The San Francisco call., 1904-12-31
SOIL SECRETS
THEIR SUBJECT
Scientists Interested in
Making of World Meet at
University in Conference
BIOLOGISTS IN SESSION
Problems Talked OF by Men
Who Have Made Study of
Things Under the Earth
Berkeley Office San Francisco Call,
214S Center Street, Dec. 80.

214S Center Street, Dec. 80.
The Cordilleran section of the Geo
, logical Society of America held its
sixth annual session in South Hall on
the University campus to-day. The
work of the session will not be con-
eluded until tomorrow night. Papers
of importance and interest to the sci
entific world are to be read in the
course of the session, the first of them
being under discussion to-day.
Professor John c. Merriam of the
geological department of the Univer-
sity of California was the first speak
er this morning, his subject being
The Most Primitive Type of Ichthy-
osaurian Limb" He brought with
him a specimen limb from the mu-
scum of the university. 1t is part of
a collection recently obtained from
the middle Triassic of Nevada and is
considered an unusually good speci-
men, showing the pro and apipodial
segments of an anterior limb. Pro-
fessor Merriam declared that Of all
the known ichthyosaurs this form
shows the most primitive forearm re-
gion and approaches most nearly the
type seen in primitive shore reptiles.
This fact, he declared, is especially
significant when it is considered that
this is proably the Oldest known spec
linen showing the limb elements.
The specimen upon which Professor
Merriam discoursed to the scientists
present was recently presented, with
other material of similar character, to
the university by Miss A. NJ Alexan-
der. All were obtained from expo
sures of the trachyceras horizon of
the hosselkus limestone occurring a
few miles from Winthrop, Shasta
County, Cal.
Professor Merriam also discussed
the relationships of arctotherium, this
paper being devoted to theories re-
garding the aff1nities and origin of the
group of bear-like species classed un-
der the genus arctotherium.
E. l.. Furlong of the geology depart
ment of the State University read
paper on "A New Sheep-Like Form
From the Samuel Cave" He discussed
the features of a sheep-like form
found in. the cave recently, in addi-
ton to the three representatives of
the ovinae already discovered there.
The latest find, declared the speaker,
differed materially from any type
known in America. His paper was
given up to a recital of these points
of difference.
At the afternoon session of the So
ciety Adolph Knepf, a graduate stu
dent of the university, described the
geology of the Mineral King belt, an
area situated near the crest of the
Sierra Nevada in Tvlare County, Cal.
- Aa
region consist of a metamorphic belt
of quartzites, limestones and clay
states invaded by mesozoic GRANTEES
and rendered more or less schistose.,
They represent an isolated remnant of
the batholithic roof formerly coexten-
sive with the range and are regarded,
from the nature of their hypsometric
relations, as having sunk over a mile
into the rising magma. 1t is this vol
umetric displacement of the intrusive
GRANTEES that their preservation from
the severe denudation that the region
has undergone is ascribable.
"A Study of the Stratigraphy and
Structure of the Mount Diablo Range"
was the title of F. M. Armstrong; pa
per, which followed. 1t was said by
the speaker that the Mount Diablo
range defined by Whitney, ex-
tending along the western side of the
San Joaquin Valley, is typical of the
southern coast ranges. 1t contains a
core of pre-Cretaceous strata and old
eruptive rocks overlain on both f1anks
by Cretaceous and Tertiary strata.
Geographically and structurally it
contains a number of separate divi-
sions.
Professor E. w. Hilgard, dean Of
the college of agriculture of the uni
versity, read the last paper during the
afternoon session. His subject was
Some Peculiarities of Rock Weather
ing and Soil Formation in the Arid
Region" His paper presented the re-
suits of observations on the differences
in the processes of weathering under
humid and arid conditions, respec-
lively, and the physical and chemical
differences In the resulting regoliths.
SON FINDS HIS AGED