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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Royal Prussian Geological Institute. The 

 data from each nation will be furnished 

 through its representative on the Interna- 

 tional Committee, if it has one ; or, if it is a 

 small state, and is not thus represented, by 

 its vice-presidents in the Congress. The 

 map will include the whole basin of the 

 Mediterranean and all of Europe to the 

 eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, and 

 will be made upon a scale of 1 to 1,500,000. 

 It will therefore cover a space of 372 by 336 

 centimetres, or about twelve by eleven feet, 

 and will, for convenience of use and bind- 

 ing, be divided into forty-nine sections of 

 about twenty-two by sixteen inches each. 

 The primary object of the map will be to 

 give a clear representation of geological 

 conditions. It will not be practicable con- 

 sistently with this to give particular at- 

 tention to orographical details. The river 

 systems, the principal towns, the more im- 

 portant mountain-ranges, and the curves in- 

 dicating sea-depths, will be denoted so far 

 as seems fitting. The topographical basis 

 of the map is to be reconstructed on the 

 proposed scale under the supervision of 

 Professor H. Kiepert, of Berlin. The total 

 expense of the work is estimated at 80,000 

 marks, or in the neighborhood of $20,000, 

 and is to be borne by the states interested, 

 the eight largest states contributing each 

 one ninth, and the smaller states together 

 the other ninth, of the whole. The sub- 

 scription price for the first edition will be 

 80 marks, or about $20, a copy of the whole 

 map. The price will afterward be raised to 

 100 marks, or $25. 



Origin ot Petroleum. The Huron and 

 Cleveland (Devonian) black shales of Ohio 

 contain from 2 to 22 per cent of organic 

 matter, which Dr. Newberry regards as of 

 marine origin, and are the source of some 

 of the petroleum-wells. Decomposition has 

 been carried on so far that all structure 

 seems to have been obliterated; but Dr. 

 Orton stated, in a paper read before the 

 American Association, that he had discov- 

 ered the organic substance to consist of spo- 

 rangia or spore-cases of Lycopodiacece. He 

 had found numerous resinous disks of from 

 zhu to -fa of an inch in diameter, translu- 

 cent, amber - colored, appearing as a rusty 

 crust, with ridged and furrowed surfaces, 



burning freely, insoluble in alcohol, and 

 sometimes having stem -like attachments. 

 Different beds afford disks of different sizes. 

 The Pennsylvania and New York petroleum- 

 wells originate in the equivalent of the Ohio 

 black shales. 



A Medal to Pastenr. A medal commem- 

 orative of his remarkable discoveries was 

 presented to M. Pasteur at the sitting of 

 the French Academy of Sciences, June 26th, 

 by M. Dumas, on behalf of a committee of 

 scientific men and friends and admirers of 

 the distinguished investigator. M. Dumas 

 reviewed briefly the great services M. Pas- 

 teur had rendered to science, art, and indus- 

 try, through his researches among the vital 

 organisms of fermentation, and closed by 

 saying : " My dear Pasteur, your life has 

 only known successes. The scientific meth- 

 od, of which you make certain use, owes 

 you its finest triumphs. The Normal School 

 is proud to count you among the number of 

 its students ; the Academy of Sciences is 

 elated at your researches ; France ranks you 

 among her glories. . . . Science, agricult- 

 ure, industry, humanity, will feel eternal 

 gratitude to you, and your name will live 

 in their annals among the most illustrious 

 and the most venerated." Pasteur replied 

 modestly, acknowledging his obligations to 

 his teachers, and said : " Hitherto great eu- 

 logies have inflamed my ardor, and only in- 

 spired the idea of rendering myself worthy 

 of them by new efforts ; but those which 

 you have addressed to me, in the name of 

 the Academy and of learned societies, truly 

 overpower me." 



Were the Monnd-Bnilders Indians? 



Dr. Hoy read a paper at the American As- 

 sociation in support of the view that the 

 mound-builders were the ancestors of our 

 present Indian race. He held that the age 

 of the mounds had been exaggerated. The 

 growth of large trees upon them is not cer- 

 tain evidence of great age, for some trees 

 grow very fast. It was also a mistake to 

 suppose that the mound-builders could be 

 distinguished from Indians by their being 

 an agricultural people. The Indians have 

 largely tilled the ground. De Soto lived 

 with his army four years among the Indians 

 of the South, and quartered his two hun- 



