Colonel Hodge recognized in this graceful high-colored charr, a new variety, and he lost no time in inviting the atten- tion of scientists to the New Hampshire beauty. Specimens were forwarded to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass., and to Dr. Tarlton H. Bean, Curator of the Department of Fishes, National Museum, only to pronounced at both centres varieties of brook trout. Colonel Hodge resented this classification, and sent Dr. Bean other large specimens of the new fish, together with several Sunapee brook trout, urging a more minute examination. Dr. Bean compared the two forms with special care, changed his opinion, frankly admitted that Colonel Hodge was right, and i>ronounced the Sunapee trout " a Salvelinus of the Oquassa type, but of so enormous a size that at first he did not suspect its i*elation to that species." The late Professor Baird inclined to the opinion that it might be a representative of a highly variable Arctic charr found in the Dominion of Canada and Greenland, viz. : The Salvelinus AlpinuH Arcturus. A controversy at once arose regarding the origin of this unique trout. Whatever its species, it was a new comer in the opinion of some ; in that of others, a native, the oldest of our charrs, representing the ancestral type and now almost extinct. Those who took the first view were chiefly residents of the immediate region. Such unhesitatingly declared that they had never met with the new fish prior to 1883 or 1884. They regarded the Oquassa (or "Quasky," as it began to be called) 142 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaK. 13 either as a descendant of some of the Salmouoidoe introduced into Sunapee in 1867 and succeeding years by the Fish Com- missioners, or as a cross between one of these forms and the native brook trout. In no other way could they account for its sudden appearance in large and steadily increasing numbers. A theory of descent from blue-backs imported from Maine in 1879 by Commissioners "Webber and Powers as a food suj^ply for the larger Salmonida, was soon set aside on the ground that the little trout of the Rangeleys rarely exceeds one-quarter IDOund in weight, and could not possibly, even if supplied with an abundance of appropriate food and exposed to the tonic effects of a favorable change of waters, ever attain the alder- manic proportions of the Sunapee charr. Moreover, Dr. Bean, in a scholarly paper, published in the American Angler and the Forest and Stream, February, 1888, called attention to six essen- tial i^oints of difference between the Sunapee trout and the blue-back, thus effectually disposing of the argument. The theory of natural hybridism found few supporters among ichthyologists, and no introduction of charr other than the Jisingeley Sal velinus fontinalis and Salvelinus Oqnassa could be proved, as none had been officially reported. From the first, Colonel Hodge, believing in the existence of a similar charr in the Province of Quebec, championed the theory of aboriginality, ingeniously combating every objection made to it : — I. That so conspicuous a food-fish could not for one hundred years have escaped the notice of anglers, poachers, and scientists alike, by showing how the habits of the white trout protected it from observation and persecution, it being rarely seen except late in October on mid-lake reefs, that is, at a time of year when angling was out of season, and in localities dangerous or impossible of access in the old-style unseaworthy flat-bottoms during the autumnal wind storms. The secluded habits of the European charrs explain in like manner the obscurity which has so long involved the life history of those fishes. Colonel Hodge further claims that ordinary fishermen knew no difference between the white and the brook trout, a thing not to be wondered at when such authorities as Garman and Bean failed at first to separate the forms. II. The more serious objection that no cause can be shown why the white trout, if a native, should suddenly increase in the lake, so as to attract the attention of hundreds of observers, and be taken literally by the ton, Commissioner Hodge meets with the following clever theory : Before the introduction of black bass, about twenty-five years ago, yellow perch swarmed in the lake, and there being then no smelt food, subsisted 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 1-13 largely on the eggs and fry of the lake-spawning charr. At the spring hatching-time these perch held carnival among the help- less alevins, almost efiecting, by their periodic ravages, the extermination of the white trout. But as the black bass increased in number, they fell upon the i:)erch in turn, until the lake was virtually rid of this voracious pest. Thus the trout, which had been reduced to the verge of annihilation, had a chance to increase. The black bass did not interfere with it for two reasons : I. Both bass and trout have an abundance of easily caught and tasteful food in the land-locked smelts, which have multi- plied since their introduction until now they literally school in millions. II. Bass and trout are not found in the same sections of water at the same time, the trout keeping in a temperature of 42° to 45° (on the surface in May, 60 feet below in July and August); the bass preferring 65° to 70^ in summer, and hibernating in winter and during the spring hatching time of trout. Thus freed from persecution, the saibling has increased, until it is now present in myriads. This is the most ingenious of all the explanations that have been advanced. It is based on facts throughout, and is difficult of overthrow, especially when coupled with a theory of the writer's, that after the introduction of smelts, about twenty years ago, the saibling, if native, learned so far to change their habits as to rise from the depths and follow this food fish to the shores during May and June, thus increasing the chances of discovery. Wherever the smelt schools, there the saibling will be found. An axiom of the Suuapee fisherman is : " Hold the smelts and you will hold the trout," so the smelts are baited in certain localities during the fishing season. This theory of Colonel Hodge encounters but a single objection, viz. : If the perch and saibling have been fellows in the Sunapee basin since its excavation during the Glacial Epoch, why was not the process of extermination completed centu- ries ago ? It must have been in the case of other lakes on the same primeval water shed, unless we are prepared to admit that an anadromous fish became land-locked in one inland lake alone, while avoiding other bodies of water much more accessible and equally compatible. Geology proves that Sunapee once discharged its waters through Newbury summit, and thus was tributary to the Merriraac. Hence it is fair to assume that when these trout migrated, following like man and the larger mammalia, but through watery channels, the retreating ice- 144 TRANSATIONS OF THE [MaE. 13 fields and glaciers, they swarmed into many lake-basins, where they became extinct before the advent of the white man. Were l^erch the instruments of extermination ? If so, why did they not put in as thorough work at Sunapee ? It is but right to state at this point that the history of the charr in some Eurojjean lakes is the history of a fish that has disappeared within the memory of man. This is notably the case at Loch Leven, once the home of a charr that rivalled the magnificent fish of Windermere. The trout {fario) seems the fitter to survive. While the discussion just outlined was progressing, charr identical with the Sunapee Lake form were sent from Dan Hole Pond, Carroll County, New Hampshire, and from Flood's Pond in the town of Otis, sixteen miles from Ellsworth, Maine, to Professor Garman and Dr. Bean. The water of both these lakes is deep, clear and cold, as in the case of Sunapee. Dan Hole Pond, at the head waters of the Ossipee River, is tributary to the Saco. Flood's Pond connects with the Union Kiver, which enters Blue Hill Bay near Mt. Desert. Thus the new Salvelinus is represented in three distinct drainage basins in New England. In compan}' with Colonel Hodge I visited Dan Hole Pond in the summer of 1889, but failed to secure a specimen of the saibling. In the fall of 1890, however, several specimens were sent from the pond to Cambridge and to Washington, where they were pronounced identical with the Sunapee form. Old residents declared them identical, also, with trout which had for fifty years been speared on the same spawning bed. The present representative from Ossipee informs me, through Com- missioner Hodge, that he has seen many individuals of this species weighing 10 and 12 pounds — -all this, years, before a German saibling egg was imported. I am indebted to Dr. Walter M. Haines, of Ellsworth, Maine, for the following facts regarding Flood's Pond: The Pond is three miles long by three-fourths of a mile wide. It is sur- rounded by high, well wooded land, and is one hundred feet deep, the bottom being pure white sand or gravel. There are the usual inlets and spring-holes. The outlet is a stream of con- siderable size, and has been dammed in many places for the last forty years. The Flood's Pond saibling, declared b}' Professor Garman to correspond exactly with the Sunapee fish, is known in the neighborhood as the "silver" or "white trout," to distinguish it from "the square-tail" or brook trout, and "the togue " or lake trout. It attains a weight of five or six pounds. Two hundred pounds have been taken by a single 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 1-15 aug-ler iii a day, but it is never caught except iu one particular locality. It spawns in the lake on a fine gravel beach, in three feet of water, and does not enter the inlets. Nothing but smelts are ever found in its stomach. Flood's Pond contains neither perch nor bass. Since, then, by reason of dams on the outlets, no fishes of marine ancestry could, within the last fifty years, have gained access either to Dan Hole or Flood's Pond without artificial help, since land-loclied salmon only have been planted in these l^onds, and that quite recently ; and since there seems to be trustworthy evidence of the existence of this so-called silver trout in each body of water for at least half a century, it is fair to conclude that the Salvelinus Alpinus Aureolus is a native of two Maine drainage basins, and, therefore, is aboriginal to New England, an American representative of the European saibliug, red charr, or ombre chevalier. But this does not prove its aboriginal it}' to Sunapee Lake, New Hampshire, although, all circumstances considered, it renders such aboriginality highly probable, inasmuch as no data exist to establish a plant of this variet}' at any time in Sunaj^ee Lake, and no German saibliug eggs were brought to New Hampshire before January, 1881. The fact that the fry from the eggs sent to Plymouth in that year were placed in Newfound Lake, a body of water apparently in every way adapted to the nature of the saibliug, but have never been heard from, is further significant here. It may prove that the foreign fish cannot find the necessary conditions in the New Hampshire lakes. The failure of the farmers at Sunapee to distinguish between the large brook trout and the saibliug (if the latter fish was a native) is in contrast with the positive knowledge of a difference at Dan Hole and Flood's Ponds. Its explanation may be sought in the habits of the Sunapee saibliug as already described ; or in the ignorance of the few who in old times may ever have seen it, and who cared for nothing beyond the fact that it was good to eat. Ford's Pond in Warren, and Silver Lake in Madison, New Hampshire, are associated with traditions of tbe fall spearing on their spawning beds of large high-colored trout, which are believed, from reports as to their habits and appearance, to have belonged to this same species. These two ponds, then, may represent a traditional habitat. The waters of Silver Lake find their way into the Saco ; I was unable to learn whether Ford's Pond discharges into the Connecticut, or through Baker's River into the Merrimac. Trausactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. May 18, 18S»3. 146 TEANSACTIONS OF THE [Mar. 13 I am under obligations to Dr. Basbford Dean, of the Depart- ment of Biology, Columbia College, for material assistance in determining the following anatomical descrijjtion of the Suna- pee saibling : — Two specimens of 1 pound and 3 pounds respectively, were carefully examined. FIN RAY FORMULA. 1)1 1 lb. specimen. Pectoral 14 Dorsal 13 Ventral 11 Anal 13 Caudal 26 SQUaMATION, Id 3 lb. specimen. 13 14 10 13 28 (including radimentaries.) 1 lb. specimen. Lateral 211 to 212 38 to lateral line 62 to vent 3 lb. specimen. 226 41 63 DENTITION . ♦ (feebly developed as in the Irish charrs) 1 lb. specimen. 3 lb. specimen. Maxillary (superior and inf.) 13 and 14 Pre or Intermaxillary 4 and 5 Vomerine (very small) 6 in number Palatines (right and left) 12 and 13 Glossal, two rows of 4 GILL R.\KERS. (slender and longer than in the brook trout.) 18 in lirst row 18 in second row 16 4 and 3 2 and lai'ger 13 and 13 5 and 4 1 lb- specimen. 45 (small and short) 9 on each side. PYLORIC CCECA. BRANCHIOSTEGALS. 3 lb. specimen. 52 lu young specimens, the gill-cover overlaps tbe root of the pectoral ; not in adults. There are spots on tbe dorsal fin, and attention should be called to a post-ventral dermal appendage . 1893.] NEW YORK xVa\DEMY OF SCIENCES. 1-47 Such differences in individuals from the same locality would seem to impaii-tbe value of anatomical peculiarities as diagnostic marks. In fact, in a most able paper on the Saibliugs, published in the American Angler, February 5, 1891, Professor Garman states that in foreign specimens examined by him the dentition differs, corresponding more or less nearly with that of the New Hampshire fish — that differences of age imply radical differences in teeth, fins, stomach, and *especially gill-rakers — which latter. Professor Garman believes to be " most important in function earl^Mu life and to deteriorate with change to coarser food." The deterioration consists in a distortion not alike in auj' two individuals ; " the rakers curve and twist in every direction like a lot of writhing worms suddenly become rigid." In old si^ecimens, they lose their points and grow club-shaped. As to the number of gill-rakers, in saibliug where Dr. Bean found 10 and Professor Jordan 14 to 15, Professor Garman counted 14 to 18. And in the New Hampshire charr, where the first found 14 and the second 11 to 12, Professor Garman counted 13 to 16. Id our specimens, 18 were counted in each row. The external characteristics of the Suuapee fish, however, distinguish it conspicuously from the three other charrs of New England. Its graceful build, small and delicately shaped head, small mouth, excessively developed fins, more or less markedly emarginate caudal, spots without the blue areola, and iinmottled back, at once separate it from the brook trout and link it as closely as its structural peculiarities with Austrian, British, and Swiss congeners. The nuptial coloration is gorgeous beyond example among our indigenous Salmonidic. Through- out the spring and summer the back is dark sea-green, blending on the sides into a flashing silver, which in turn deepens below into a rich cream. But as the October pairing-time approaches, the fish is metamorphosed into a creature of indescribable brilliancy. The deep purplish blue of the back and shoulders now seems to dissolve into a dreamy sheen of amethyst, through which the inconspicuous pale lemon spots of midsummer liame out in points of yellow or vermilion fire ; while below the lateral line, all is dazzling orange. The fins catch the hue of the adjacent parts, and pectoral, ventral, anal, and lower lobe of caudal, are ribboned with a broad white margin. As in the case of the Windermere charr, these white margins of the fins are very conspicuous in specimens seen swimmiug in the water. There are great differences in intensity of general coloration, and the females are not usually as gaudily tinted as the males. The intermediate types and diiferent depths of hue observable in an autumn school recall the public promenade in a "West Indian 148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 13 city where all shades of transition are found from pure white to tawny black. Those who have seen the flashing hordes on the spawning beds, in all their glory of color and majesty of action, l^ronounce it a spectacle never to be forgotten. Sunapee saibling kept in confinement entirely lose the sexual instinct, and with it the wedding garment. So sensitive are the females that their removal from the spawning beds to the State Hatchery on the opposite shore "of the lake, only one mile distant, seriously interferes with the maturing process, so that it is impossible to secure eggs, the fish having frequently to be returned to the water several times during the operation. Hence, as far as possible, ripe specimens are selected on the natural spawning beds, and there stripped rapidly and returned to the lake. Instances are not exceptional in which females refuse to part with their eggs and carry them over to the next season. This tallies with Cholmondelej^-Pennell's suggestion that some of the Windermere charr spawn in alternate years. Although a vigorous fighter, the white trout is very easily injured, the prick of the hook often being followed by fatal consequences, especially in young specimens. Hundreds are thus unavoidably killed every summer. In this respect the Sunapee charr is very unlike the blue-back of Maine, of which Commissioner Stanley said : "They are a hardy fish and nearly as tenacious of life as the eel or bull-head. I have frequently seen them alive in the morning after lying all night on the shore." One other phase of Aureolus life is a marked tendency to deformity. Remarkable differences in shape, as well as colora- tion, are normal to the quadroons and octoroons of the Sunapee spawning beds ; but these differences are sometimes carried to the verge of distortion or even monstrosity. Humped backs are not infrequent ; but the most repulsive, and at the same time most common malformation is the shrinking of the mature fish into an eel-like shape, with abdominal respiration and an intensely reproachful human look in the cavernous eyes which fix your gaze with a mysterious intelligence. The death scene of such a fish will haunt one for days, tempting him to specula- tion in the field of metempsj'chosis. Professor Garman has proclaimed his belief in the identity of the Sunapee, Dan Hole, and Flood's Pond c/iarrs with the European saibling, and that "the affinities of these forms are closer to that saibling by way of an Atlantic steamer than by way of Greenland and Iceland." Professor Jordan has said " the American charr is probably not a distinct species, but native to the waters where it is now 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 149 found, and not an importation ffom Europe.' "Should it appear," lie continues, "that tlie saibling in that part of Germany from which specimens have been brought to America, have gill-rakers like those of the Sunapee trout, this opinion would be reconsidered." Professor Garman has dis^josed of the gill-rake argument, but, as far as I know, Professor Jordan has not further expressed himself in regard to the Sunapee form ; although in a recent article on the salmon and trout of the Pacific coast he states, that in the lakes of Greenland and the Eastern part of British America the European charr is as abundant as it is in Europe — a fact which has only lately been made manifest." Mr. J. G. A. Creighton, of Ottawa, Canada, writes under date of Feb 16, 1893: "From the height and character of Sunapee Lake, it is not at all improbable that an Arctic variety may have survived there, which has perished, or been transformed, elsewhere south of 55° or 60° N. Lat. Arctic species must have been common to all our waters in the Glacial Period." Professor Garman writes me, of November 17, 1892, that " no good evidence has been advanced of the existence of this species on this continent, previous to 1884." It is a matter of record, however, that 60,000 German saibling eggs, the gift of the Deutsche Fischerei-Verein, wex'e sent to New Hampshire in January, 1881 . It is further to be taken into consideration that the writer of this paper had in his possession, at Sunapee Lake, in the summer of 1882, a four-pound specimen of the saibling in question — which could not have developed from fry hatched the preceding year! No saibling have ever been sent to INIaine by the United States Fish Commission ; and, as has been shown, it is impossible that the fish in Flood's Pond can be descendants of the New Hampshire charr. The theory that there was nothing in recent years to prevent the Salvelinus a//n'/ii(*- of Sunapee Lake from descending the Connecticut River to Long Island Sound, and thence making its way into streams and connecting lakes from the shores of Connecticut to those of Greenland, ma}- be disposed of in a single word — Dams. The Sunapee charr is undoubtedly a representative of the European form ; but reasons have been given why it is believed to be a native of this continent. It differs no more extensively from the several European varieties than they do among them- selves. Von dem Borne, Professors Benecke and Dalmer, Wittmack, of Berlin, all speak of important differences in form, size and color, according to age, sex, season and habitat. All authorities allude to the solid sea-green or dark-blue of the back, ttie 3'^ellowish sides, and the red or orange belly. Benecke and Dalmar refer picturesquely to the half-moon tail. As to 150 TRAILS ACTIONS OF THE [MaII. 13 sjiots, there is endless variety. Some forms have none ; some, large s^iots ; others, small — yellow, orange and red — and singu- larly, in certain species, each spot is surrounded by a white ring or halo. The fins take their color from the back and sides, and have the broad white band. The foreign saibling is gregarious like the Sunapee form ; lives similarly on crusta- ceans, w^orms and fish-food, and seeks the deepest and coldest waters. The greater the altitude, the more intense the coloration and the smaller the fish. In Lake Zug, the saibling run eight or nine to the pound ; in Lake Geneva, they are said to attain a weight of over twenty pounds. The flesh is white or red, which, however, makes no difference in the flavor. The foreign saib- ling is taken in nets, or with hook and line ; it is eaten fresh or smoked. Colonel Hodge has attempted to prove a dissimilarity between the Gei'man saibling aud the Sunapee charr by crossing each with our common brook trout, and noticing differences in the markings of the resulting fry. He writes me that the eggs of the cross between the German saibling and our brook trout are larger than those of the cross between the Sunapee Aureolus and the brook trout, and that there are conspicuous differences in the fry of the two hybrids, both of which are fertile. Cross- ing our brook trout, with other forms of the foreign saibling, would certainly give different results again ; so the experiments of Colonel Hodge cannot be regarded as conclusive, beyond establishing the fact that the AvreoluH of Sunapee is in no ivay connected ivith the particular form of German saibling sent to Netv Ham])shire in 1881 ; but this is a most important fact in the induction of its aboriginality to New England. Colonel Hodge further states another supposed difference: "The aureolus does not seek the streams to spawn ; the saibling does." But the saibling does not always spawn in streams ; the rule is the other way. At Windermere, the charr spawn both on the rocky becl of the Brathay, and in the lake. Schroeder, in his " Katechismus der Kunstlichen Fischzucht," expressly states that the saibling in October and November ascends from the depths in which it usually lives, and si:)awns off sandy shores in the lakes. Pro- fessors Benecke and Dalmer describe great schools of fish spawning in October or later, even as late as January and March, on sand or gravel near the shores. The Sunapee fish, then, simply follows the practice of its European relatives. Finally, there can be no doubt as to the economic value of this new fish. It is one of the most prolific of ov;r salmonids. 1893,] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 151 the female averaging 1,200 eggs to the pound, or 200 more than the brook trout. It is also a singularly rapid grower where smelt food abounds. The extreme weight known to have been attained in Sunapee is about eight pounds, although accounts exist of much larger fish in this water, and of specimens from Dan Hole and Flood's Ponds, weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds. The Sunapee saibling takes live bait readily, and affords the angler superb sport if the tackle be light. With a seven-ounce rod and 200 feet of line, the killing of a five-pounder from a sail-boat, running across the wind, implies a delightful excite- ment that, to be appreciated, must be experienced. Three tons of this fish have been taken with hook and line in a single season, at Sunapee. The flesh is of a light salmon color, and when in its perfection excels in delicacy that of all other Salmonida;. We most confidently recommend this charr to the attention of State Commissioners interested in placing a valuable and easily propagated food-fish within reach of the people. It is facile princepfi, from its rush at the cast smelt to the finish at the breakfast table. Those who best know it, most enthusiastically endorse, with a slight amendment, Professor Jordan's apothegm : "Nothing higher can be said of a salmonoid than that it is a (Sunapee) charr." March 20, 1893. Stated Meeting. Mr. Gakrettson in the chair, and about 110 persons present. Commander Theo. F. Jewell, U. S. N., delivered an illus- trated lecture on "Torpedoes." At the close of the address a vote of thanks was tendered the lecturer. March 27, 1893. Stated Meeting. The meeting was held in the Law School of Columbia College, in conjunction with the Scientific Alliance of New York, in honor of the late Professor Joun Stronc; Newbekuy. 152 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 27 Mr. Chas. F. Cox in the chair, find about 110 persons present. Professor Hermann L. FAiKcnrLD, of Rochester University, delivered the following address : A MEMOIE OF PROFESSOR JOHN STRONG NEWBERRY. BY HERMANN LE ROY FAIRCHILD. As the bright declining sun is suddenly' eclipsed bj' clouds and so sinks slowly into night, so passed from earth our glorious friend. But in the memor}' and hearts of those who knew him he still lives, as a noble personality, impressive in appearance, charming in com^ianionship, wise in counsel, him- self greater than any work that he has done. To review his life will be both a profit and a delight. He was great enough to demand our reverence, good enough to claim our affection and human enough to win our sympathy. It is the highest tribute that those who knew him best loved him the best. Dr. Newberry was, taking him all in all, a truly great man. To a remarkably fine intellectual and moral endowment there had been added an unusually wide experience and a large degree of scholarly attainment. His abilities were such that he could have taken a high place in almost any profession. In his chosen field of natural science he was a master, and everwhere, whether in society, the university or scientific circles, he was a conspicuous figure, admired and honored. By gifts of birth Dr. Newberry was a naturalist, and his inborn inclination toward geologic science triumphed despite the fact of his early selection of another profession. He was born before the days of scientific schools, and lacked the advan- tages of special instruction and scientific association. In his scientific work he was largely a self-trained observer and an independent worker, one of the few great "naturalists" by impulse. His range was not limited nor his independence checked by undue regard for authority of predecessors or teachers. His relation to schools of science was creative, not receptive. HIS LIFE— CHRONOLOGY. Dr. Newberry's life was not particularly eventful or romantic Its history is "the story of an active leader in his chosen fielc c. field. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 153 who did the work, assumed the responsibilities and enjoyed the honors that came to him. Dr. Newberry was the youngest of nine children, seven daughters and two sons, none of whom are now living. He Avas born December 22, 1822, in the town of Windsor, Conn., where his eminent ancestors had lived since the settlement of the town by immigration from Dorchester, Mass., in 1035, nearly two centuries. His grandfather, General Eoger Newberry, was one of the Directors of the Connecticut Land Comj^any that in 1795 purchased of the State of Connecticut the bulk of the tract in Northern Ohio known as the " Western Reserve of Connecti- cut." Henry Newberi-y, the father of John Strong Newberry, removed to the Western Reserve in 1824. He owned at first a square mile of land near the j^resent center of the city of Cleveland, but exchanged it for a tract at the falls of the Cuya- hoga River, nine miles south, where at that time the water power was very valuable. He founded the toAvn since known as Cuya- hoga Falls, and engaged actively in the develojjment of the coal resources of that region. Upon his property was mined the first coal known to have been offered for sale in Ohio.* Mr. Newberry built a fine house of a local red sandstone, erected mills and was very successful in his enterprises. Dr. Newberry's early life was passed amid fortunate condi- tions of competence and refinement, and the influence of his natural surroundings on the mind of the bov^ can be plainly traced. We can be sure that while he roamed the fields and woods with boyish love of sport he had the observant eye of the naturalist. The deep rock gorge of the river gave him a geologic section and an illustration of geologic agencies, while the coal mine on the estate supplied the plant fossils that awakened an interest in paleontology, which was to become a passion and the subject of much of his life work. His perse- verance is proof of his scientific bent, for by his own collecting and by exchange he accumulated a geologic cabinet which filled a large room in his father's house, and was the nucleus of what eventuall}'^ became that extensive collection, now one of the glories of Columbia College. Before he entered college he had collected and studied mollusca and made an herbarium and a catalogue of the flora of the state, and had substantially mas- tered the zoology and botany of his county. * For most, of the facts relating to the ancostry of Dr. Newberry the writer is indebted to Mrs. Newberry, and to his oldest livintr son. Arthur St. .Tolin New- berry, of Cleyeland. For faets relating to liis boyliood and colJetre days m Key. N. 8. Burton, Needhani, Mass., Kev- E. Bushnoil, Cleveland, Ohio, and Hon. M. C Read. Hudson, Ohio. 154 T15ANSACTI0NS OF THE [MaR. 27 In 184G, at the age of twenty-four, young Newberry graduated from the Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio, where, in the preparatory school, he had also made his preparation. During his college course and afterwards he was a close friend of his teacher in geology and natural science, Professor Samuel St. John. In college he Avas the same popular, kind and manly spirit that we knew in later life. A classmate writes of him : " Not a coarse word, not a cruel speech or act, not an ungentle thing of his doing occurs to the recollection of intimate acquaintance with him."* Another classmate writes : " He was a thoroughly manly man, a most congenial companion, a faithful student, not ambi- tious to excel, though ' facile princeps ' in his favorite studies, and above the average in all ; with a choice fund of wit and humor which he never used to give jDain, but always pleasure ; a self-poised and ' all I'ound man ' not often met with at his age. Though he had enjoyed advantages for social culture superior to most of his classmates he showed no consciousness of sui:)eri- ority to any. His tastes were refined and pure, and I cannot conceive him capable of a mean or dishonorable action. I think he had a very just estimate of his own abilities. He certainly was not conceited, and was not self-distrustful. ''f After graduation he studied medicine as a post-graduate of the college and was assistant to Samuel St. John, the Professor iu Chemistry in the Cleveland Medical School, from which he took his degree of M.D. in 1848. During the year following he practiced medicine at Cuyahoga Falls, and married Miss Sarah B. Gaylord, of Cleveland, In the autumn of 1849 he went to Europe for further medical study. Besides his attendance upon lectures and clinics in Paris he frequented L'Ecole des Mines and Le Jardin des Plantes, and heard the lectures of Adolphe Brongniart, the great j^aleobotanist of that day. Before return- ing to America he visited the south of France, Italy and Switzerland. In 1851 he resumed the practice of medicine in Cleveland, which he continued for about four years. During this time he kept up his interest in natural science and published ten papers, all in natural history except one, and the last four on fossil plants. His library and collections must even at this time have been well known, for during 1853 or 1854 they were used by Leo Lesquereux, who received from Dr. Newberry nu;ch help in the beginning of his labors on the plants of the Carboni- ferous. * From an article by Rov. E. BushnoU. in Th.p. Adelbert, January, 1893. t From a letter to the writer by Rev. N. S. Burton- 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 155 NotwitlistiiBtliug Dr. Newberry's ilattcriiig- success as a pliysi- cian his iucliuation toward scieutilic work was uiicoLqueraLle, and it is evident from the following extract that his heart was not in his medical practice : "A conversation with him in his Cleveland office, abont two years after he opened it indicates his modesty and his high standard of attainment. He was asked, by me whether he intended to make the practice of medicine the work of his life. His answer was, 'no, I am prosecuting my studies with the hope that some day I may be able to till a place like Professor St. John's.' "* In 1855 he left his practice and accepted the position of geologist and botanist on the government expedition to northern California and Oregon, under Lieut. Williamson. The party left New York May 5, 1855, reached San Francisco May 30, and began field work, having reference to a route for the Pacific Railroad, near Benicia July 10th. Passing northward through the Sacramento Valley, and by the Klamath lakes, they reached the Columbia River October 9th, but detached parties were in the field until the middle of November. The jiarty returned to Washington, D. C, late in January, 1850. Dr. Newberry made large collections in geology, botany and zoology and spent the following year in Washington preparing his report, which is contained in the sixth volume of the Pacific Railroad Reports. In 185G~7 he was Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in the Columbian College, Washington, D. C.f • Dr. Newberry had scarcely completed his report of the Wil- liamson expedition before he became the physician and natur- alist of the Colorado Exploring Expedition under Lieut. Jos. C. Ives. In charge of one detachment he left San Francisco October 28, 1857, by coast steamer for San Diego and crossed the desert to Fort Yuma, where he awaited the main body of the party, which sailed from San Francisco four days later, and after much delay by adverse winds in the Gulf of California reached the mouth of the Colorado November 20, and there putting together a small iron steamboat, carried in sections from Philadelphia, arrived at Fort Yuma January 9, 1858. During this delay Dr. Newberry had employed his time in exploring the surrounding region and in making valuable scien- tific collections. The expedition steamed up the Colorado river as far as the mouth of the Black Canon, which was reached * Extract from a letter to the writer by Hon. M. C. Read, of Hudson, Ohio. t In .sonio publications it is incorrectly stated that he held this position until 1866- He hold it only one year as here stated. 156 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 27 March 5, where an accident ended the steaniboat voyage. The exploration of the Canon was continued thirty miles farther, then the party returned to IMojave Valley and March 24 the steamboat " Explorer'' was sent back to Fort Yuma. The part}^ with escort left the river, explored the Colorado Plateau some distance, then struck eastward past the San Francisco Mountains, reached Fort Defiance Mslj 22, and returned east via Santa Fe and Fort Leavenworth. Dr. Newberry ever after took great interest in the Moquis tribes with which he became acquainted upon this trip. The report of the Ives Expedition was published in 18G1. The geological report covers all the region which Dr. Newbeny traversed from San Diego to Fort Leavenworth, and was the first detailed description of the lower Colorado region.* The 3^ear following Dr, Newberry was again in the field as geologist of the San Juan Exploring Expedition, under Capt. J. N. Macomb. This expedition started from Santa Fe about the middle of July 1859, passed up the valley of the Rio Chania, across the continental divide to the head waters of the San Juan, thence into southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah to near the junction of the Grand and Green rivers, and returned by a circuitous route to Santa Fe in November. On account of the demoralization caused by the war the report on the geolog}^ and paleontology was not published until 1876. It is imj^or- tant to note that it was then printed exactly as written sixteen years earlier. That it should have been published so long after the work was done and subsequent to other work in the region is proof of its value, and of Dr. Newberry's confidence in the accuracy of his own earlier work. The outbreak of the war of the rebellion found Dr.Newberry in Washington, in the service of the War Department, with which he had been connected for five years as Assistant Surgeon. In the supreme hour of his country's peril he forsook his scientific work and gave to the nation the benefit of his medical training. On the 14th of June 18GI, he became a member of theU. S. Sanitary Commission and immediately entered heartily into its work. On the first of Sei^tember he resigned from the army and took the Secretaryship of the Western Department of the Sanitary Commission, having supervision of the work in the valley of the Mississippi, with headquarters first at Cleveland but afterwards at Louisville. By correspondence and visitation he " began the work of turning into one great channel the thousand springs of philanthropy and patriotism that were bursting out in ham- *In 1853 Jules Mareon had traversed the region on the 35th parallel as geolo- gist of one of the Pacific Railroad exploriuy expeditions. 1893.] KEW YORK ACiVDEMY OF SCIENCES. 157 let and city all over the land." Depots for tlie distribution of hospital supjilies Avere rajiidly established and plans made for the relief of sick and Avounded. During all of the years of the war Dr. Newberry was active in ameliorating the sufferings of both friend and foe, Avhich, with his kindness of heart, was doubtless a much more grateful work than would have been that of aggression and destruction. In overseeing the work of his organization he at times followed the armies and was present at the battle of Chattanooga. The following extract from a letter by Hon. M. C. Head, one of his assistants in this work, would show that Dr. Newberry had organizing and executive ability and power of leadership. " All the agents for this work were selected by Dr. Newberry and assigned to their special duties. With an executive ability that is rarel}^ equalled he seemed instinctively to put every man at the task he was best fitted for and to keep him up to his most efficient work. All reported to him at least every month, and oftener when emergencies demanded. All were treated with the utmost kindness and consideration, and all learned to love and honor him. No part of his life work is entitled to higher honor." His rej)ort upon the work of his department exhibits the character and magnitude of his labors. Over $800,000 in money were expended in the benevolent work of the commission, and hospital stores were distributed to a value of $5,000,000. Dr. Newberry published only three scientific papers during the five years of his service on the Sanitary Commission, but added to his geologic collections which had become very large. His scientific reputation was fully established and at the incor- poration of the National Academy of Sciences in 18G3 he was named by Congress as one of the fifty original members. At the close of the war Dr. Newberry was employed at the Smithsonian Institution as collaborator and referee in matters relating to geology. AVhen the chair of Geology and Paleontology in the School of Mines, Columbia College, was established Dr. Newberry was called to the place and honorably filled it from September ISOG to the time of his death, a period of twenty-six years. During the last two years, however, he was unable to perform its duties. His extensive private collection in geology and ])aleontology was purchased by Columbia College and was the beginning of the geological museum which under his affectionate care has become one of the best in America. It is esi)ecia]ly rich in fossil fishes and fossil plants, the two groiips of his particular 158 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 27 interest, and in collections illustrating economic geology, neces- sitated by tlie character of the instruction. Of the events during this last third of Dr. Newberry's life rich in labor and fame, only brief notice can be given. In 18G7 he was President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Burlington meeting, and gave the presidential address. In the same year he received from his Alma Mater the degree of LL. D. In February 1868, Dr. Newberry became the President of the Lyceum of Natural History in the City of Ncav York (after 1876 the New York Academy of Sciences) and remained the presi- dent of the society until the year of his death. His name was enrolled in most of the learned societies in America, and in many foreign societies. When the Ohio State Geological Survey was established in 1869, Dr. Newberry, who had kept his home in Cleveland, was called by Governor Hayes to the directorship and for several years the work absorbed most of the energy and time that could be spared from his college duties. The results will be spoken of later in this paper. An error was made in postponing the publication of the economic work and the appropriations were suspended in 1874. There was no formal termination of Dr. Newberry's survey, but from about 1878 he felt that his work there was over, and that there had been injustice and ingratitude, which wounded his sensitive spirit and perhaps somewhat embittered the later years of his life. At the Centennial Exposition, 1876, Dr. Newberry was one of the judges, and prepared the report upon building and orna- mental stones. From 1880 to 1890 he was President of the Torrey Botanical Club. In 1884 he was appointed one of the paleontologists of the U. S. Geological Survey, with particular reference to his favorite lines of study, fossil plants and fossil fishes. One of his highest and most aj^preciated honors fell to him in 1888 in the award of the Murchison Medal, conferred by the Geological Society of London for distinguished services to geo- logic science. In 1889 he was First Vice-President of the Geological Society of America, which he had helped to institute in 1888. He was one of the committee of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science which was instrumental in organizing the International Congress of Geologists, and perhaps his crowning and well deserved honor as a geologist came in his election as President of the Congress for the Wash- ington meeting, in August, 1891. But the tribute came too late 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 159 for him to perform the duties of the office, or even to attend the meeting. During- the winter of 1889-90 Dr. Newberry was ill through exhaustion and a severe cold, from the effects of which he did not fully recover. The following summer vacation, which should have been wholly taken for recuperation, was used in close work npon the Amboy Clays flora. All his life his vacations had been periods of ardent scientific work and he could not realize the necessity of rest. On the 3rd of December, 1890, he was stricken with paralysis. For only a brief period in 1891 was he able to be in his rooms at the college for a few hours at a time. Restoration was sought in the South, in California, on the shore of Lake Superior and at his home of later years in New Haven, Conn., but the rest had been too long deferred. On the night of December 7, 1892, at his residence in New Haven, the honored scientist, the beloved teacher, the noble man went to his well-earned repose. Dr. Newberry's oldest son died after beginning medical prac- tice in Cleveland, but Mrs. Newberry with five sons and one daughter are now living to do honor to the memory of the revered husband and father. SCIENTIFIC WOKK. Dr. Newberry was perhaj^s the broadest minded, the most cultured, the best equipped by natural gifts, education and experience, of American geologists. Indeed, he was too broad, and deeply interested in too many branches of natural science to attain the ver}^ highest position in any one. He was too great a naturalist to be a specialist. His love of all sides of nature would not permit him to concentrate his work upon a single department. That Dr. Newberry's work covered a veiy wide range a glance at the list of his publications will show. In many branches of geology and paleontology he was conspicuous, and his work was recognized in allied sciences. The titles in the list of his papers and books may be classified as follows : Geology, general ... 73 " economic . . 38 Paleontology, vegetable . . 43 " animal . . .25 111 08 160 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 27 Botany . . , • . . . 7 Zoology ...... (i Piiysiograpby . . . . . .6 Archteologfy ...... 5 Biography . . . . - . 3 Miscellaueovis ..... 5 Total 211 In Geology.- -Two of the four earliest published articles by Dr. Newberry in 1851, were geological. But his first important publication in geology was in 1857, on the Geology of California and Oregon, in Vol. VI. of the Pacific Kailroad Reports. This, with his botanical and zoological reports in the same volume, are the result of his first serious jDrofessionally geological work, as geologist and botanist to the Williamson Expedition. This, first of his formal reports, exhibits well the good qualities of his work, namely, an appreciation of the more important phenomena, keen insight into their relations, a remarkable power of generalization, with lucid presentation. Our admira- tion for this work is increased when we consider that these reports were prepared and published, with elegant plates, in the year following the expedition. They justly made his instant reputation and the trip was naturally but the introduction to his labors in the far West. His more elaborate geological report of the Ives Colorado Exploring Expedition was published in 1861, and that of the Macomb Expedition not until 1876, as already stated. That Dr. Newberry was a pioneer in geologic exploration of the far west has not been sufficiently recognized by the younger generation of geologists and the public at large. His work was in advance of his time. The region was so unknown, the geo- logical phenomena so stupendous, the problems so new, that even those capable of appreciating the results could not imme- diately use them. There was no popular interest, the field . being unknown and inaccessible. But more than these was the fact that the interest of the whole nation was absoi'bed in the political questions of the hour, and the war of the rebellion prevented scientific work and exploration. Even Dr. Newberry yielded to the demand of the hour and gave himself to the ser- vice of his country. When the war was ended, Dr. Newberry's work was in the east. Other men went into the western fields, traversed the areas so well described by him, built upon his foundations, found an audience and public appreciation and received a reward not less their due that Dr. Newberry never wholly received his. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 161 As a professor in Columbia College, Dr. Newberry received a liandsome salary aud found much time to devote to liis chosen work outside of his college duties. During this period of twenty-four active years he was incessantly working, and always with more upon his hands than he could properly dispose of. He accomplished, however, by his industry, a vast amount of the best work of his life. All but thirty-six of his 210 published papers were written after 18GG. Between 18G9 and 1882 he published the several reports of the Ohio Geological Survej', consisting of three brief reports of progress and seven volumes of final reports, four of these in geology, two in paleontology and one in zoology, and a geolog- ical atlas. He personally did a large part of the field Avork and wrote the descriptions of a number of the counties. In the course of his work about Lake Erie he arrived at important con- clusions concerning the preglacial drainage of the glaciated region and of the geological history of the Great Lakes, which later investigations have justified and which show his powers of insight and generalization. Earl}' in his work. Dr. Newberry made practical application of his knowledge, his first paper in economic geology bearing- date 1857. Thirty-eight of his titles fall into this class, most of them, however, after 1880. His opinion came to be highly valued and much sought after in relation to various kinds of mining properties, and frequent journeysweremade in difiterent directions, even to Mexico. Probably no other man has had, from personal observation, so full knowledge of the geology and resources of our national domain. The economic collec- tions of the Columbia Museum were enlarged by these scien- tific trips to mining and quarrying districts. He also had a practical interest in the application of his science, and at one time was a large holder of petroleum lands, and had interests in Vermont marble quarries. Dr. Newberry was one of the editors of Johnson's Cyc]oj)edia, and wrote several of the papers in Appleton's Cyclopedia. It is evident that Dr. Newberry's early experience in the western fields greatly influenced his? mind aud all his later work. To an intellect naturally comprehensive aud sympathetic the years spent among the imposing natural features of the west added great breadth and poAver. The sweep of his experience, with his learning and mental grasp, enabled him to treat geo- logical problems in a large wa}'. He was never trivial orflip])ant or superficial. In his speaking and writing the loftiness of his Transactions IN. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. May 26, 1893. 162 TEANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 2T theme was felt, for iu describing so simple a thing as a fossil leaf, or shell, or fish-scale, he was reverent, as one dealing with the record of the earth's organic history . He made a scientific use of the imagination, and having in his mind, he reproduced to his audience, a picture of the geological conditions or phe- nomena he was describing. In Paleontology — Dr. Newberry's most elaborate work, and on which his fame will more firmly rest, is that in paleontology. The study of coal-plants was one of his earliest pastimes, and during his medical course iu Paris he improved his opportuni- ties for enlarging his acquaintance with the science. If he had made a specialty of vegetable paleontology he could have become the foremost authority of his time. Forty-three titles of his papei'S belong to paleobotany, five of them dated as early as 1858. In 1884 he was made a paleontologist of the United States Geological Survey, and published, in 1888, Monograph XIV, on the "Fossil Fishes and Fossil Plants of the Triassic Rocks of New Jersey and the Connecticut Valley." Two unpublished monographs, " The Flora of the Amboy Clays '" and " The Later Extinct Flora of North America," will appear as posthumous works under the editorship of his pupil and friend, Arthur Hollick. Following is a critical estimate of Dr. Newberry's work in paleobotany by a present worker in that field : '' Dr. Newberry was a great geologist, without which qualifi- cation no one can appreciate the full significance of fossil plants. He never spoke of them without evincing a lively consciousness that they were once real and living plants, and that they belonged to the great record which time has made of the events which have transpired iu the history of the earth. It was this constant realization of the objective truth which geology unfolds, a state of mind apparently wanting in the majority of geologists and paleontologists, that gave Dr. Newberr^-'s utterances their chief weight, as well as their peculiar charm. ' ' Dr. Newberry was not a good botanist. He had once been, but had neglected to keep pace with the science. Moreover, he seemed to have very little interest in the more important principles of botau}-. He was utterly indifferent to questions of classification, and to judge from his published papers one order of arrangement was as good for him as another. This was not from lack of knowledge, excejDt so far as indifference checked the effort to know, and he was not wholly indifferent to the order of development of plant life, as his article on Fossil Botany in Johnson's Cj'clopedia shows, although at the time that was written the true order had not yet been established as 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 1(33 it is understood to-du}', and his admissions of the apparent failure of plants to sustain the general law of development might have then been justified. " Of Dr. Newberry's early pioneer work on the Carboniferous flora of America, I do not profess to be a competent judge, but I believe it was as good as could have been done at that time. His determinations of the later forms have not all stood the test of time, but the same can be said of ever}' worker in this field. He was no species-monger, and not prone to found species on insuflficient material. His descrijitions were all governed by strong common sense, and, unlike many other paleobotanists, he never forgot that he was dealing with real things. His discussions, therefore, of doubtful or unknown forms were alwaj's dii'ected to ascertaining what the}' really were and not merely to deciding what they should be called.* Dr. Newberry's first published paper, 1851, had reference to fossil fishes, and twenty-four publications, distributed through the years, prove his continuous interest in ichthyic paleontology. In the later years of his life this branch seemed to have the greatest fascination for him, and he never wearied of talking- about the remains of the remarkable Devonian fishes which he had described in the Ohio reports and deposited in the Colum- bia Museum, As early as 185G he began publishing descriji- tions of the j^aleozoic fishes of Ohio, and in Vol. I., Pt. II., and Vol. II., Pt. II., of the Ohio Survey Reports, he described the most remarkable of fossil fishes, the Dinichthys, which Las probably attracted more attention from the scientific world than any other single description in his original work. The reports upon the fossil fishes for the Illinois Geological Survey were made by Dr. Newberry and published in ISGG and 1870. In addition to Monograph XIV of the United States^ Geological Survey, on the " Fossil Fishes and Plants of the New Jersey and Connecticut Trias,'' above referred to, he published an elaborate Avork in 1889, INIonograph XVI of the United States Geological Survey, on " The Paleozoic Fishes of North America." Dr. Newberry kept himself informed as to the work done by others in ichthyic paleontology, and was very familiar with the older writers. His discoveries were numerous and important, and his detailed work was thorough and conscientious. He knew more about paleozoic and mesozoic fishes than any one else in this country. He gave little attention to the taxonomy * Extracted from a letter to the writer by Prof. Lester F. Ward. 164 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 27 of his subject, and was, perhaps, somewhat indifferent to classi- fication, and did not attempt to seriously philosophize.* In Botany. — His best work in botany, exclusive of paleobotany, was done in the earlier years of his work, before it was crowded to one side by geology. Before he entered college he had, as stated above, gathered an herbarium and had made a Catalogue of the Plants of Ohio. This list was published in 1859, making forty-one pages of the Ohio Agricultural Report of that year. His earliest and best botanical publication was the report in 1857 on "The Botany of Northern California and Oregon," in the sixth volume of the Pacific Railroad Reports. His chapter in this elegantly illustrated report upon the forest trees of the region described is a classic in American forestry. In Zoology. — Dr. Newberry was, as a boy, interested in the mollusca, and one of his earliest papers, 1851, was upon this groujD. Only five papers of his can be strictly classed as zoological, apart from the paleozoology, the most important being u^Don the zoology of Northern California and Oregon. However, there was no great branch of animal life with which he was not ver}^ familiar. RELATION TO NEW YORK. SOCIETIES. Rarely in this country has one man been longer at the head of a prominent scientific society continuously and without opposition. For twenty-four years Dr. Newberry honored the New York Academy of Sciences as its President. He was first elected in February, 1868, and remained continuovisly in office until February, 1892, when, on account of illness and absence, he was made Honorary President. During all this time there was no opposition to him, but, on the contrary', he was often re-elected in the face of his positive declination. He was seldom absent from the chair, and was a graceful and dignified presid- ing ofiicer. In later years, perhaps, he did not use the power of his position and reputation for the benefit of the Society lo the extent that a critical judgment, or the expectation of mem- bers might have demanded, but he was ever more than loyal, and gave the Society an added dignity and standing. And if he did not discover and develop the latent talent of the membership, or in the meetings draw out the modest members in discussion, he largely compensated by his own freely given knowledge. It was rare that any subject was presented before the Society to * The writer is indebted to Professor E. D. Cope for the substance of this ^estimate of Dr. Newberry's work on fossil fishes. 1893] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 165 which the President could not add something of genuine interest and vahie. Frequently his summing up of the discus- sion would give the very substance of the whole matter, and usually he would give, in his lucid way, the true bearings and the relationship of the presented matter to other subjects. In no circumstance did the range of his knowledge appear to better advantage than in the weekh' Academy meetings. It was very rarely that he presented a paper in writing, it being his habit to extemporize. This habit of extemporizing in public speech, and hesitating for the right word, gave to his utterance a drawling tone, which, to strangers, was very marked and unpleasant, but it was forgotten when they came to appre- ciate the man and his mattei". Dr. Newberry was chiefly responsible for the removal of the Academy Library first to the American Museum of Natural History, and then to Columbia College, and also for changing the meeting-place from the Mott Memorial Hall to the Academy of Medicine, and later to Columbia College. The Torrey Botanical Club, for the decade 1880 to 1890, had Dr. Newberry as its President. He was a member of the Century Club, and of the New York Yacht Club. HIS INFLUENCE. With his attractive personality, rich experience, vast knowl- edge, and his social, generous nature, Dr. Newberry, more than any other geologist of America, was a " Nestor " to the younger generation of workers in geolog}'. Many had worked under his direction ; in later j'ears many young men had been his students in the School of Mines, and a host of men had profited by his assistance or fatherly advice. His high rank in the scientific world and his convenient location in the metropolis naturally brought to his rooms many visitors. No geologist on the continent had a wider acquaint- ance among scientific men, or was so affectionately regarded as a friend and counsellor by the younger geologists. For the youngest and the hvimblest he always had a cheery, cordial greeting. He was never too busy to drop his work for a caller, who was always made to feel that he was more than welcome. There was an unaffected cordiality andcheeriness in his manner which won instant confidence. No young man ever left his presence without encouragement and stimulus. His greatest influence, unseen but gracious and enduring, was in the personal contact with students and friends, and the impress of his marked individuality upon the younger men. 166 TKANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 27 His amiability seriously interfered with bis scientific and literary work, for bis time was mucb broken by friendly visits. He would never turn away a caller to another time, no matter bow urgent the task upon which be might be engaged. In is hours and work be was not systematic, and important corre- spondence or undertakings were neglected or left unfinished for lack of the time that a man less sociable, more severe and sj'stematic would have found. Like many men of large experience and attainment be was inclined to monologue in conversation, but there was an entire absence of anything like boastfulness or self-laudation. He was the most' modest of men, and it was exceedingly rare to bear from him anything about himself. He had a fund of anecdote, reminiscence and personalities about other people, which, related in his picturesque and pungent way, made others willing to listen. His style of writing was somewhat ornate, perhaps better described as j^icturesque, but very lucid and elegant. His short articles in Johnson's Cyclopedia may be taken as examples of bis literary style, being models of clear scientific statement with enough of animation to vivify them. With his broad knowledge, his instinct of the true relations of facts, bis capacity for generalization, his imagination, and his charming literary style, he might have become a great popular writer in natural history if he had sought such fame. But he wrote almost nothing of a popular character ; an article on "The Geological History of New York Island and Harbor," in the Popular Science Monthly, October, 1878, is, perhaps, the only one of such a kind. HIS CHARACTER AND DISPOSITION. In temperament Dr. Newberry was cheerful and buoyant. He was fond of companionship, and there was an element^ of humor in his conversation, sometimes even a sort of dignified gaiety in his manner. But like many persons of lively disposi- tion, coupled with a sensitive and debcate spirit, be had his periods of depression, and a trifling impatience of manner at times was not inconsistent wnth a very kind and affectionate nature. A slightly irascible temper of later years was probably due to bis mode of life, and to some disappointments, and was really more in manner than in reality. A certain extravagant and picturesque way of speaking of other men might sometimes have caused misjudgment by a listener who did not know his real kindness of heart. Like most earnest workers and writers in descriptive natural science, he was jealous of priority and 1893,] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 167 sensitive to criticism, but he never cherished any malice, and his disagreements with other men Avere not of a bitter and enduring- nature. A personal interview would always disarm him. He was exceedingly affable and considerate of the feelings of others, in the truest sense a gentleman, and his really line nature was best shown by the gentleness and considerateness with which he always treated those beneath him in position, and the very humblest in his employ. This sweetness of manner seems to have been a characteristic of the man from his youth. Dr. Newberry was not a fighting scientist, nor a debater. His temper was too fine and sensitive to enjoy conflict with men. He keenly felt any injustice, but only in private was he likely to tell his feeling or sjDeak his mind of opposition. He "was not a politician, nor a schemer, and never sougiit to use men for his own pui-poses. He was pleased with praise and appreciated the honors which came to him in justly large meas- ure. He had a proper amount of self-esteem, some personal vanity and much true dignity, and was naturally sensitive, generous and affectionate. He had a passion for music, and his violin was a sympathetic companion on his early expeditions. He also had an artistic sense, and many illustrations of scenery and fossils in his reports were diawn by himself. Upon the exploring expeditions, from 1855 to 1860, Dr, New- berry was of necessity sej^arated from his family. His labors on the Sanitary Commission, 1861 to 1865, also kept him away from his home, and subsequently for twenty years at Columbia ■College, with his family in Cleveland or abroad, he had rooms in the old college building, and lived an in-egular and somewhat lonely life. HIS FAME. The ending of bis life was inexpressibly sad. He was stricken down while vigorous in mind, and with youthful feeling and ambition, and w^hen many years might well have been anticipated for work and enjoyment ; in the midst of work Avhich he loved and upon which he felt that much fame rested. For two years he was compelled to be the helpless witness of his own impo- tence. We may not know the mental agony of those long months when his body refused to obey his will, and he was conscious of his departing intellectual powers. Some of us saw him during those months, and our love and admiration were increased as we beheld the proud, sensitive spirit trying to be cheerful and brave and hopeful when there could be no hope. From the scientific and social circles he was suddenly 168 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 27 removed, and the world was compelled to go on without him, while in his loneliness he awaited the inevitable. What will be his fame as time goes on ? Upon what will it mainly rest? In several lines of work he achieved distinction, even eminence. His most enduring fame will be that of a student and translator of the earth's organic history. Possibly in time his pubhshed work may be superseded by fuller and more thorough treatises. But if he did sacrifice the fixture reputa- tion, that required specializing and limitation, it was for the sake of broader scholarship and greater peisonal influence. If he be less influential in the printed page of future science he was the more powerful as a formative force in the day lie lived. If he be less known of men in the coming years, it was to be better known of men while living, and to carry into the eternity a richer life and a broader intellect. Can we doubt which is the better fame? Dr. Newberry will live in a silent but a nobler way than merely b}^ printed pages, in the universe of intellectual and moral forces, wherein must ever be the impress of his life. And his best renown is in the hearts of the many, who as young men and beginners in scientific work, felt his sympathy, caught some of his enthusiasm, and were by him stimulated and invigorated for life's work. Professor James F. Kemp presented the following letters : NO. I. Letter from A. St. J. Newberry regarding Dr. Newberry's ancestry : CiiEVEiiAND, March 14, 1893. Prof. H. L. Fairchild. Dear Sir — My mother has forwarded me your letter of the 8th inst., requesting that I should give you information, so far as I can, concerning Prof. John Strong Newberry's family history in America. I tal c. 1, p. 4, m. h). It was further noted that the triconodont type (as Amphileste.H) was probably the hypothetical point of divergence of jjlacental mammalia. As to the form of crowns the theory (Kiikenthal — Rose) that complex mammalian types were made by concrescence of simple reptilian cusps, was uj^on the evidence of the Jurassic mammalia, shown untenable— as well as the converse theory that cetaceans have derived hoiuo- dynamous forms b}^ the splitting of the cusps of triconodont. Dr. Bashford Dean, in "Contributions to the Anatomy of DinichJhy.-^," correlated the parts of this Devon-Lower Carboni- ferous Arthrodiran with those of Coccosteus. Notes were made 188 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [ApR. 24 upon the (1) disposition and character of the lateral line organs, (2) pineal foramen, (3) nasal capsules, (4) dentary plates (homo- logics), (5) ginglymoid articulation of lateral shoulder plates,. (6) character of 'shagreen,' (7) j^robable disposition of paired and unpaired fins. Prof. N. L. Britton presented a ""Note on the Genus; Lechea. " This genus of Cistinese is entirely American, and from the investigations of Mr. Wm. H. Leggett and Dr. Britton appears to consist of about fourteen species. April 17, 1893. Stated Meeting. President Bolton in the chair, and about sixty persons present. Prof. W. Le Coute Stevens delivered the seventh lecture of the Public Lecture Course, 1892-1893 on "Naples and Its Surroundings," fully illustrated by lantern slides. At the close of the address a vote of thanks was tendered the lecturer. April 24, 1893. Stated Meeting. Pi-esident Bolton in the chair, and thirty-six persons present. section or GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. Prof. Kemp exhibited four-toed tracks in Triassic Sandstone from McDowell's Quarry, Upper Montclair, N. J. Dr. A. A. JuLiEN read a paper entitled " A Study of the New York Obelisk as a Decayed Boulder," illustrated by lantern slides. The following papers were read by title, " On the Organs of Special Sense in the Coccosteids," by Dr. Bashford Dean, 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 189 PLANT DISTRIBUTION AS A FACTOR IN THE INTER- PRETATION OF GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA, ^ WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LONG ISLAND AND VICINITY. BY ARTHUR HOLLICK. In "The Medical Repository," Vol. IIL, 2d Ed., pp. 325-335, and Vol. V., pp. 212-215, published in the years 1805 and 1802, respectively, Samuel L. Mitchill indulges in speculations con- cerning the mineralogy and geology of Long Island and its vicinity. From his articles I quote as follows : Long, or Nassau Inland. This piece of land, which forms the east and south sides of the bay and harbour of New Y'ork, extends north-east- wardly about 120 miles, and terminates in a fork ; the shorter extremity of which is called Oyster-Pond [Orient Point], and the longer, Montauk- Point. . . . A ridge of hills runs almost the entire length of it on the north side and completely divides its waters. . . . The face of the country, on the one side of this elevation, which may be called the Spine of the Island, is exceedingly different from that on the other. On the north side it is variegated, uneven, and very much diversified with hills and dales ; while on the south, little else is discovered by the traveller than a Hat surface, sloping very gradually away toward the ocean. This will stand as a very excellent general description of Long Island topography as we recognize it to-day, but the speculations concerning its geology, which follow, reveal the curious conceptions of men of science at that time, and cause us to smile involuntarily. He says : From a survey of the fossils in these parts of the American coast, one becomes convinced that the principal share of them is granitical, composed of the same sorts of materials as the hiffhest Alps, Pijrennees, Cau- casus, and the Andes, and, like them, destitute of metals and petrifactions. The occurrence of no horizontal strata, and the frequency of vertical layers, led him further to suppose, thai these strata are not secondary collec- tions of minerals, hut are certainly in a state of primrnal arrangement. . . . What inference remains now to be drawn from this statement of facts, but that the fashionable opinion of considering these maritime parts of our country as flats, hove up from the deeps by the sea, or brought down from the heights by the rivers, stands unsupported by reason, and ogon macrourus, Cup7-essus thyoides and Lycopodium inundalum, var. Bigeloviif To these a few others subsequently discovered may be added, such as Quercus heterophylla, Q. Jiudkinii, Helonias buUata, etc., but the list, as it stands, is sufficient for the purpose of this paper. Shortly afterwards Prof. W. W. Bailey called attention to the fact that many of the characteristic species were to be found to a limited extent, near Worden's Pond, in southern Rhode Island, giving a list of nineteen, and saying that other peculiar southern forms could be added. | Continuing along the coast into Massa- chusetts, the next locality which has received special attention from botanists, is the vicinity of New Bedford, and here we may note the occurrence of some twenty-five of the species pre- viously enumerated, according to the catalogue of the plants of this region prepared by E. W. Hervey.§ As we proceed fur- ther northward and inland the number of these species become fewer and more scattered, and are finally reduced to such as might fairly be excluded from the list of characteristic jiine bar- ren plants, on account of their still further northward range ; such as Tephrosia Virginiana, Solidago jjuberula, Kalmia angusti- folia, Asclepias obtusifolia, Juncus pelocarpus and LycojMdium in- v.ndatum, all of which are reported from as far north as Canada. * Bull. Torr. Bot. Club. vii. 81-83. t These species were taken from the " Flora of Richmond Co.. N. Y.," N. L. Britton and Arthur Hollick, and " Catalogue of the Phaenogamous and Acrogenous Plants of Suffolk County," E. S. Miller and H. W. Young. + Bull. Torr. Bot. Club- vii. 98. 99 8 " Flora of New Bedford and the Shores of Buzzard's Bay, with a Proces- sion of the Flowers." 1893.] NEW YORK AC.VDEMY OF SCIENCES. 193 The occurrence of Magnolia glauca near Cape Ann is however so well known that exception would naturally be taken if men- tion of this southern species were neglected; but it need onlj' be said in this connection that the fact of this tree being native at tliat locality has been questioned by those who are competent to exjjress au opinion. John Robinson, who has written and published works upon the flora of that region-'', says, on page 10 of " Our Trees " : "Why the Ii[ag)tolia should be found in Gloucester is a mystery. The ' Hermit, ' a well known Glou- cester character, a student and lover of nature, feels sure that it was brought from the South, Virginia, perhajis, and jilanted in some old garden." If, however, the tree be truly native there, the fact is of the utmost significance, as will be appre- ciated when the geological discussion in the final portion of this contribution is considered. The question which will now naturally arise is, how did this pine barren flora spread to the localities in New England where we now find it ? It is a southern flora, and is characteristically American ; few, if any of the species being known in the old world. Its course of migration was from the South, either by way of the mainland through New York and Connecticut, or else across the salt w-ater from Long Island. If it came by way of the mainland we should reasonably expect to find evidences of its migration through New York and thence eastward through Connecticut. It might be urged, however, that these plants are mostly sand-loving species and that the soil throughout the re- gion mentioned would not be favorable for their growth. Such is doubtless the fact and their almost entire absence from the region is not surprising. In fact, knowing the plants as we do, it would be very difficult to imagine them either becoming * ■• Tho Flora of Essex Co., Mass.," cloth, pp. 200. " Our Trees," paper, pp- 120. I have not thought it necessary to refer any more fully to works upon the botany of Massachu.setts, but for the convenience of those who may wisli to continue the comparisons and perhaps note further facts of interest,! liavo concluded to append tho followintc list, from which the principal part of my information in regard to the flora was obtained : "Flora of FitchburK and Vicinity," Fitchbure: Agassiz Assn. " List of the Plants Growing Naturally in Milton, Mass" J. R. Churchill. " Flora of Worcester Co., Mass." Jos- Jai-kson. "List of riauts Found Growing Wild Within Thirty Miles of Amherst." N. A. Cobb. " A Catalogue of Plants Growing Without Cultivation Within Thirty Miles of Amherst College." E. Tuckorman and C. C. Frost. ■• A List of Plants Growing Without Cultivation in Maiden and Modford, Mass., With Some Contributions to a Flora of Middlesex County." Middlesex In.stitute. Transactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. June -20, 1893. 194 TRANSATIONS OF THE [APR. 24 established or even migrating over such unfavorable soil. Care- ful search through the various published floras and lists of plants covering that region show but a few scattering species of those which have been enumerated as pine barren plants.* In no instance is there an}^ such colony as we find in Ehode Island and southern Massachusetts. Their presence, therefore, in southeastern New England cannot be reasonably accounted for on the theory of migration by way of the mainland. The only other alternative is to admit that the plants have come to their present location by way of Long Island, and this supposes either a former land connection betw^een that island and the New England coast in comparatively recent times — that is to say, since the Glacial Epoch- -or else that the plants have jumped over wide stretches of salt water. In regard to the latter supposition it can only be said that it is against our previous general observation and experience, and would do violence to what has been observed in regard to the dissemina- tion of plants. In this special instance, also, the prevailing winds and currents are both opposed to such a method of dissemina- tion, the currents in particular being east and west, with a remarkably predominant westward tendency, as may be seen by the wear and tear of the eastern exposures of land and the transportation of the eroded material westward, where it forms the constantly lengthening spits and barrier beaches, * The flora of Conneeticut has been poorly worked up compared to that of its adjacent Wtates, but the following list will be of value to those who may wish to obtain details : " List of Plants Growing Spontaneously in Litchfield and Its Vicinity " John P. Brace. (Am. Journ. Sci. iv. 69-89 ; 292-309), 1822. " Catalogue of Phenogamous Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultiva- tion Within Five Miles of Yale College, Ct.'' Dr. Tully. (Appendix to E. Bald- win's " History of Yale College ")■ " Catalogue of Phenogamous and Cryptogamous Plants Found Growing in Meriden, Conn." Emily J. Leonard. (Trans. Meridan Sci. Assn. i., issi, and seauel in 1885). " A Catalogue of All Phenogamous Plants at Present Known to Grow Without Cultivation in the State of Connecticut." Jas. N. Bishop. " Plants Found Growing in Meriden, Conn. Since Issue of the Catalogue in 1885." Mrs. E. B. Kendrick. (Trans. Meriden Sci. Assn. ii., hi-57.) " A List of Forest Trees and Shrubs to be Found in Meriden, Conn." Chas. H. S. Davis. (Trans. Meriden Sci. Assn. iii., 4fi-78.) " Notes on the Flora of Southwestern Connecticut." L. N.Johnson. (Bull Torr. Bot. Club, xix., 88-91.) If to these we add the '• Flora of Westchester Co." O. R. Willis. "Catalogue of the Phaenogamous and Acrogenous Plants Growing Without Cultivation Within Five Miles of Pine Plains, Dutchess Co., N. Y." Lyman H Hoysradt. (Supplement Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, vi.) "Revised Catalogue of Plants Growing Within Thirty Miles of New York City." (Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, years 1870-187-t.) "Preliminary Catalogue of the Anthophyta and Pteridophvta Reported as Growing Si)ontaneously Within loo Miles of Now York City." Torrey Botanical Clul). And "Catalogue of Plants Found in New Jersey." N. L. Britton. (Vol ii Part I., Geol- Surv. N. J. (18«9, pp. 25-G42), a fair idea of the botany of the rogioii under discussion may be obtained. 1893 ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 195 which are particularly prominent on Cape Cod, Martha's Vine- yard, Nantucket and the south shore of Ijong Island, In many instances, single species, mostly by the aid of num, have spread under such conditions, but never in any considerable number, especially such as are under consideration. In fact, the species in question generally disappear with the advent or continued presence of man, and this, as is well known, has been the case to a very ajipreciable extent in several of the localities within the area of our investigation. Following out our line of argument, we would be forced to the conclusion that if continuous land connection once existed and any fragments of it remained, these ought to carry with them some evidences of their former relationship. The islands to the east of Long Island Sound (Gardiner's Island, Plum Island, Gull Islands, Fisher's Island, the Elizabeth Islands, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket), naturally, in fact almost irresistibly suggest themselves in this connection, even to the most superficial observer of any ordinary map of the region, and if the coast survey charts, showing the submarine shoals and contours are studied, their significance becomes irresistible. A study of the flora of these islands ought, there- fore, to be of great assistance in solving the problem at issue. Unfortunately their native vegetation has suffered from the inroads of man to such an extent that we can form little or no idea of what it once was, in many instances. Thus, in regard to Penikese Island, the flora of which was compiled by Prof. D. S. Jordan as long ago as 1874-^, he says : " Altogether it is about as barren looking a pile of rock and stone as one could well imagine." Block Island has suft'ered in the same wayf , and Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket show but a limited flora at the present day compared to that which once covered them. An exceed- ingly interesting account of the flora of this latter island has been written by Maria L. Owen, which gives not only a complete list of the plants, but memoranda in regard to their past abundance, recent destruction, etc. In it may be noted the names of some twenty-five of the pine barren species, besides many others not classed as such, but showing unmistakably their affinities with the far ofif Long Island shores, distant some * '■ Tho Flora of Penikese Island." (Am. Nat. vili- iy:M97.) t " Notes on the Flora of Block Island." W. W- Bailey, in mss. " Trees of any sort are e.xtrenioly scarce. Those there are, appear, with rare exceptions, to have been planted.' 196 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [ApR. 24 eighty miles, instead of with the near-by coast of NeAV England, not more than twenty miles away.* . We therefore have to consider the fact of a characteristic flora, whose principal habitat is on the mainland southward, extending from New Jersey on to Staten Island, thence on to Long Island and the islands to the eastward, a,nd then reap- ])earing on the mainland again in a limited area in southeastern New England. We have further to consider the significant fact that while in its northward extension it is a coast flora entirely, southward it exists not only near the coast, but over an area many miles inland. This significance will be better understood and appreciated when the geology of the region comes to be discussed. Considering the flora alone we might readily imagine a continuous strip of mainland to exist through the region now occupied by it, while Connecticut, with its little adjacent areas of New York and New Jersey would represent a more or less isolated island. What, then is the most reasonable explanation of these botanical facts which we have established? Suppose we see what the geology of the region can tell us. PART II. Daring Cretaceous and Tertiary times a series of fresh water or estuary and marine deposits (clays, sands, gravels and marls) were laid down along the eastern borders of the North American continent. About the close of the Miocene, or the beginning of the Pliocene period, an era of elevation began which finally raised them hundreds, in places thousands of feet, above their present level, forming a vast coastal plain, which extended over the entire area where we now find them, and for a considerable distance eastward, into what is now part of the * " Catalogue of Plants Growing Without Cultivation in the County of Nan- tucket, Mass." ■■ The Pine barrens, although farther south, itro of similar structure, and Nantucket, as regards its flora, seems like a piece of New Jersey moved up the coast for the convenience of northern amateurs in botany, who cannot get away from business long enough to go collecting in that State . . . Trees are lacking excei)t in stunted form, and there are few of those, yet the tradition is that the island was well wooded when the first settlers came in ifiso Some wood plants probably died out soon after the trees that sheltered them were gone; but even now Nantucket, though treeless, is not a flowerless isle The island flora interests all botanists from its peculiarity . . they are surprised at the occurrence of species not to be expected in. this latitude . . • some belong to more northern localities, but those are far hiss numerous than the southern plants, some of which have never been found elsewhere in New England." 1893.] NEW YOKK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 197 bed of the Atlantic ocean.* On the land side this i)liiin was bounded by the crystalline and Tiiassic rocks of Connecticut, southern New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and southward, as may be seen by an examination of any good geological map of the eastern United States. The evidence of its extension northward around Iihode Island and Massachusetts are now almost obliterated, but there seems to be every reason to believe that its laud limits were approximately the coast line of the present day. In fact, a small isolated portion of the old coastal plain still exists apparently in the vicinity of Marshtield, Mass., as indicated by Edward Hitchcock in 1841 f, and recently by N. S. Shaler, in a paper read before the Geological Sociely of America. I It might also be added, by way of parenthesis, that similar indications are to be looked for elsewhere, notably on Ciipe Cod and near Gloucester, esi)ecially in case it should be determined that MmjnoUa (jlaaca is truly native at this latter locality, although Prof. Shaler does not mention any such in his account of the geology of Cape Anu.§ Further north than Massachusetts, so far as I am aware, it is not even indicated, and except for the presence of the well-recognized submerged plateau off our eastern shores all further trace of the former coastal plain is lost. Its eastern limits, where it formerly met the waters of the Atlantic ocean, were probably where we now find the borders of this plateau to be, namely, at the lOU fathom contour. Shortly after the advent of the Ice Age the elevation had reached its maximum. The rivers had previously cut deep valleys through the easily eroded material forming the coastal plain, in their courses to the sea, and when the continental glacier, pushing its Avay southward and eastward, finally flowed over the edges and escarpments of the hard crystalline rocks onto the soft and incoherent material of the coastal plain it * Up to thi.s point I believe all authorities are aKroed. In roKard to .suljse- (luout KeolOKical ehanKos, and the interpretation of certain recognized facts, a variety of views are held, many of them contradictory to one another, po tliat an inii)artial statement, without more or less discu-sion, bec^omes almost an inu)ossibility. I shall, therefore, set forth my own views freely, with iiriof references to those of others, loavinti further discussion of the subject for some future papers, which are now in course of preparation. The present contribu- tion, so far as the ^eoloKV is concerned, may therefore be considered as a pre- lude, and many points which are here somewhat summarily treated, it is hoped to consider more fully later on- t '■ Final Itept. Gool. Mass." ii., 427. t " Tertiary and Cretaceous Deposits of Eastern Massachusetts.' (Dull Geol- Soc Am. i., 443-452.) § 9th Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, 528-611. 198 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 24 scooped it out to a great depth in places, and then, eitber carrying it forward in mass, or else pushing and squeezing it ahead in a great contorted ridge*, capped by the bowlder till, finally left it as part of the terminal moraine. Wherever these conditions have prevailed we find the phenomena to be the same, and Long Island may be considered as one of the grandest object lessons in this connection. Just when the period of elevation ended and that of depres- sion began, in fact, whether it was previous to, or subsequent to that of greatest ice accumulation, is yet a matter of contro- versy between authorities, but in either case on the retreat of the glacier, we may picture to ourselves the terminal moraine forming an elevated ridge extending through Staten Island, Long Island and the islands to the eastward, forming a continuous, more or less, elevated land connection to the north and east, with what remained of the coastal plain sloping away from it on one side and a trough filled with the water from the melting glacier on the other. It is probable tbat the ridge represented by Orient Point, Plum Island, Gull Islands and Fisher's Island may be the remains of an independent second glacial moraine, as urged by Warren Uphamj and N. S. Shaler|, but the discussion of this fact need not now' concern us. The old river valleys had become blocked up with the debris of the moraine, and the waters had to seek other outlets. These would naturally be where they first began to overflow the rim of the trough in which they were imprisoned. One of these would probably be through the old channel of the East Eiver, which was to the north of the terminal moraine, and, therefore, comparatively free from obstruction. From here the waters would join those of the Hudson, which had doubtless ere this forced its way, through the morainal barrier and was again occupying its old channel. Others are indicated to the eastward * Dr. Fredk. J. H. Merrill was, I believe, the first one to thus interpret this phenomenon on Long Island ; for which see his paper "On the Geology of Long Island." [Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. iii., 341-3G1.] It has been made the subject of careful personal examination in the vicinity of Glen Cove, and similar effects were subsequently noted by me and Dr. N. L. Britton on Staten Island. [>see Proc. Nat. Sci. Assn. S. I., Nov. 8, 1884, and Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. xi., loi.] Although so far as Long Island is concerned these views are not considered tenable by Trof. J. D. Dana. [See " Phenomena of the Glacial and Champlam Periods about the Mouth of the Connecticut Valley in the New Haven Region." Am. Journ. Sci. xxvi., 341-3G1; xxvii., 113-130.] And they are rejected as iuade(iuate on Martha's Vineyard, according to Prof. N. S. Shaler. [See "Report on the Geology of Martha's Vineyard," 7th Ann. Rept- U. S. Geol. Surv., 296-363.) t" Terminal Moraines of the North American Ice-Sheet." (Am. Journ. Sci xviii., 81-92 ; 197-209.) t " Report on the Geology of Martha's Vineyard." ( 7 " Ann. Rept. U. S. G. S.. 296-363.) 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 199 tlirougli what are known as Plum Gut and The Race, where a de])th of over fifty fathoms is fouucl, which would soon become sufficiently eroded to nearly empty the trough and convert it into a broad river extending east and Avest, until, with subse- quent subsidence the sea could enter and gradually transform it into the Sound as we now know it. Such a river channel is clearl}' indicated in the soundings made by the coast survey, as pointed out by Prof. J. D. Dana^'S and as ma}- be seen by a study of the coast survey chart of the region. f If the depths were relatively the same then as now the first outlets would have been to the eastward, but as tidal erosion has proceeded much more rapidl}' there than at the western outlet, due to the more easily eroded strata, it is not safe to assume this, and I am inclined to think that the outlet was wholly at the western end for a considerable period, until the subsidence was suffi- cient to cause a break to be made through the eastern end of the moraine, and permit the sea to enter. Tidal scouring would then soon effect the depths which we see at Plum Gut and The Race. The present rate of coastal subsidence, as calculated by Prof. Geo. H. Cook, I and other authorities, is about two feet per century. At this rate, six thousand years ago practically the whole of the area included within the present twenty fathom contour would have been above sea level — only the deepest parts of the trough of the Sound being below it— one })lace near Eaton's Neck showing thirty-two fathoms and another near Horton's Point reaching a depth of twenty-seven fathoms. This area, as may readily be seen, includes the whole of Staten Island, Long Island, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, besides a respectable portion of the submerged coast eastward and southward. It is also probable that at least a part of this area to the eastward, which at the present time is lower than the twenty fathom contour, has become disproportionately so in modern times by tidal scouring, and that it was actually and relatively higher formerly than now. Under these circumstances we should, therefore, have had, during a considerable period of time, a continuous strip of land, except for the river outlets, all the way from New Jersey to Massachusetts, separated from the uuiinland by a body of * " Long Island Sound in the Quarternary Era., etc.'' (Am. Journ. Sci., xl.. 425-437.) t " General Chart of the Coast no. viii. Approaches to New York. Gay Head to Cape Houlopen." U- S. Coast Survey. t " Final Kept. Geol. N. J." (1808), pp. 343-373. 200 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 24 water occupyinfj the trough scooped out by the glacier, wLicLi, in its present depressed and widened condition, we now call Long Island Sound, but which was then a fresh water lake or broad river.* Bearing these conditions in mind we next bave to consider the still further subsidence of the Chaniijlain Period, the re-elevation of the Terrace Period, and the depression which is again going on at the present day. It is evident that at some time during these oscillations of level the sea, having eaten away the coastal plain, finally reached tbe barrier of the termi- nal moraine, where this still remained as the connecting link between Long Island and Massachusetts. The moraine gave way in places, channels were formed and detached portions remained to form the islands which we recognize to-day as Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the host of other lesser islands which stream out from the end of Long Island towards Cape Cod and the Rhode Island shore, while the eroded portions are represented by the great submerged ridges which are known as the Nantucket and other shoals. Whether there were more than one oscillation of level before the final separation was accomplished need not here be discussed, but it is evident that our theory implies the continued existence of land connection, between New Jersey and southeastern New England, by way of Long Island, during a sufficient period of time after the final recession of the glacier, for the pine barren flora to have spread and become established there, and we may even approximate, with some measure of probability, what that period of time may have been. The vast time ratios formerly considered necessary by geologists are gradually but surely giving way to more moderate estimates, and it is of interest to note that from six to ten thousand years is the latest accepted calcidation of the time which probably elapsed since the final recession of the glacier, by one of our most acute and conserva- tive authoritiesf — a period which, as we have seen, is about coincident with the probable time when the area bounded by the twenty fathom contour was above the sea level. It is need- less to point out that it also implies* no subsequent submergence of the remaining i)ortions of this land since the flora was established. In other words, Long Island, Block Island, *Dr. Predk. J. H. Merrill concluded, from the distribution of the niorainal material, that the trough of the S( urn d was in existence and lllled with water I)revious to the advent of the glacier [Geolofiry of Long Island, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sei. iii., :i5'.)J, but I believe that the facts which he nuotes to sul)stantiate this theory are capable of modilicatiou and of beinj? otherwise interpreted. t "Estimates of Geologic Time." Warren Upham. (Am. Journ- Sci. xlv., 209-220(1893). 1893.] NEW YOKK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 201 Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, etc., as we now know tbeui, have not been submerged since the final retreat of the ghicier, and their separation into isL'uids by the submergence of the inter- vening hxnd is a comparatively modern phenomenon, due to the depression and erosion which are actively at work, and which have produced such conspicuous results during the histoiic l^eriod. Such a conception would bring the geology of the entire coastal region into harmony ; would imply a single series of causes and effects, and would not necessitate the introduction of any unusual or extraordinary phenomena in any particular locality. I have unfortunately not had the opportunity to visit either Block Island, Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket, but from the published descriptions and the accounts which have been given me by those who have, besides the study of such material from these islands as I have had access to, has convinced me that the conditions there are entirely comparable to such as I am familiar with on Staten Island and Long Island, and that there is no necessity for invoking any other series of cause and effect, or of treating them, and the phenomena connected with them as isolated subjects ; such, for instance, as their special elevation by mountain making processes and other theories Avhich have been advanced to account for the contorted condition of the strata on these islands. In this connection, reference should be made to the articles by Prof. N. S. Shaler*, but as previously intimated, these and several facts Avhich have come to light since they were written, it is hoped will be discussed in subse- quent papers. Amongst numerous other published articles which refer to the region here considered may be specially mentioned the following : Assembly Document No. KJl, Feb. 11, 1837. CoimuunicatiDii from the Governor relative to tlie geoloj^ical survey of tlie State. Mnst Ann. llept. 1st Geo). Dist., Wni. W. Mather, " Encroachment of tlio Sea,"' pp. 74, 75. Assembly Document No. 200, Feb. 20, 183S, Same title and subject, pp. 132, 133. "On Water Courses of Long Ifslantl." Elias Lewis, Ji. (Am. -Touni. Sei. xiii., 112-14C.) " Certain Features of the Valleys or Water Cour.-es of Soutiiern Lonj,' Island." Elias Lewis, Jr. (Am. Jourii. Sci. xiii., 21.5, 216.) * " Iloport on the Geology of Martha's Vineyard.' (7 "Ann. Rept. U. S. Gool. Surv.. ■j%-8(i;i) '• The Geology of Nantucket." (Bull. No. 53, U. S. Geol. Surv.) 202 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 24 " Geological History of New York Island and Harbor." J. S. New- berry, (Pop. Sci. Montli. xiii., 641-660.) " Geologj' of the Sea Bottom in the Approaches to New York Bay." A. Lindenkohl. (Am. Journal. Sci. xxix., 475-480.) " Notes on the Sub-Marine Channel of the Hudson Kiver and Other Evidences of Post-Glacial Subsidence of tlie Middle Atlantic Coast Kegion." A. Lindenkohl. (Am. Journ. Sci. xli., 4S9-409.) "On the Post-Glacial History of the Hudson River Valley." F. J. H. Merrill. (Am. Journ. Sci. xli., 460-466.) •' Kecent Fossils near Boston." Warren Upham. (Am. Journ. Sci. xliii., 201-209.) NOTE. [Since completing this paper my attention has been called to two articles, to which, in closing, I shall take the liberty of referring.] In a pamphlet of 18 pages, entitled "The Geological Formation of Long Island, New York, with a Description of its Old Water Courses," written by John Bryson and published in 1885, the author discusses the origin of the stratified and superficial deposits of the island, and amongst his conclusions, arrived at from a study of these deposits, are the following : " At the close of the glacial age, the island was doubtless connected with the mainland, and that this state of things existed until the East River channel was formed ; this had the effect of draining the old sub- glacial streams. "There is no evidence of any oscillation of any part of the island subsequent to the glacial age, the formation, in general, remaining very much the same as it came from the hand of the glacier." The second contribution, from the same author, may be found in the American Geologist, xi., 210-212 (March, 1893), where he notes the appa- rent unity of conditions on Long Island and Martha's Vineyard, reaching similar conclusions to those here advanced, but reasoning from different premises. CHARTS AND MAPS USED. U. S. Coast Survey Chart, No. VII. Cape Ann to Gay Head. U. S. Coast Survey Chart, No. VIII. Gay Head to Cape Henlopen. Map of Long Island and southeastern New England, by the writer. 1893.] NEW YORK ACiUDEMY OF SCIENCES. 203 PETllOGEAPHY OF THE GNEISSES OF THE TOAVN OF GOUVEKNEUR, N. Y. BY C. H. S^n'TH, JR. INTRODUCTION . In a jDrevious conimniiication* tbe writer has given a brief descrijition of tbe main geological features of a portion of tbe towns of Gouverneur and Fowler, St. Lawrence County, New York. It is tbe aim of tbe present paper to setfortb briefly tbe petrograpbic cbaracters of tbe formations tbere discussed. Rocks, wbicb, like tbe limestone and sandstone, tbougb of great stratigrapbic importance, are comparatively simple and uniform in comjDosition, receive little attention ; wbile considerable space is sometimes given to rocks of limited extent, but of more interest from a petrograpbic standpoint. It is boped tbat tbe facts bere recorded may be of value as a basis for comparison in future work on tbe geology of tbe Adirondack region. Tbe writer is indebted to tbe Geological Department of Columbia College for tbe grinding of all rock-sections used in tbe prei^aration of tbis paper, and takes j)leasure in exj^ressing bis appreciation of tbis material assistance. GNEISS. Wbile as a wbole tbe gneiss presents a great sameness over wide areas, still local variations are so numerous and diverse tbat tbe limits of tbis paper would bardly suffice for tbeir description. Therefore, only tbe general character of tbe gneiss, together with a few of its more important modifications, will be described. Tbe color of tbe unweatbered gneiss is generally gray, less often red, and varies from tbis to black, tbe latter color being confined to distinct layers and lenticular patches. The banding and foliation vary greatly, being sometimes marked and again wholly absent. Thus considerable areas in tbe gneiss have all tbe cbaracters of granite, and tbis is commonly the case with band specimens. *"A (iPolopical EreoDDoippance in the Vicinity of Gouverneur." N. Y. Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., XII., p. 97. 204 TEANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 24 Under the microscope the gneiss shows a mineral composi- tion seldom very difterent from that of the granites, though, as a rule, containing more plagioclase. Slides from difierent localities show no great variation in the character of the minerals present, tliough different proportions prevail. Even the dark bands are usuall}' composed of the same minerals as the normal gneiss, but with a larger content of mica or horn- blende. There are, however, excejitions to this rule. Quartz, orthoclase, plagioclase, biotite and hornblende make up the bulk of the gneiss ; with zircon, ajjatite, ilmenite, magnetite, rutile, garnet and sillimanite as minor constituents. Quartz is never absent, though varying somewhat in quantity. It often occurs in rather large patches, which under crossed nicols break up into several distinct parts. Fluid inclusions are very abundant, usually in bands which extend through adjacent individuals. Zircon is also a common inclusion, while the hair-like bodies supposed to be rutile are rarely present. The quartz nearly always shows undulatory extinction, wlncL, together with the shattering often apparent, bears witness to the strains to which the rock has been subjected. The feldspars show much variation in the relative propor- tions of different species present. On the whole, plagioclase seems rather more abundant than orthoclase, but the reverse is so often true that the examination of a larger number of sections might show it to be the rule. In a few instances microcline is an abundant constituent, but it is more generally absent. A very marked feature in a majority of the sections examined is a great abundance of the microperthitic iater- growth of orthoclase and plagioclase. The peculiar banded, dotted and striated sections produced by it are generally apparent in ordinary light, but are brought out more clearly with crossed nicols. Sections of orthoclase show a varying proportion of their ai'ea occupied by slender spindle-shaped masses of plagioclase. These spindles extinguish simultan- eously, and have decidedly stronger double refraction than the surrounding orthoclase. In most instances the microperthite has the appearance of a contemporaneous crystallization of two feldspars ; but enough sections contaiu absolute proof of its secondar}'^ nature to render it extremely probable that in this gneiss it is never an original intergrowth. Evidence of this secondary origin is seen in plagioclase spindles passing unbroken across cracks in the orthoclase, and in the evident optical continuity of the material of the spindles with secondary feldspar filling cavities and cracks adjacent to the microperthite. Figure 1 shows a case of the latter kind. A crack between 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 205 quartz and ortlioclase is filled by secondary plaj^^ioclase, which sends out branches into the ortlioclase, forininj:;' iiiciinent microperthite. The plagioclase, represented by shadinj^', gives a blue interference color, and all the areas extinguish simultan- eously. The original orthoclase gives a yellow interference color. Fig. 1. Secondary mictoperLhiu-. Secondary feldspar (shaded) filling crack between quartz and orthoclase and with the latter forming microperthite. Diameter of field, 0.7 min. Along many of the cleavage cracks there are very narrow bands of the secondary feldsjiar, perceptible only with a high power. As the bands increase in width thej' naturally show less dependence upon the cleavage cracks, though a general parallelism remains. From such facts it is evident that the microperthite results from the development of plagioclase along planes of solution in orthoclase, these planes of solution being determined chiefly by cleavage. INEuch of the material of the secondary feldspar is doubtless derived from the orthoclase, while a certain portion is brought from without. Similar developments of secondary 206 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [ApR. 24 niicroperthite have been described by Klockmann*, Lebmannf, Lacroix|, Komberg§, Hobbs||, and others. The fact that the secondary feklspar fills cracks in the rocks shows that at least part of the microperthite has been formed subsequent to the period of dynamo-metamorphism. On the other hand, no instance has yet been found where the secondary feldspar has itself been fractured. Thus, so far as it goes, the evidence is in favor of the supposition that the formation of microperthite is a chemical process, which goes on in great part subsequent to fracturing and crushing of the rock. But whenever formed, microperthite is now so abundant that its development must be regarded as one of the most important factors in the history of the rock. Like the quartz, the feldspar gives evidence of mechanical deformation in a more or less complete shattering, in undula- tory extinction, and in the bending and breaking of the twinning lamella: of the plagioclase. Quartz and feldspar together make up a large part of the ordinary gneiss, the other constituents being present in much smaller proportions. Of the ferro-magnesian minerals biotite is rather the most abundant in the slides examined, with horn- blende approaching it in quantity. The biotite forms very irregular masses, with the usual strong pleochroism. It is characterized by an abundance of pleochroic halos, which are usually quite independent of perceptible inclusions. It shows a strong tendency toward alteration, the color changing to green, while the surface becomes diisty. A complete alteration to chlorite is, however, rarely apparent. Hornblende forms irregular masses, sometimes prismatic, of dark green color with decided pleochroism. Except in one or two sharply defined cases, there is nothing to indicate that the hornblende may be uralitic. It is evidently one of the oldest of rock constituents. In three or four sections of the ordinary gneiss pyroxene occurs in irregular grains, but is not of sufficient importance to be regarded as an essential mineral. Iron oxides are represented by finely divided hematite in the red feldspars; by limonite in cracks and fissures ; by magnetite * Zeits. Deutsch. Geolog. Geselk XXXIV., p. 381. I " Untersuehungen ueber die Entstehung d. Altkrystal. Schiefer," p. 217. t Bull. Soc. Min. Fr. IX., p. 131. § Neues Jahibuch fuer Mineralogie, etc., B. B. YIII., p. 300. II Bull. Geol. Soc. America, IV.. p. 171. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 207 in grains and crystals ; but most abundantly b}' ilmenite. This mineral is seen in neai'ly ever)' section, often in grains of con- siderable size. In some cases it is perfectly frcsli, in others the cleavage lines and boundaries are marked by white or yellowish Jeucoxene. When this alteration has reached its limit, there is left only the leucoxene, either in an irregular mass or forming a network with the angles of the cleavage of ilmenite. Zircon occurs in irregular fragments and in stout prisms. In structui'e the gneiss varies from a coarse holo-crystalline granular, or granitic, to a fine mosaic made up of fragments of the constituent minerals. Between these two extremes there is every possible stage. By far the larger number of sections show the quartz and feldspar in rather large masses surrounded by the finer mosaic of fragments. A resemblance to porpliyritic structure is sometimsi:)roducedin this way, particularly when, as occasionally happens, there has been considerable recrystalliza- tion of the finer fragments. Variations from the normal gneiss are, as already stated, quite abundant, but can be mentioned only briefly. A garnetiferous gneiss was seen at several points, difiering from the ordinary gneiss chiefly in containing large quantities of garnet. This mineral forms irregular masses of considerable size. Under the microscope it has a decided pink color, and is quite fresh, showing only a slight development of chlorite along cracks. This variety of gneiss often contains an abundance of sillimanite in long slender crystals. The mineral is not evenly distributed through the rock, but is grouped in nests, in which the indi- vidual crystals are often roughly parallel. "While these nests may penetrate quartz, there is a marked tendency for the silli- manite to occur in the garnet. Sometimes only the outer portion of the latter mineral contains sillimanite, but often the slender prisms j^enetrate the entire mass of garnet. The black bands and lenses that are so conspicuous in the light colored gneiss are commonly composed of the constituents of the ordinary rock, with the dark minerals in unusually large quantities. They are sometimes hornblendic and sometimes micaceous, while in some instances ilmenite is an important constituent. One such dark band occurring in garnetiferous gneiss is quite different from the others examined. It is a nearly black, micaceous, distinctly schistose rock, of medium grain. Sections show a holocrystalline aggregate of plagioclase, a little orthoclase, monoclinic pyroxene, and hornblende ; with apatite, zircon and pyrite as minor constituents. None of these minerals, except the aj^atite, show crystal outlines. The feldspars are quite fresh, but show decided mechanical 208 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR, 24 deformation in the bending and breaking of twinning lamellse and very marked undulatory extinction. The i^yroxene is colorless or pale green, with extinction angle of about 45°. There is a certain amount of alteration to chlorite, but the most noticeable change is the passage into dark green uralite. The uralite, as a rule, makes up onl}' a small part of the individual, but in a few cases has replaced most oj the pyroxene. Besides the uralite there is present a s-mall amount of hornblende, which seems to be original. Biotite is present in large quantities, partly in large plates, and partly in small scales of secondary origin. The relation of the dark band to the surrounding rock is such that it must be regarded as belonging to the gneiss just as much as the other dark bands ; and yet from its mineralogical composition there can be little doubt that it is intrusive. The same explanation must apply to many of the dark bands, though it is not often so clearlj- indicated. GRANITE. There is evidence of a long time break between the gneiss and the granite, with corresponding structural differences ; but in mineralogical composition there is considerable similarity' between the two rocks, the most marked difference being the greater amount of plagioclase in the gneiss. The granite is usually of a light gray color, and of rather coarse grain, but there are many wide variations from this general type. Similar variations occur in its mineralogical composition ; the rock being, as a rule, a biotite granite, or granitite, but showing many local transitions into pegmatite, tourmaline granite, hornblende granite, diorite, etc. The quartz of the granite is either clear white and colorless, or milky, the latter appearance being due to the presence of abundant fluid inclusions. The microscope shows, in many instances, besides these fluid inclusions, slender, black, hair-like bodies usually regarded as rutile. These vary considerably in number, size and arrangement. In some sections they are scat- tered quite irregularly through the quartz, while in others they show a tendency towards parallelism. In a single case the hairs form two distinct groups. The first consists of quite short bodies scattered very irregularly through the quartz. The second group consists of unusually long hairs, so arranged as to form a network with square meshes. The hairs of the net are more abundant iu one direction than the other, the most numerous 1893.] NEW YOllK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 209 making au angle of 5°, with the axis of greatest elasticity in the quartz. In nearly all sections the hair-like bodies are more or less bent, broken and stretched apart. Sometimes it is evident that this results from a crack through the quartz, but more often it is impossible to detect any sign of such fracture. Apparently the quartz has been sufficiently plastic to yield to strains whicla broke the rutile. Inclusions of zircon and other small crystals or fragments in the quartz sometimes show several short cracks radiating from them. A similar occurrence is also seen in the feldspar. In the case of cracks radiating from hornblende in a porphyritic rock Becker* has suggested that they might result from the forcible expansion of the hornblende in process of growth. But in the present instance it seems more probable that they result from the unequal resistance offered by the included mineral and the quartz or feldspar to the pressure to which the rocks have been subjected. Other effects of pressure are seen in the marked undulatory extinction alwaj's present, in the more or less shat- tering of the quartz, and in the development in it of abundant secondary fluid inclusions. There is wide variation in the character of the feldspar. In the normal granitite orthoclase is most abundant, in the granu- litic variety microcline is often conspicuous, while in the more basic granitite and diorite a basic plagioclase replaces the more acid species. Microperthite is common, though rather less so than in the gneiss. Feldspar is also sometimes intergrown with quartz, forming micropegmatite. As is usually the casef, this micropeg- matite fills small spaces between the larger rock constituents, and is evidently of late formation. In many instances it is clearly secondary, having formed in cracks made by disturbances subsequent to the solidification of the rock. So often is this true that it is highly probable that all of the micropegmatite is of secondar}' origin. Enough instances of each secondary formation of micropegmatite have been described^ to indicate that it is a general, rather than exceptional, phenomenon. * Becker, G. F., " Quicksilver deposits of the Pacific Slope," p. 100. t Rosenbusch, Mic. Phys. Mass. Gest., p. ;»• t Irving, R. D., "The Copper Bearing Rocks of Lake Superior.'' Monograph v., U. S. G. S., p. lU. Judd, J. W., Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. XLV., p. 175-18G. Ibid. XLIL. p. 7-2. Romberg, J., Neues Jahrbuch, fuer Miueralogie, etc-, B. B. VIII. p. :il4-:m: 374-378. Hobbs, W. H., Bull. Geol. Soc. America. IV.. p. 171. Trausactioiis N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. July G, 1893. 210 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [A PR. 24 In other cases the different areas of quartz in the feldspar are wholly independent of each other, producing the structure to which the term micropoikilitic* has been applied. Beyond the development of microperthite and a varying amount of cloudiness, the feldspar, as a rule, shows no decided alteration. Muscovite and chlorite have been rarely produced at the expense of feldspar, but not in sufficient quantity to exert any influence upon the character of the rock. Like the quartz, the feldsj^ars show much evidence of mechanical strains. Undulatory extinction is quite general, often accompanied by granulation, either jjeripheral or extend- ing through entire individuals. In the plagioclase there is much, bending and breaking of twin lamella, while the develop- ment of twinning by pressure is often seen. In the norixial granite, biotite is the only ferro-magnesian mineral, and varies greatly in quantity-, often being entirely absent. It is dark brown, strongly pleochroic, and fairly fresh as a rule, though sometimes bleached. Pleochroic halos are abundant, often extending through an entire fragment of the mineral, and showing no dependence upon inclusions. Besides the original biotite the very basic phases of the granite contain small amounts of biotite that is clearly of secondary origin. The distribution of hornblende in the granite is very limited being confined to the basic segregations which have the com- position of diorite. In these, hornblende is the prevailing ferromaguesian mineral. It never shows any decided crystal outline, though occasionally in the form of an impei^fect prism. It is dark green, strongly pleochroic and usually very fresh. In one section it is associated with a considerable amount of light green monoclinic pyroxene. A parellel growth with biotite is common. Tourmaline characterizes, by its presence in considerable quantities, a few limited areas of granite. It occurs in the ordi- nary prism with triangular cross section, or in irregular masses. The color is brown or green, sometimes in zonal arrangement, and the pleochroism intense. The ordinary minor constituents of granite, such as apatite, zircon, ilmenite, leucoxene, etc., are present in varying quanti- ties, but need not be described. The granite shows several phases which differ considerably from the normal type of the rock. Coarse pegmatitic varieties are abundant, both associated with the ordinary rock and form- ing independent masses. In the latter tourmaline is sometimes * Williams. I. H.. " Od the Use of the Terms Poikilitic and Micropoikilitic in Petrography," Jouruiil of Geology, I., p. 170. 1893.] NEW YOllK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 211 SO abuudaut as to make tliem true tourmaline grauites. AuutLer phase, wliich has been distinguished as granulite* (perhaps unfortunately, as it lacks the foliation of a typical granulite), occurs at man}' points. It is fine grained and white, resembling sandstone. Untler the microscoj^e it is seen to be a mosaic of quartz and feldspar, with numerous larger individuals of garnet. There is wide variation in the character of the feldspar, but microcline is often conspicuous. The garnet usually shows crystal outlines, though irregular grains are also present. It has a decided pink color and inclu- sions are abundant. These have, as a rule, the shape of nega- tive crystals, and are more or less concentrated toward the centers of the crystals. With the exception of some apatite and zircon, other minerals are lacking. The field relations of the granulite and ordinary granite show a perfect continuity between the two rocks, and suggest that the two varieties are due to a differentiation of the original magma. But under the microscoiDC the granulite shows a marked cataclastic structure, together with a large amount of secondary quartz and feldspar. It has clearly been formed from the ordinary granite by the shattering of the constituents of the latter rock, attended by a large amount of recr^stallization. In one portion of the granitic area there are several alterna- tions between the ordinary granite and a very dark rock com- posed of hornblende, biotite and plagioclase — a quartz-free diorite in composition, though lacking the structure of atypical diorite. The passage from the ordinary granite to this diuritic variety is very gradual, there being no break whatsoever between them, and there can be no doubt that the diorite is a basic segregation from the original magma. The effects of dynamo-metamorphism upon the granite, while almost always apparent, are not, as a rule, very conspicuous. The bending, stretching and crushing of minerals have been men- tioned, but these effects are generally to be seen only with the aid of the microscope. Small areas of the rock, however, often show incipient foliation, and at some outcrops the granite passes into a true gneiss, which is, however, entirely distinct from the older gneiss previously described. The formation of granulite has already been mentioned. As to why the granite sometimes changes to gneiss and sometimes to granulite, there is no very clear evidence- But comparison of sections of the two varieties indicates that the granulite results from a more complete shattering of the granite, to which, with the absence * Trans. N. Y. Academy Sciences, XIL. p- 105. 212 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 24 of mica and the large amount of recrjstallization, is due the lack of foliation. That the garnet has been formed at the expense of biotite originally present is not improbable. The contact of granite with crystalline limestone has j)ro- duced some noticeable changes in the latter. Most apparent is a whitening of the rock, with an increase in the coarseness of grain. At the same time scales of graphite and mica become larger and more abundant, while knotty masses of silicates develop to a considerable extent. Microscopic examination of these shows the presence of biotite, muscovite, tremolite and a colorless pyroxene. These minerals are crowded together in such a way that there is no opportunity for the development of crystal boundaries. Similar lumps of silicates are by no means wanting in the limestone at a distance from the granite, but near the latter rock they have developed in unusual abundance. On the whole the contact phenomena are not very marked, and some of the minerals most common in granite- limestone contacts are absent. CRYSTALLINE LIMESTONE. The limestone is, on the whole, quite uniform in composition and structure, though variations from the normal type pro- duced by the presence of diflerent minerals, are common. The normal rock is coarsely crystalline, varies from white to dark gray, and contains abundant mica and graphite. Weathering gives a darker color to the surface, while the cleavage faces be- come roughened by parallel ridges, due to solution along basal twinning planes. Pyroxenic phases of the limestone are quite common. The pyroxene is, as a rule, colorless, and has a high extinction angle. It seldom shows distinct crystal outline, being in irregular grains of small size. Tremolite is also found, occurring in a similar way, but seemingly less abundant than pyroxene. Probably genetically connected with these phases of the lime- stone is the serpentineous variety, though the connection has not been absolutely proved. The serpentine forms rounded grains in the rock, sometimes equalling the calcite in quantity. Merrill * has shown for similar rocks in Wai*ren County that the serpentine is derived from joyroxene. In the present in- stance no serpentine has been found containing a core of pyrox- ene ; but its structure is often such as would result from its derivation from pyroxene, or from hornblende, and as these * Merrill. G. P. On the Opbiolitc of Thurman. Warren Co., N, Y-. with remarjis on the Eozoou Canadenae; Aui. Jour. Sci- III., XXXVII, p. 18'J. 18 93. J NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 213 minerals are so abundant in tbe rock there can be little doubt that they are the source of the serpentine. Another j^hase of the limestone shows, scattered through the mass, imperfect prismatic crystals, averaging about an inch in length, and dark gra^' or black. On weathered surfaces these crystals project from the rock surface, but are themselves much decomposed. Under the microscope the mineral shows the rect- angular cleavage, parallel extinction, high interference colors, uniaxial figure and negative character of scapolite. The cause of the dark color is seen in the presence of great quantities of small black inclusions. These are of irregular shape, often elongated parallel to the vertical axis of the scapolite. In some cases they are quite evenly distributed through the mineral, in others, are grouped in patches ; but nearly always a thin outer layer of the crystal is quite free from inclusions. Similar inclu- sions in scapolite are described by Rosenbusch * as consisting of carbonaceous matter and this is undoubtedly true of those under consideration. The same rock contains scapolite, iisually in small grains, which contains no inclusions whatever. Titan- ite, i^yroxene and mica are also abundant, the two latter some- times intergrown. Other varieties of the limestone are plenty, but as their interest is mineralogical rather than petrographic, their consideration is beyond the scope of this paper. QUARTZITE. The Potsdam sandstone, so far as examined under the micro- scope, possesses the character of a very pure quartzite. It is made up of w^ell rounded grains of quartz, cemented into a tough, compact mass by the deposition of secondary silica. Besides quartz no mineral has been found forming complete grains, though other species are not uncommon as inclusions in the quartz. Of the minerals occurring in this way biotite zircon, apatite and rutile are the most abundant. Liquid inclu- sions are also present in great numbers, but never formed in the quartz subsequent to its incorporation into this rock. When, as often happens, the rock is red, the color is due to finely divided hematite, which forms a thin coating over the quartz grains. The hematite clearly was deposited uj^on the quartz before the introduction of the cement, and its appear- ance suggests that it is the result of subaerial erosion, formed by some such process as that outlined by Russell, f * Mikroskopische PhysioRraphio. 3d edition, I., p. 363. t Russell, I. C. The Suljaoriul Decay of Rocks, Bulletin r,2. U. S- G. S. 214 TEANSAOTIONS OF THE [ArR. 24 In the white and gray varieties of the rock, a small quantity of argillaceous material coats the sand grains. The presence of this thin coating, particularly when it is hematite, gives to the outlines of the grains a clearness that they would otherwise lack. When, as is sometimes the case, the coating is absent it becomes difficult to draw any line between the grain and the surrounding cement. The rock affords an excellent example of the secondary enlargement of quartz grains described by Sorby, * Irving f and others. About every sand grain quartz has been deposi- ted until further growth was checked by contact with the quartz forming about adjacent grains. This secondary quartz always shows perfect optical continuity with the original quartz of the grain about which it is deposited. As a rule there is no opportunity for the development of crystal outlines, the process being too complete, but one or two faces are occasionally formed. As a result of this process the rock is thoroughly indurated, being practically a solid mass of quartz. PYROXENE ROCKS. Near the base of the ci-ystalline limestone, and seemingly interstratified with it, is a body of schistose, highly contorted rocks of somewhat doubtful character. In the field they were taken for metamorphosed sediments, and no particular attention was paid to them. But a microscopic study reveals a mineralogi- cal composition that suggests the possibility of an igneous origin. Against such a supposition, however, strong evidence is afforded by the gradual transition often seen from limestone to pyroxene rock. While there is considerable divei'sity in the composition of different portions of these rocks, one variety is particularly abundant. It consists of feldspar, quartz, monoclinic pyroxene, mica, titanite, apatite, graphite, pyrrhotite, and pyrite. Both orthoclase and plagioclase are present, sometimes one, sometimes the other predominating. In some sections they are very fresh, in others completely altered to muscovite and kaolin. Quartz is usually in small quantity' or lacking. In a single section, where it is uncommonly abundant, it shows a serpen- tinous alteration along cracks, similar to that described and * Sorby, H. C, Proc. Gool. Soc Lond., 1880, p. 6-2. t Irvins, R. D., Am. Jour. Scionco. III., XXV., p. 40i. Bulletin 8, U. S. G. S., 5th Ann. liep-, U. S. G. S., p. 218. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 215 figured by Becker.* The pyroxene is in irregular, often rounded masses, colorless or with a very faint greenish tinge, and extinction angle of about 40°. As a rule it is very fresh, though sometimes showing a slight greenish alteration along cracks. In one section considerable uralite has formed from it. The mica is rather light colored, but strongly pleochroic, and always very fresh. It increases in quantity as pyroxene decreases, producing phases of the rock that have nearly the composition of ordinary gneiss. Titanite is one of the most characteristic minerals of the rock, and is generally quite abundant. In no instance has it been found Avith ci'ystal boundaries, but forms irregular masses, often (piite large, and is distinctly pleochroic, changing from yellowish to brownish red. Graphite occurs in irregular scales, which are usually destroyed in the process of section grinding. In the micaceous variety of the rock, rutile appears in minute prismatic forms, very perfectly developed, and of a redish brown or blue color. The characteristic knee-formed twine is occasionally present. "Wliile in the mass, the rock is prominently schistose, indi- vidual layers are often quite massive, and sections from these have granitic structure. Other sections show the constituents arranged in very distinct layers. Evidences of mountain- making action, such as undulatory extinction, bending of twinning lamelliB, and crushing of minerals, are abundant. SCAPOLITE ROCKS. One section of the pyroxene rock shows, instead of feldspar, some muscovite and a colorless mineral in small plates, with somewhat fibrous appearance, which proves to be scapolite. This specimen oft'ords a connecting link between the pyroxene rocks and another rock rather closely resembling them. It shows under the microscope the same pyroxene, mica, titanite and pyrrhotite as irregular grains in a paste or ground mass of scapolite. This mineral is in large colorless plates, Avith distinct cleavage, which in basal sections shows cracks intersecting at right angles. Such sections are dark with crossed nicols and give an interference cross, from which the negative character of the mineral may be determined. Vertical sections yield brilliant interference colors. The presence of scapolite in the section of pyroxene rock, seem- ingly in the place of feldspar, renders it probable that, as is so * Becker, G. F.. Geol. of Quicksilver Deposits of tlie Paciflc Slope, p. 123. 216 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [ArR. 24 often the case*, the scapolite is secoudaiy after feldspar. But no section has j'-et been procured in which the process can be traced. Lacroix| has described a rock occurring at Pierrepont, which from its character and association is evidently the equivalent of the rock under consideration, though differing from it in some respects. He also mentions several other localities in the State where the same rock occurs with crystalline limestone, the association of the two seeming to be quite common. Somewhat similar rocks have been described by Becke| from lower Austria ; and there a transition is seen between the Fig. 2. Scapolite rock. Pyroxene represented with light border. Titanite " " dark " Pyrrhotite shaded. Scapolite, with irregular change, enclosing all other minerals. Width of field, 2 min. * L''icroix, A., Sur la transformation des feldspaths en dipyre, Bull. Soc. Mm. Fr., XIV.. p. 15. Judd. J. W., Mineralogical Majrazine, VIll., p. 180. t Lacroix. A., Thoses prusentdes a la Faculto des Sciences dc Taris, ire Con- tributions a 1 Etude des Gneiss a Tyroxone ot des Roches a Wernorite, p. 183. t Boeke.F-, Die Gneiss formation des noiderOsterreiehischen. Waldviertel; Teehermak s Mittheilungen, IV., p. 3C5, et seu. 1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 217 pyroxene and scapolite rocks. However, they show some marked difference, both in composition and association, from the rocks at Gouverneur. The scapolite rock of the latter locality resembles more closelj' that from the Loire described by Lacroix.'^ Another Gouverneur rock contains scapolite in much smaller quantity, together with titanite, pink pyroxene and abundant dark green hornblende. This rock occurs at three localities as sharply defined black bands in limestone. The mode of occur- rence strongly sujDports the idea that these bands are dikes rather than interbedded layers. Unfortunately, the great amount of contortion in the rocks has so obscured their true relations as to render difficult a final decision upon this point. In containing hornblende, the rock resembles the well known Norwegian scapolite rockf, as well as that of Canada^, and of New Jersey. § It is also similar to the latter in its association with crystalline limestone. The possibilit}^ of the igneous origin of the Gouverneur scapolite rocks is thus suggested, not only b}- their composition and, in the case of some of them, their mode of occurrence, but also by their resemblance to other rocks whose igneous nature is very generally conceded. On the other hand, through the pyroxene rocks associated with limestone, they seem to be con- nected with metamorphosed sediments. A final decision as to their true character must be reserved until their field relations have been more thoroughly studied. Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. , April, 1893. April 2G, 1893. Special Mi-^ting. Held in the evening, at the American Museum of Natural History, for the ceremonies attending the unveiling of the monument to John James Audubon in Trinity Cemetery, which was accomplished on the afternoon of the same day, by the Audubon jNIonument Committee. * Contributions a I'Etude des Gneiss a ryroxC-ne ot d f llocbos a Wernorite. ,.. 1, et se(i. t A. Miehel-Levey, Sur nnc roclie Ti sph<"'iu'. .impliibnlo ot worm'-rite criuiu- litiuue des mines d'apatite de Bamle (Norwe«(v) Hull. See. Min. Fr., I., p. 4:t. + Adams, F. D.. and Lawson, A. C. On Some Canadian Hocks ContainiuK Scapolite- Canadian Itecord of Science, III., p. 185- § Nason, F. L., Ann. Rep. State Gooloffist of New Jersey, ih'jo. p. xj. 218 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaY 1 President Bolton in the cbair, and about four hundred per- sons present. Mr. Morris K. Jesitp, President of the Board of Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, delivered an address of welcome to the Academy. Professor Thomas Egleston, Chairman of the Audubon Monument Committee, gave an account of the inception and progress of the movement for the erection of a monument to Audubon. President Bolton read several unpublished letters of Au- dubon. Mr. D. G. Elliot delivered an address entitled "The Life and Services of John James Audubon." The report of the Audubon Monument Committee including addresses delivered at Trinity Cemetery and those delivered at this meeting will be presented to the Academy at a latter date and published in the Transactions. May 1, 1893. Eegular Business Meeting. President Bolton in the chair and twenty-eight persons present. Mr. Geo. H. Knight, of New York City, was elected a Resident Member. SECTION OF ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS. Prof. E. E. Barnard, of the Lick Observatory, described some of his observations on the transparency of the "crape ring" of Saturn and the surface markings of Jupiter, Prof. Barnakd also showed some photographs of recent remarkable comets taken at the Lick Observatory. 1803.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES '1\\) May 8, 1893. ' Stated Meeting. President Bolton in the chair, and thirty-two persons present. The President called attention to the circular rccenll}' issued by the Smithsonian Institution relative to the Hodgkins Fund Prizes for treatises and essays on atmospheric air. BIOLOGICAL SECTION. The following papers were read : "On a Kecent Prej)aration of the Kidney of the Elephant," by Prof. G. S. Huntington. ON RECENTLY DISCOVERED DEPOSITS OF DIATOM- ACEOUS EARTH IN THE ADIRONDACKS. BY CHARLES F. COX. The construction of the new railroad (The Mohawk and Malone) in the Adirondack Mountains during the j^ast year has led to the recognition, and, in some cases, the actual discovery, of extensive deposits of diatomaceous earth previously unknoAvn to science. The deposits referred to, occur principally upon the bottoms of four small lakes, one of which is in the extreme southern part of Herkimer county, near the town of Hinckley, and the other three in the extreme northern part of the same county in Township No. 48. There are evidences of smaller deposits in the intervening country, particularly in certain lail- road cuttings, and, perhaps, in bogs and sink-holes which have been the cause of trouble in the construction of the road. The deposit near Hincklej' has been known to the inhabitants of this region for a long time, and the pond in which it occurs has been called by them White Lead Lake. But si)ecimens of this earth do not seem to have reached naturalists until very lately. The deposits in Township No. 43 appear to have been entirely unknown until the jMohawk and Malone Railroad was con- structed. They occur in Clear Lake, Roilly Pond, and in an apparentl)' unnamed body of water near iiig Crooked Lid^e. The deposits in sight at Hinckley has been estimated at 1()(),0()U cubic yards ; that at Clear Lake at about the same amount ; 220 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaY 15 while those at Eoilly Pond and Big Crooked Lake have been estimated at more than a million cubic yards eacli. The character of the Hinckley eartli, as disclosed by the microscope, and probably that of all the other earths referred to, is not materially different from that of a hundred deposits found throughout the glacial region of New England, excepting that this Herkimer county earth appears to be much purer than any other known diatomaceous deposit, both in the number of unbroken forms found in it, and in its freedom from sand and other foreign material. Identifications have been made of eleven genera and about forty species of Diatomacese, of which more than thirty species are of the genera Navicula, Stau7-oneis, Cymbella and Ennolia, which are almost always prominent in the lacustrine deposits of our northern States. These are all solitary and motile forms, indicative of a still water habitat, as distinguished from those filamentous forms like Melo>