POPULAR MISCELLANY, 



131 



Point Belcher, which had been pushed up 

 by the ice from the bottom of the sea. The 

 peculiar geological feature of this region is a 

 great formation of ice which seems to have 

 the characteristics of a regularly stratified 

 rock. At Point Belcher, pure ice is met at 

 two feet below the surface, and is of un- 

 known depth. At Elephant Point, Kotzebue 

 Sound, the clay banks gradually rising along 

 the beach to the eastward show successively 

 two perpendicular faces of ice, " solid and 

 free from mixture of soil, except on the out- 

 side," one above the other. The ice-face 

 nearest the beach is covered with a coating 

 of soil which bears a luxuriant vegetation. 

 The whole formation, including the talus in 

 front of the ice, may be about thirty feet 

 high. Above this is a second talus, on a 

 larger scale, ascending to the foot of another 

 ice-face, which is also covered with hcrbage- 

 bearinir soil. The brow of the second bluff 

 is about eighty feet above the sea ; from it 

 the land rises gradually to a rounded ridge 

 three or four hundred feet high. At the 

 height of two hundred and fifty feet a 

 frozen stratum was found containing lumps 

 of clear ice, that indicated the existence of 

 solid ice, at no great depth below. Hence 

 it is inferred that the whole ridge, two miles 

 wide and two hundred and fifty feet high, is 

 chiefly composed of solid ice overlaid with 

 clay and vegetable mold. The ice gener- 

 ally has a serai-stratified appearance, is only 

 superficially soiled, is granular in structure 

 for the outer inch or two, and internally 

 solid and transparent or slightly tinged with 

 yellow ; but is never greenish or bluish, like 

 glacier-ice. Small pinnacles of ice run up 

 into the clay in places, while in other places 

 the ice itself is penetrated with deep holes in 

 which clay and vegetable matter have been 

 deposited. Holes were seen in the clay- 

 molds of spurs of ice that had been melted 

 away, and cylinders of muck and clay were 

 found on the ice-face, that had once filled 

 holes'from around which the ice had melted. 

 A strong, peculiar smell was often noticed, 

 apparently emanating from dark, pasty spots 

 in the clay. It was supposed to proceed from 

 the decomposition of the remains of soft 

 parts of mammoths and other animals. 

 Birches and alders seven or eight feet high, 

 ^luxuriant herbage, and plants bearing deli- 

 cious berries, grew with their roots less than 



a foot from perpetual solid ice. Observations 

 on the water in the strait showed that it is 

 warmest toward the American side, and be- 

 comes gradually cooler toward the Asiatic 

 side ; that the temperatures are nearly uni- 

 form from top to bottom, precluding the idea 

 of the existence of a sub-surface current 

 from the Arctic Ocean which carries cold 

 water to the south ; and that the northerly 

 current through the strait and along the 

 Arctic Ocean is probably chiefly dependent 

 on the tide for its force and direction, and 

 upon the warming of shallow waters for its 

 high temperature. 



Qlinnesota Academy of Sciences. The 



Minnesota Academy of Sciences was organ- 

 ized seven years ago, and is now free from 

 debt, and able to report its library and cab- 

 inet in creditable condition. Although it 

 has had to encounter a lack of S}Tnpathy 

 from part of the community, on account of 

 an apprehension that its tendency might be 

 toward infidelity, the retiring President, Dr. 

 F. L. Hatch, declared at the annual meeting 

 last Januar}', that in none of the papers 

 read and published under the sanction of 

 the Academy had any dogma of any one's 

 faith been touched, or a derogatory reflec- 

 tion been cast upon the Christian's sacred 

 record. Professor N. H. Winchell, the in- 

 coming President, made an address at the 

 annual meeting, maintaining the right and 

 duty of the State to estabUsh and support 

 institutions for the higher education. He en- 

 deavored to show that the denominational 

 colleges and universities had been backward 

 in responding to the demand for the pro- 

 vision of more liberal courses of scien- 

 tific instruction ; and that no general move- 

 ment was made by them in this direction 

 till a system of scientific schools had been 

 established by private enterprise and State 

 aid, indeperfdently of them, and in the face 

 of their indifference to the scheme. 



Units of Electrical Measurement. The 



International Congress of Electricians, to be 

 held in Paris during the summer, will doubt- 

 less be called upon to consider the subject 

 of a uniform standard for electrical measure- 

 ments. The system of standards at present 

 most used was adopted by the British Asso- 

 ciation after eight years of study and experi- 



