Evening star., 1932-12-29
FOSSILS INDICATE
OCEANS EXISTENCE
New York Pa|eontoIogist and
Others Address Geolog-
.icaI Society.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. December ~
Tiny fossil forms, PlanktQn faunas tilde
existed millions Of years ago. TO-DAY Wele
offered to the American Geological So-
ciety as evidence OF the existence IN tne
PaleOZoic times of oceans to the edSt
and west Of North America.
Rudolph Ruedemann Of Albany, ~ l.,
New York State paleontologist, VINO mas
made a study Of graptolites, long since
extinct division of hydroids, or f1oatlhg
organic sea life. and associated crea-
lures. told the society these organisms
largely lived attached to the weeds OF
the Sargasso Sea.
Greater Life Period.
Ralph w. Chaney of Berkely, Calf:
honorary curator of the Museum OF
PaleontolOsy at the University Of Cali
fornia and author Of another paper
presented before the second day session
Of the forty-fifth annual meeting OF the
society, conclud d from the study of the
gold bearing gravelS on the west flank
of the Sierra Nevada Mountains that
these sands had a much greater period
of life than formerly supposed.
Lewis @. WeStgate Of Delaware, Ohio,
formerly a professor at the Ohio-Wes-
leyan University. and Richard P.
Fischer OF Princeton University. placed
Central Ohio under shallow seas dur
ing the mid-Devonian period. the time
when amphibians and land plants were
making their first appearance.
Strength of Earth.
The true strength Of the earth was
confined almost entirely 10 its COM
paratively thin crust. Pref. Reginald A.
Day of Harvard retiring president OF
the Geological Society Of America, told
that body here last night.
Prof. Daily in discussion on The
Depth of the Earth" declared that de-
spite remarkable discoveries in recent
years the best that could be said for
modern conclusions on the constitution
of the earth was that they formed
working hypothesis.
Invisible and Untouchable
Ninety-nlne and nlne-tenthS per cent
of the volume of the earth. DAILY said,
must forever remain invisible and un-
touchable'
PreSent-day conclusions on the nature
of the globe enVision a crust of ordinary
crystalline ROCKS which, in continental
regions was about 40 miles thick, and
under the deep oceans somewhat
thicker.
Below the crust and to the center
OF the globe. he said, it was probable
the temperature was too high to permit
the formation of crystals. From the
crust to about 1900 miles down, the
material is vltreous. CLASSY rock more
rigid on the average than steel
This thick shell overlies a core re-
garded by students of physics as essen
TALLY huge ball of molten, metallic
iron
The great heat of the interior, Prof.
DAILY said he regarded as largely primi-
tive, inherited from the earth'S begin
ming.
Welcomed by Lowell
The Geological Society and its afili-
ated societies. the archaeological So
ciety and the MIneralogical Society Of
America, which are holding their an
nual meetings here. were welcomed to
Cambridge earlier in the day by A. Law
renee Lowell, president Of Harvard Uni
SerSity.
DR.. Lowell, in a brief address. said
the greatest problem facing the educa-
tor OF the future was that of broadening
students who were now. he asserted,
suffering from mOyer-SpecialiZation of in.
struction. We must learn" he said,
TO teach without making every man
a specialist
New Flood Version.
THE writer. therefore. proposes a new
version of the flood: That the ponding
was produced by blockade of ice in
the Columbia River gorge and that the
rise of the river TO abnormally high
levels began at the gorge and not on
the plateau of Eastern Washington"
Allison suggested that as the water
was damned to progressively higher
levels it was diverted around the ice and
into a succession Of routes across Sec
ondary drainage divides at increasing
attitudes. This Interpretation" he said.
does not require a short-hved, catas-
trophc flood. but explains the scablands
as the effects of a moderate flow of
water. now here and now there, over
an extended period of time"