Miller,] 3g2 [March. 



Professor Cresson announced in an eulogium, the decease 

 of Sir David Brewster, who died February 10, 1868, aged 87. 



The decease of Dr. Gibson, a member, was announced as 

 having occurred at Savannah on the 2d instant, aged 82 years. 



Mr. Edward Miller laid on the table a series of photo- 

 graphic representations of remarkable rocks on the line of 

 the Eastern Division of the Union Pacific Railway, accompa- 

 nied by the following explanatory memoir : 



The "Mushroom Rock" is an extraordinary freak of nature 

 in Kansas, in the valley of Alum, or, more probabl}^, Elm 

 Creek, for, in Western parlance, the latter is pronounced as if it 

 had two syllables, and it is difficult to distinguish between the 

 two words. It is near the line of the Union Pacific Railway, 

 B. D., usually known as the Kansas Pacific Railway. It is T 

 miles east of Fort Harker, formerly Fort Ellsworth, and is 

 about 496 miles west of St. Louis. 



The railway in question begins at the mouth of the Kansas 

 River, at the Missouri State line, and it follows the valley of 

 the Kansas and of its main fork, the Smokj^ Hill, to their ex- 

 treme headwaters on the confines of Colorado, with the ex- 

 ception of the particular region in which these views were 

 taken. The general course of the Kansas and Smoky Hill 

 valleys is very direct, being nearly east and west ; but, be- 

 tween Salina and Fort Harker, the stream makes a great de- 

 tour to the south, and the railway cuts across the bend, saving 

 a distance of from 16 to 20 miles, and encountering an undu- 

 lating " cross-country " line, with three subordinate summits, 

 and as many valleys, of which Alum or Elm Creek is one. All 

 these flow southward into Smoky Hill. 



On this cut-off line there is much bold and beautiful scenery. 

 The tops of the bluffs are crowned with rocky scarps, which 

 sometimes resemble long walls of regular masonry, and, at 

 times, take the forms of ruined buildings. One which I pro- 

 pose to call Castle Thunder, would, in Europe, be taken by any 

 casual traveller for an ancient castle, with towers and battle- 

 ments shattered by time, but still a noble ruin. 



The "Mushroom Rock" has a stem about 10 feet high, 6 

 feet in diameter at the top, and 8 feet at the bottom. The cap 

 is an oval rock about 10 feet thick at the centre, and from 16 



