tinguaites and camptonites, as well as vogesite and diabase. Two main streams now drain the hollow formed by the down-cutting of the dome where the weaker andesite has been laid bare as far as the limestone cover has been cut back.

Dr. Finlay's paper was discussed by Professor Kemp, who called attention to the fact that the character of the intruded limestone was not yet entirely clear; and by Dr. H. S. Washington, who dwelt on the interest attaching to the additional localities here and elsewhere recently reported for the peculiar dyke rocks mentioned.

The second paper of the evening was by Fred H. Moffet, Columbia University, and was entitled The Copper Mines of Cobre, Santiago de Cuba.'

In this paper Mr. Moffet said in abstract: The copper mines of El Cobre are located about nine miles west of the Bay of Santiago, where a series of eruptive flows, andesites and rhyolites, are interbedded with fragmental rocks, agglomerates, breccias and tuffs. The strike of the beds is east and west, and they dip at a low angle to the north. The series is cut by trap dykes and by two major systems of faults, the older of which runs east and west and carries with it the large ore bodies. The second major system has direction nearly north and south. Cross faults cut and displace the ore bodies of the older system, and carry copper, though in less amount. The copper workings of the old English mining companies produced enormous quantities of very rich oxidized ore which gave place in the lower levels to sulphides. Much difficulty is encountered in handling the mine water on account of the porous nature of the country rock. At the present time the iron ore of the region is of much greater commercial importance than the

copper.

In the discussion which followed, Professor Kemp spoke of the great importance to the United States steel furnaces which these deposits possessed on account of their great extent and convenient location. The ore is extremely low in phosphorus but contains some sulphur. The copper may again be of great

importance, though but little is being done at present toward its exploitation.

E. O. HOVEY, Secretary.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

THE 347th meeting was held May 12. Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, who recently returned from the West Indies, gave a brief account of his work in Porto Rico and Santo Domingo, reserving a fuller presentation till next meeting. The paper of the evening was by Dr. E. A. Spitzka, entitled 'Cerebral Characteristics of Distinguished Men, with special reference to the late Major J. W. Powell.' Following is an abstract:

Dr. Spitzka reviewed previous records of brains of distinguished men and proceeded to a consideration of their chief characteristics, particularly the brain-weight and the surface morphology-both generally and with special reference to certain cortical areas. Dr. Spitzka had tabulated the brain-weights of ninety-seven men eminent in the professions, arts and sciences; compared with the series of ordinary' brain-weights collected by Bischoff and Marchand, there was a relatively and decidedly greater number of heavier brains in the former series. In a further analysis it was shown that the brains of men devoted to the higher intellectual occupations, such as the mathematical sciences, involving the most complex mechanisms of the mind, those of men who devised original lines of research (Cuvier, Cope, Agassiz) and those of forceful characters like Ben Butler or Daniel Webster possess the heaviest brains. The increase in brain-weight during evolutionary progress is directly related to the increase of cranial capacity along with the development of brachycephaly. As for the cerebral surface appearances, the highly intellectual man is likely to exhibit not only a superior degree of fissural and gyral complexity in general, but of certain cortical fields in particular. These differences in the extent of certain cortical (especially the associative) areas are palpable and measurable. Particularly important in this relation is the insula (Island of Reil), probably the purest

association center in the brain, and usually showing a superior degree of development in men whose powers of speech were of a high order.

The brain of Major J. W. Powell (to be described in the American Anthropologist) exhibited a decidedly superior degree of development. Its weight, 1,488 grams, was above the average of the 97 brains of eminent men, and for a man below medium stature and of rather small frame and whose age was 68, it was notably above the average. The most notable feature is a redundancy in the subparietal association area (especially the angular gyre) on the right side, a feature which may not be unrelated to an important characteristic of Major Powell's mental makeup: that of keen observation and superior powers of generalizing these. A large number of charts and figures of brains of notable persons illustrated the paper.

In discussing the paper Dr. Frank Baker held that the convolutionary pattern of the brain is due to the needs of motor activity, and any conclusions from it as to brain power should be carefully weighed.

Professor W J McGee stated that Major Powell's strength lay in generalizing on observations in nature and that the address of Dr. Spizka shows that it is now possible to trace a definite relation between cerebral structure and the psychical character of an individual. Dr. Ales Hrdlicka said that it is a well-known fact that every organ in the body, if more than ordinarily exercised, receives an augmented blood-supply and in consequence tends in time to increase in size and It would be very strange if the weight. brain formed an exception to this law. It is true that the efficiency of a brain may increase by the advance of the differentiation of its minute elements, but in all probability this and actual growth go hand in hand, and the size and weight of the brain must be of considerable importance in the study of the organ. That no very definite results in this respect have as yet been generally arrived at is due to the fact that we are practically only in the beginnings of brain study and need

many additional accurate data on normal material, and that not only in white but also in various more primitive peoples. We need many further data on the significance in brain study of race, sex, stature, muscularity, age as well as other factors. The significance of the convolutionary pattern is particularly in need of further investigation, yet it is a general opinion that a marked complexity of the convolutions goes with the superior brain and vice versa. Dr. Hrdlicka expressed a hope of establishing in the course of time a valuable brain collection in his division in the U. S. National Museum.

Further remarks germane to the topic were made by Dr. D. S. Lamb, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, Mr. G. K. Gilbert and Mrs. Miranda B. Tulloch. Dr. Spitzka made some closing remarks. At the conclusion of the meeting a vote of thanks was tendered Dr. Spitzka. It is expected that the paper will be published in a forthcoming number of the American Anthropologist.

WALTER HOUGH, General Secretary.

THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

THE fifteenth regular meeting of the society was held at the Portner Hotel, May 23, 1903, with President A. F. Woods in the chair and twenty-four persons present. At the close of the business meeting, Dr. W. H. Evans, chairman of the scientific program for the evening, was called to the chair.

Dr. R. E. B. McKenney communicated 'Notes on Saccharomyces niger.' This rather uncommon fungus, which has been considered to be a true yeast, can by certain methods of culture be made to produce a well-developed, branched mycelium. Under such conditions the mycelium is septate, while under others it is unseptate. True ascospores were not observed; and it was considered probable that Marpmann, who claims to have found them, mistook certain refractive metabolic bodies

for such spores. The formation of false zygospore structures was also noted. The fungus is capable of continued growth for a couple of months in nutrient media, which is apparently free from nitrogen. It would

seem, therefore, that Saccharomyces niger is to be added to the small list of fungi which are thus capable of assimilating free nitrogen from the air. Mention was also made of certain other of the nutrition phenomena of this fungus.

Dr. George T. Moore gave a very interesting address on a new method of artificially inoculating soils for legumes with the nitrogenassimilating, tubercle-forming bacteria. The practical application of the method is very simple and was fully described. The paper will be published in full as a bulletin of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture. H. J. WEBBER.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.

THE GRAND GULF FORMATION.

IN SCIENCE of December 12, 1902, Professor Dall, in commenting on our note on the Grand Gulf Formation, published in the number for November 21, 1902, calls our attention to two errors, which we now acknowledge and are very glad to correct. We made the statement that Dr. Hilgard had considered the Grand Gulf as of Eocene age. This is a mis

take which escaped us both in the manuscript and in the proof-reading. Since Dr. Hilgard's work forms the basis of all our knowledge of the Gulf Coastal Plain, we knew from long-continued study thereof that there was not a line in all his writings which could be interpreted as even suggesting this age for the Grand Gulf. So also we were mistaken in saying that Professor Dall had regarded it as of Eocene age.

It is, furthermore, evident from Professor Dall's criticisms that we have not stated our case with sufficient clearness to prevent misunderstanding of our position. Inasmuch as to us the facts in our possession seem to afford absolute proof of the correctness of our conclusions, we beg to submit the evidence somewhat more fully to the consideration of the geologists interested.

At the outset it seems necessary to define clearly what we mean by Grand Gulf, and we can do no better than to follow Hilgard, who has so well described these beds, and who

has correctly mapped them as covering the lower part of the state of Mississippi from the southern limit of the Vicksburg down to within a few miles of the Gulf of Mexico.

The materials of the formation are sandstones, sands and clays, with silicified trunks of trees and beds of lignite, and lignitic clays containing leaf impressions, badly preserved and incapable of determination. Concerning these Grand Gulf beds Dr. Hilgard remarks: "Two points confront us in the discussion of the relations of the formation to the sea; the great rarity of the calcareous feature in the main body of the formation, and the utterly unmarine' character of the materials generally, in the constant recurrence of the lignito-gypseous facies." And again, “Of the sweep of 900 miles thus outlined as the known extent of this formation, 400 may be considered as having been examined sufficiently in detail to prove the absence of marine fossils from the formation; the portion so examined embracing, moreover, its widest part and fully two thirds of the area of the outcrop."*

By the characters thus outlined, this great fresh-water formation has been recognized and described by the geologists in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. No one has had any serious difficulty in distinguishing it in the field; but every one has had difficulty in reconciling the known facts of its surface distribution with any satisfactory assignment of it to a definite place in the stratigraphic column. The only formation with which it is at all likely to be confounded is the Lafayette, which everywhere, according to Hilgard and other geologists, directly overlies it, and of which the materials are often quite similar; and we have conclusive evidence that parts of the Grand Gulf have by several authors been included in the Lafayette.

In their relations also to the underlying older strata, these two formations have much in common; for instance, they both blanket' a number of older formations, but the Grand Gulf, so far as yet known, overlaps only Miocene, Oligocene and Eocene as far down as * Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XXII., July, 1881.

the Tallahatta Buhrstone, or lower Claiborne. While, therefore, we appear to be in substantial agreement as to the characters of the formation which we call Grand Gulf, we differ radically from Professor Dall as to the place which it occupies in the stratigraphic column.

We fully concur in his statement that, "It can not be too often emphasized that no determination of the age of its (southern coastal plain) beds not based on their fauna, or the fauna of beds both above and below those in question, can be regarded as more than tentative; and such determinations in the past have almost invariably proved erroneous."

The sole purpose of our first note was to prove, by the application of these very principles, that the stratigraphic position of the Grand Gulf beds was between the Pascagoula Tertiary and the Lafayette; but since doubt still remains, we wish to offer a few additional considerations.

So far as we have been able to ascertain, the Grand Gulf beds themselves do not anywhere contain the fossils which afford incontestable evidence of their age. Dr. Hilgard writes: "Apart from this [the finding of a few fragments of a turtle shell], my most patient search, in hundreds of localities, has failed to produce any fossil form; even the leaves associated with the lignite seams being so ill-preserved as to be unrecognizable."

And though casts of fresh-water shells have since been found in the formation, no determination of its age from these has been possible, † and we are thus compelled to rely

* Loc. cit., p. 59.

Kennedy finds V. planicosta in Fayette sandstones, but in basal layers which Veatch considers Jackson; Veatch also, in Frio clays near Binkville, La., finds a fossiliferous (casts) layer in a ferruginous rock; Harris finds Unio and Anodonta casts at Chalk Hills, La., along with leaves of birch, willow and other dicotyledonous trees; Meyer has mentioned casts of fresh-water shells occurring also at Grand Gulf.

It may easily be imagined that the waters which were active in transporting and depositing the materials of the Grand Gulf might on occasion carry into it fossils of an older formation over

wholly upon the other test, viz., the fauna of the beds below and above the ones in question.

If we consider first the formations which are known to overlie the Grand Gulf, there is not very much to be said, but it is conclusive.

6

The case in Texas is thus given by Professor Hill, in a recent letter: The so-called Grand Gulf beds of the Texas region are not overlaid by the Tertiary.'

In Mississippi we have Hilgard's testimony, as follows: "The latter (stratified drift or Lafayette) is found directly capping almost everywhere, the claystones and sandstones that characterize the highest part of the Grand Gulf group."

In Alabama also the Lafayette is nearly everywhere seen capping the Grand Gulf, and we have no record of anything older than Lafayette in this relation to it. The same thing is certainly true with regard to western Florida, and, we have no doubt, to the rest of Florida and Georgia as well.

In Bulletin 84 of the U. S. Geological Survey, Professor Dall says: "There is no doubt that directly in contact with the Grand Gulf beds in the Gulf states, lies the formation variously recognized under the names of Lafayette or Orange Sand of Hilgard, Lagrange of Safford, or Appomattox of McGee."

So while there are localities by the tens of thousands, in the Gulf states, where the Grand Gulf is directly overlaid by the Lafayette, we have no recorded instance of its being overlaid by any formation older than the Lafayette.

This circumstance alone affords at least presumptive evidence that the true place of the Grand Gulf is high up in the geological scale, and close under the Lafayette.

Secondly, as to the underlying formations. In Mississippi Dr. Hilgard found no contact of the Grand Gulf with any underlying formation other than the Vicksburg limestone. In connection with his description of these which they swept. The finding of a few Eocene Miocene fossils in the Grand Gulf beds should not cause any more surprise than the finding of SubCarboniferous fossils, for instance, in the Lafayette, as has often been done.

contacts he points out a very significant fact, viz., "While the Vicksburg rocks show at all long exposures a distinct southward dip of some three to five degrees, the position of the Grand Gulf rocks can rarely be shown to be otherwise than nearly or quite horizontal, on the average; although in many cases faults or subsidences have caused them to dip sometimes quite steeply, in almost any direction."*

And generally in the Gulf states, the landward margin of the Grand Gulf almost invariably rests upon the Vicksburg limestone, and many sections have been published showing this contact. On the principle that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, a formation follows next in chronological order, that formation upon which it directly rests, the Grand Gulf (or part of it) has usually been placed in the geological column, next above the Vicksburg limestone, i. e., in the Miocene (or, as some now prefer to call it, Oligocene).

The application of this principle in Alabama would cause us to place the Grand Gulf at a number of horizons where we are perfectly certain that it does not belong, for while in most cases it rests upon the Vicksburg limestone, yet we have recently seen it in direct contact with the Upper Claiborne and upon the Lower Claiborne or Buhrstone, on the one hand, and upon the Chattahoochee Miocene, and directly upon, as well as far above, the Pascagoula (Miocene or Pliocene).

So far as we know, no one has ever placed the Grand Gulf between the lower and upper Claiborne, or between the latter and the Vicksburg. Too many sections have been described showing the contact of these formations without any intercalated Grand Gulf, to permit any such assumption.

But the relations of the Grand Gulf to the Vicksburg and post-Vicksburg Tertiary formations have, perhaps, not heretofore been fully set forth. Conclusive evidence as to

these relations is afforded, we think, at the following localities:

1. Chattahooche and Appalachicola River.If any part of the Grand Gulf occupies the position assigned by Professor Dall to his

typical Grand Gulf,' i. e., between the Vicksburg and the Chattahoochee limetones (or approximately at that horizon), there should be somewhere on the gulf coastal plain a section which would exhibit these beds in that relation to each other. So far as we are aware, no such section has ever yet come under notice.

Certainly we should expect to find such an exposure in that most complete and unbroken section of the later marine Tertiaries afforded by the Chattahoochee and Appalachicola Rivers. This series of the Neozoic rocks, discovered by Langdon in 1887, has been studied by a number of eminent geologists, including Professors Pumpelly and Gilbert Harris, and Messrs. Dall and Stanley-Brown, some of whom have published descriptions.

The most complete and carefully prepared account of this section is that which appears in Volume 5 of the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Cenozoic Geology along the Appalachicola River,' by Messrs. Dall and Stanley-Brown.

From this article we make the following quotations: "At a place on the left bank of Flint River a few miles above the Florida boundary line, known as Willey's Landing, Professor Pumpelly states that the contact between the Vicksburg and undisturbed Chattahoochee Miocene may be observed."

"Beginning at the base of the column, Professor Pumpelly has shown that the Chattahoochee series rests on an erosion surface of the Vicksburg or Orbitoidal limestone which forms the culmination of the Eocene. We have confirmed this by an examination of the fossils submitted by Professor Pumpelly."