POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



281 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



issotiatioa of Official Geologists.— The 



preliminary steps were taken at Washington 

 during the meetings of the International 

 Geolo<^ical Congress toward the formation 

 of an official organization of the directors of 

 State and national geological surveys. The 

 more important objects of the projected 

 society are the determination of the proper 

 objects of public geologic work, the unprove- 

 ment and unification of methods, the estab- 

 lishment of the proper relative spheres and 

 functions of national and State surveys, 

 co-operation in works of common interest 

 and the prevention of duplication of work, 

 the elevation of the standard of public geo- 

 logic work and the sustenance of an ap- 

 preciation of its value, and the inauguration 

 of surveys by States not having any now, 

 which CO- operate with the other State surveys 

 and with the national survey. 



Changes ia Level of the Atlantic Coast.— 



The fluctuations in height of the Atlantic 

 lowland coast-lands of the United States 

 were described by Prof. W J McGee in a 

 paper read before the American Association. 

 In the Pleistocene period the land stood 

 between three hundred and eight hundred 

 feet below its present level. Immediately 

 afterward the land rose to from three 

 hundred to six hundred feet above its pres- 

 ent height, and the shores of the Atlantic 

 and the Gulf retreated to from one hundred 

 to five hundred miles beyond their present 

 position. Afterward the land gradually 

 sank, and the waters readvanced until the 

 geography was much the same as to-day. 

 Then came another incursion of the ocean 

 and "Tilf, bringing sea-waters over nearly all 

 the area upon which Washington is built, and 

 over considerable portions of the North and 

 the South. During this period there was 

 deposited a series of loams and brick-clay 

 and bowlder-beds, upon which Washington 

 is located, and which has been named, from 

 the District, the Columbia formation. At 

 the close of the Columbia period the land 

 again rose one hundred or two hundred feet 

 higher than at present, and river channels 

 , were cut from fifty to seventy-five miles 

 beyond the present coast-line. It then began 

 to sink, and this movement is yet in progress. 



South American Railroads.— Three of the 



railroads that start from the Pacific coast of 

 South America and run up the valleys of the 

 Andes, says President Gardner G. Hubbard, 

 in his address to the National Geographic 

 Society, are among the most remarkable 

 roads in the world, ascend to a greater ele- 

 vation than any others, and reach a height 

 which in Europe and the United States would 

 be above the snow-level. They were intended 

 to reach the gold and silver mines between 

 the Andes and Cordilleras. The first, called 

 the Oroya or Central Railroad, one hundred 

 and eleven miles long, starts from Callao 

 and crosses the Andes at an elevation of 

 nearly fifteen thousand feet. It is intended 

 to extend it to the navigable waters of 

 the Amazon. Three hundred miles south- 

 ward of this, the second road runs from 

 Mollendo, Peru, by Arequipa to Puno or 

 Lake Titicaca, and thence northward on 

 the plateau four hundred and seven miles 

 to San Rosas, on the route to Cuzco. For 

 a part of the way it runs through a country 

 so destitute of water that the only supply 

 for the engines and stations is by an iron 

 pipe eight inches in diameter and fifty miles 

 long, running from an elevation of seven 

 thousand feet to the sea-coast. Seven or 

 eight hundred miles south of Mollendo a 

 line runs from Valparaiso, in Chili, to Buenos 

 Ayres, eight hundred and seventy miles. It 

 crosses the Andes through a tunnel two 

 miles long, at an elevation of ten thousand 

 five hundred and sixty-eight feet above the 

 sea ; after leaving the mountains it runs 

 over the pampas two hundred miles, without 

 a curve or a grade more than three feet 

 above or below the plain, and will soon be 

 completed from ocean to ocean. From Rio 

 Janeiro several roads have been construct- 

 ed over the mountains west of that city to 

 different parts of Brazil. There are now 

 from six thousand to seven thousand miles 

 of road in operation in the Argentine Repub- 

 lic, five thousand or six thousand in Brazil, 

 and three thousand or four thousand miles 

 in the other states, making a total of about 

 fifteen thousand miles of railroad in opera- 

 tion. The apparently most feasible route 

 for the proposed Pan-American Railroad to 

 run from the Caribbean Sea to the Argentine 

 Republic, and to connect with the others, 

 starts from Cartagena, follows the valley of 



