POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



569 



are really well built, and in front of many 

 of them are small gardens, raised ten feet 

 from the ground. To make these gardens, 

 a well-built platform is covered with soil, 

 in which flowers and tobacco are planted 

 and cultivated. 



The lutprnational Geological Congress. 



— The International Geological Congi-ess 

 held its sessions in Berlin from the 28th of 

 September to the 4th of October last, and 

 was attended by two hundred delegates of 

 various nationalities, among whom were 

 Mr. McGee, Professor Newberry, and Pro- 

 fessor James Hall, from the United States. 

 The German geologist. Von Dechen, who 

 is eighty-five years old, was named hon- 

 orary president, while Professor Beyrich 

 served as effective president. Among the 

 important matters to receive attention was 

 the report of progress upon the geological 

 map of Europe, the execution of which had 

 been put in charge of a special commission 

 by the preceding Co'ngress at Bologna. The 

 choice of colors made at Bologna was pro- 

 nounced a happy one ; and the principle of 

 marking the subdivisions of periods by grad- 

 uated tints of the same color, the darker 

 tints indicating the older beds, was approved. 

 The report on nomenclature stated that, 

 while the Congress of Bologna had estab- 

 lished the fundamental principles on the 

 subject, there were some important matters 

 which it had not settled, and upon which 

 the international committees had not been 

 able to agree. On the points considered in 

 this report the Congress decided that the 

 Triassic and Jurassic formations should be 

 divided into three series each, and the Cre- 

 taceous into two, the lower series ineludin"- 

 the Gault. On other points, on which dif- 

 ferences of opinion were more pronounced, 

 discussion was remanded to special publica- 

 tions and to future consideration. Professor 

 Neumayr, of Vienna, asked the sanction of 

 the Congress to his contemplated " Xomen- 

 clator Palaeontologicus," to be published in 

 fifteen volumes of a hundred pages each, in 

 which should be given the names of all 

 vegetable and animal fossils, with the beds 

 in which they occur and the works in which 

 they are described. It will have a French 

 introduction and a Latin text, as brief as 

 possible. The next meeting of the Congress 



was appointed to be held in London in 1888, 

 between the 15th of August and the 15th of 

 September. 



The New England Meteorological Soci- 

 ety. — At the annual meeting of the New 

 England Meteorological Society, held in 

 Boston, October 20th, Professor Davis read 

 a paper upon the thundcr-stoi-ms of the 

 summer of 1885, and Mr. Harold Whiting a 

 paper on the self-recording aneroid barome- 

 ter. A full presentation of the year's work 

 of the society was given in the report of the 

 Council. The number of members had in- 

 creased from nine in November, 1883, to 

 ninety-five ; the number of observers send- 

 ing reports from forty-five to one hundred 

 and twenty-three. Efforts had been con- 

 stantly made to secure increased accuracy 

 and greater uniformity in the observations. 

 The subject of accurate instruments re- 

 ceived early attention ; and it was decided 

 to manufacture a special class of rain- 

 gauges rather than to adopt any now in the 

 market, and to adopt certain makes of self- 

 registering thermometers. All desiring to 

 make observations have been encouraged to 

 do so, and efforts have also been made to 

 secure observers in special localities. In 

 co-operation with the United States Signal- 

 Service, local weather -flags are daily dis- 

 played in more than a hundred cities and 

 towns of New England. More than four 

 hundred observers have co-operated in the 

 special investigation of thunder-storms ; and 

 two hundred and three reports were sent in 

 of a single storm. The National Academy 

 aids these investigations with an appropria- 

 tion of two hundred dollars. The expenses 

 of the society have, by the aid of friends, 

 been kept witlun its income. As its finan- 

 cial prosperity depends on the number of 

 members, it is desired to include in the 

 membership all who are interested in mete- 

 orological studies in New England, whether 

 they make observations or not. 



How to exalt the Teacher's Art. — 



" Teaching as a Business " — that is, why is 

 it not a profession ? — is the title of a paper 

 which was read by C. W. Bardeen before 

 the National Educational Association at its 

 last meeting. One reason why teaching is 

 not a profession lies in the way school 



