Professor William L, Watts gave a very graphic description of 

 the geology, topography, mineral and botanical characteristics of these 

 regions, and exhibited the necessity of these guide-posts for the saving 

 of the lives of the numerous prospectors who, with reckless improvi- 

 dence, roam over this desolate country in their mad search for gold. 



'Mr. L. West Beck, with his lantern, threw upon the screen views 

 of this desert country, taken by him in his exploring trips from Mono 

 to San Diego County. 



At the close of the arranged program, Mr. Stanley McGinnis gave 

 a short account of the discovery by Mr. George F. Clifton and himself, 

 at Denver, Colorado, of the process of real color photography direct from 

 nature, whereby the most delicate plants and the most picturesque 

 landscape are shown through the negative, exactly as seen through the 

 camera, illustrating his statement with a few views. 



The proceedings of the evening were enlivened by music rendered 

 by the High School Young Ladies' Quartet. 



DECEMBER. 



The announcement that the December meeting would be devoted 

 to discussions of coelo locomotion, in view of the forthcoming aviation 

 week in Los Angeles, resulted in a large attendance. 



Mr. Charles F. Willard, of the Aeronautic Society of Xew York, 

 who has made more than two hundred successful aeroplane flights, and 

 who is to drive a Curtiss machine in the coming contests, gave a 

 most interesting history of this new method of transportation. 



The newly coined word " aviation, " as distinguished from "aero- 

 nautics," refers to heavier-than-air dirigible machines driven by me- 

 chanical means. He related events in his experience, illustrating by 

 views on the screen, the various parts of the aeronef, and its mode of 

 ascent, operation and descent. 



He was followed by Mr. George P. Harrison, Secretary of the Cali- 

 fornia Aviation Society, who spoke upon aeronautics, or air-sailing, 

 lighter-than-air machines. 



He described the dirigibles of Roy Knabeushue and Count Zep- 

 pelin, and ballooning with the old type spherical bags. 



The evening was one of intense interest to the Academy and 

 its guests. 



JANUARY. 



The January, 1910, meeting of the Academy was devoted to the 

 Geology and Quaternary Zoology of California. 



Professor William L. Watts, in "An Outline of the Geological 

 History of California," gave a most graphic account of the volcanic 

 action and the tremendous erosions extending from Puget Sound to 

 the southernmost point of Lower California, and the various upris- 

 ings and subsidence of this coast region from the Primary or Paleozoic, 

 Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian times, down through its evolu- 

 tion during the Mesozoic, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous period to 

 the Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene of the Kainozoic, and ending with the 

 quaternary times of the Pleistocene and alluvium deposits when the 

 camel, the giant ground sloth and the sabre-tooth cat found a home 

 in this land. 



Professor James Z. Gilbert, from the platform laden with fossils 

 excavated from the wonderful deposit in La Brea Rancho, in his dis- 

 course upon the Quaternary Life in California, related the charac- 

 teristics of the now extinct fauna of two hundred thousand years ago. 



The meeting resolved itself into a catechetical symposium with 

 Professor Gilbert as the Socratic master, and his expositions of the 

 various subjects propounded were received with marked attention and 

 eminent satisfaction. 



78 



