1897] NEWS 431 



Science announces that the United States Geological Survey has practically 

 completed the distribution of the Educational Series of Rocks, 17") suites of 15G 

 specimens each having been sent out during the past summer to universities, 

 colleges, and technical institutions in the United States. There remains a small 

 number of incomplete sets, wliich will be placed in such smaller colleges as will 

 make them most useful. The Educational Series were prepared by the Survey 

 with much care, for the purpose of aiding students in acquiring a general and 

 special knowledge of rocks and promoting the study of geology. 



The illustrations of geological sections as aids to the geologist who ventures 

 into a museum are familiar to everyone who visits the museums at Jermyn Street, 

 Cromwell Road, and many places on the Continent and in America ; but there is 

 one particular section — that built in the gardens of the Landwirthschaftliche 

 Institut of the University of Halle, in honour of Dr Julius Kuehn — which we do 

 not think has been brought to the notice of readers of this journal. It is built up 

 of the rocks themselves, and represents a section through the mountainous district 

 of north and middle Germany. This very striking representation of geology was 

 described by Professor K. v. Isitsch as long ago as 1891. Besides forming an 

 unique memorial to Dr Kuehn, it has considerable value for the teaching of 

 geology. 



We learn from the Shooting Times that the Guildford Natural History Society 

 have been considering the question of the preservation of Wolmer Forest, which 

 is only fifteen miles from that town, and have decided to present a petition to the 

 Commissioners of Woods and Forests, praying that Wolmer Forest may be reserved 

 as a sanctuary for wild birds, in which they, their nests, and eggs may remain 

 unmolested throughout the year ; that it may not be let at any time for game 

 preserving, or for any purpose inimical to bird life ; and that it may remain in 

 perpetuity as a national memorial to the greatest outdoor naturalist England has 

 produced — Gilbert White of Selborne. Such a recognition, the society iirge, 

 would show that the admiration of Gilbert White in the nineteenth century was 

 so practical as to be of value to the naturalist and the English-speaking race for 

 all succeeding time. The society have no wish to attempt to interfere with the 

 use of the forest by the War Office for the purposes of military manoeuvres. 



An editorial comment in the American Naturalist for October includes some 

 complimentary remarks on the British Association, which will be read in this 

 country with interest : — " We may be pardoned if we point out some features in 

 which we think the British Association superior to our own. In the first place, 

 the Presidential Addresses delivered before the British Association strike us as, on 

 the whole, better than those with which our audiences are greeted. While now 

 and then an American address will rise to as high a standard as anything that 

 Great Britain can boast, theirs are on the average the more thoughtful and 

 scholarly, while ours too often have a perfunctory air and lack in breadth of view. 

 In personnel of those who attend, the British Association again has the advantage. 

 In England it is the fashion to attend these annual meetings, and no one there 

 has reached such a pinnacle of greatness that he can afford to ignore or neglect 

 this national society. As a result, at their gatherings one can be reasonably 

 certain of meeting most of those who are the leaders in English scientific thought. 

 In America, on the other hand, the tendency is in the other direction. It would 

 be an easy matter to give a considerable list of names of those prominent in 

 American science whose faces are never seen at the association meetings." 



