"1. The eskers and sand plateaus of Auburndale and Newtonville were formed by running water just inside and outside of the ice margin in the closing stage of the last glacial epoch.
"2. The ice-sheet was a stagnant, decaying mass at the time of their formation, as is shown by the ragged outline of its margin.
"3. Eskers and sand plateaus are genetically connected; the term, feeding-esker, is fully warranted by the relation of the two in position, structure, and composition.
"4. The sand plateaus were made rapidly; this is proved by the absence of disordered beds at their heads, where space would have been opened by the backward melting of the ice had the forward growth of the plateau been slow. The eskers were also made rapidly, as is shown by their 'open-work gravels.'
"5. The diversion of the feeding streams to other outlets left the plateaus and the eskers without further energetic action as the ice melted away from them.
"6. The present form and structure of the eskers are more accordant with the supposition of a subglacial origin than of a superglacial origin; but it is not intended to imply that other eskers of more irregular form and different structure could not have been deposited in superglacial channels."
H. B. K.
Studies in Structural Geology. By Bailey Willis, U. S. Geol. Surv. (Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, June, 1892).
The paper aims "to present some of the results of observation of the geologists of the Appalachian division during the past three years on the subject of structural geology in the Appalachian province." The structural features are all of one type but of different phases, comprised in four great districts. 1) the district of close folding, 2) a district whose chief structural characteristic is cleavage, 3) a district of open folding, 4) a district of faulting and folding. The answer to the questions, Why did the strata bend in the district of open folding, and why did they break in the district of faulting, is that the thrust affected them according to their rigidity under their respective conditions of superincumbent load. "We know that load up to a certain point restrains fracture in material under thrust." In the district of open folding the Devonian limestone is the most rigid of the strata and "the one which would most effectively transmit the compressing thrust and would control the resulting structure." In the district of open folding this limestone was prevented from breaking and faulting by a load of superincumbent strata exerting a pressure of 10,000 to 23,000 pounds per square inch, while in the faulted district a load of 5,000 to 10,000 pounds per square inch permitted the strata to break and fault.