178 MINUTES. [MayiS 



What I have said are generalizations very incomplete, yet they, 

 nevertheless, indicate that the practice of agriculture and horticulture 

 has taken a highly mechanical and scientific tone, a pursuit worthy 

 of the most intelligent mind. 



Stated Meeting May i8, ipo6. 

 President Smith in the Chair. 



Dr. J. W. Harshberger and Mr. Russell Duane, newly elected 

 members, were presented to the Chair and took their seats in the 

 Society. 



A letter was read from Prof. Theodor Noldeke accepting 

 membership. 



The decease was announced of the following named members : 



Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D., at London, on April i, 1906, 



aet. 68. 

 Prof. E. Renevier, at Lausanne, Switzerland, on May 5, 1906. 

 Hon. Carl Schurz, at New York, on May 11, 1906, aet. yy.' 



The following letter was read by Prof. George Davidson, of 

 San Francisco: 



Points of Interest Involved in the San Francisco Earth- 

 quake. 



At the request of j^our Secretary I draw up this short account of some of 

 the points of interest involved in the earthquake and conflagration of San 

 Francisco. 



I hardly know what I have already written, or where to begin to tell 

 a coherent story, although a thousand facts have been seared upon my brain. 

 I see the flames rising yet, 500 feet above the earth. 



It really seems very long since the earthquake aroused us : it would 

 have been forgotten by this time. It is the conflagration, its awful grandeur, 

 and its ruin of tens of thousands of people, that staggers us with its horror, 

 and its consequences. But San Francisco will arise from this supreme blow. 

 We are to control the Pacific. 



I cannot do better than to first give you a broad idea of the geography 

 and orography of this part of the State; and of the ocean washing it. The 

 general direction of the coast range of mountains is northwest and southeast 

 from Cape Mendocino in latitude 40° 27' to Point Conception in 34° 27'. 

 North of latitude 35^° the range comes sharply to the ocean in two or three 



