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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the School of Mines, chairman ; Profess- 

 or Dauiel S. Martin, of Uutgers Female 

 College, and Dr. N. L. Britton, of Columbia 

 College. This committee has organized, with 

 Dr. Britton as Fceretary and treasurer, and 

 is now ready to receive subscriptions, which 

 will be properly acknowledged. Checks 

 should be made payable to N. L. Britton, 

 treasurer, and post-office orders should be 

 drawn on Station H, New York city. The 

 committee estimates that from six to ten 

 thousand dollars will be required to erect 

 and engrave a shaft worthy the memory 

 of America's first naturalist, and, while 

 confident that this amount will be forth- 

 coming, desires to have interest taken in 

 the project by scientists in all departments 

 throughout the country. 



The Hills and Valleys of Cintinnatl.— 



Professor Joseph F. James, in a study of 

 the topography of Cincinnati, describes the 

 valley, with its two ancient parallel river- 

 terraces, in which the business part of the 

 city is built, as girt with a line of hills, 

 rising from three hundred and ninety-six 

 feet above low-water in the Ohio River, or 

 eight hundred and twcnty-c'ght feet above 

 the sea, the heiglit of Mount Adams, to four 

 hundred and sixty or eight hundred and 

 ninety-one feet, the height of Mount Au- 

 burn. The hills were originally rounded at 

 the top, but have been so marred by the de- 

 structive agencies of city " improvements," 

 that they can hardly be recognized. There 

 still remain, however, the great drainage- 

 valleys, which have for ages carried the 

 water from the north, south into the Ohio 

 River. None of them, except Mill Creek, 

 which occupies part of the ancient channel 

 of the Ohio, arc of any great extent, and 

 this is one fact tending to prove the former 

 insular character of the suburban parts of 

 Cincinnati. Four of these valleys are men- 

 tioned, besides Mill Creek. While they, with 

 their attendant heights, have added greatly 

 to the picturesquene«s of the city, they have, 

 at the same time, been taken advantage of 

 in the building up of the suburbs. The 

 heights have been utilized for dwellings, 

 while the valleys between have proved in- 

 valuable for streets. The tracing of the 

 divide which separates the Ohio River drain- 

 age from that of Mill Creek, is an interest- 



ing study. It pursues a general northeast 

 and southwest direction, and can still be 

 followed in quite a definite manner for a 

 part of its course. In two cases instances 

 are observed of two ravines heading up 

 close to one another on both the south and 

 north sides of the divide ; and these lend 

 illustration to a remark that has been made 

 by Captain Dutton, that in mountainous 

 countries the ravines form a series of am- 

 phitheatres close to a narrow divide which 

 remains sharp in all stages of erosion. The 

 Rev. G. F. Wright, of Oberlin College, has 

 found that the southern foot of the conti- 

 nental glacier crossed the Ohio near Point 

 Pleasant, about twenty-five miles above the 

 city, and rccrossed it at Aurora, Indiana, 

 blocking the course of the stream for about 

 fifty miles. Professor I. C. White has esti- 

 mated the height of this dam at six hun- 

 dred and forty-five feet above low-water in 

 the river. From the absence of any traces 

 of glacial drift upon the hills, the author 

 doubts if it could have been so high. Be- 

 sides enlarging upon the beauty of the situ- 

 ation of Cincinnati, which no man can ques- 

 tion, Professor James claims for it that, 

 situated on part of the oldest dry land (Cam- 

 brian) in the Western world, its site " can 

 boast of an antiquity which puts to shame 

 many more renowned cities," its rocks being 

 " hoary with the age of countless centuries," 

 while the soil of New Oilcans is "yet satu- 

 rated with its baptismal shower " ; they were 

 gray with moss when the Dcvcmian site of 

 Louisville was deep under the ocean ; when 

 the sub-carboniferous of St. Louis was as 

 yet scarcely even in process of formation ; 

 and they vastly antedate the Rocky Mount- 

 ains and the Mississippi. 



A Central Astronomical Agency. — In a 



paper on "The Extension of Astronomical 

 Research," Professor Edward C. Pickering, 

 of Harvard Observatory, calls attention to 

 the fact, that while the net results of astro- 

 nomical research have been of enormous 

 pecuniary value, in certain cases large sums 

 of money have been expended with little 

 or no useful return. Striking instances may 

 be mentioned of observatories without prop- 

 er instruments, large telescopes idle for want 

 of observers, and al»le astronomers unpro- 

 vided with means of doing useful work. 



