6o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mention eagles) that are, as a rule, iramediately shipped to Europe; 

 there they go at once to the melting pot, and are converted into Brit- 

 ish sovereigns (having a different proportion of alloy) or into gold 

 coins of other nations; as soon as the rate of exchange changes be- 

 yond a certain degree these brand-new foreign gold coins are to some 

 extent shipped back to us, and they in turn go to the melting pot at 

 the Mint, where the proportion of alloy is again changed to make the 

 standard of the United States (nine tenths fine). The gold is then 

 recoined, shipped back to Europe, and so the process is repeated in- 

 definitely. 



In addition to the large expense involved in this useless and end- 

 less work there is irrevocable loss of precious metal with each hand- 

 ling, melting, and coining. I believe that all this is unnecessary. It 

 would be perfectly feasible for the nations to agree upon some 

 simpler method of adjusting trade balances at a tithe of this cost; 

 and even if the time shall not yet have come for making such settle- 

 ments by a sort of international clearing house, a partial solution 

 of the difficulty would be found in the adoption of an international 

 gold coin, or in the more general employment for export of fine gold 

 bars instead of coin, which have been assayed at the mints or United 

 States assay offices and officially stamped with their weight and 

 fineness. There is less risk of loss by robbery in transshipment of 

 such bars, and counterfeiting is not likely to prove a dangerous 

 impediment for several reasons, one of which is that such bars do not 

 pass into general circulation. 



It is, of course, necessary, before we can hope to interest foreign 

 governments in any improvement in international monetary mat- 

 ters, that we should adopt a reform in our own currency, bringing 

 order out of the present chaotic condition. 



In conclusion, I desire to call your particular attention to the 

 valuable collection of early American coins, as well as coins of other 

 nations, deposited in this museum by Mr. Robert C H. Brock, of 

 Philadelphia, from which the director, Mr. Culin, has had the illus- 

 trations made. This collection is rich in specimens of all the issues 

 mentioned, and they are in excellent preservation. 



One of the entries iu Sir Andrew Ramsay's diary, quoted by Sir Archi- 

 bald Geikie iu his niemoir of that geologist, describes a meetiug of the 

 Geological Society in London, when "Bucklaud made a most witty speech. 

 It was about crinoids ; and he began by saying that the debate seemed to 

 him to have more of a gastronomic than a paleontological character ; for 

 all that had been said bore upon the I'elation of the plates to the mouth 

 and the mouth to the plates." At a subsequent meeting "Buckland was all 

 in favor, but in attempting to quote Scripture made a great mull of it, 

 greatly to the amusement of all, especially the Bishop of Oxford." 



