PROCEEDINGS OP REGENTS. 125 



1,600 acres in extent near Hampton, Virginia, has been purchased for 

 use in this connection. This first great aviation field will be known 

 as Langley Field. 



Research Corporati&n. — That the Research Corporation has con- 

 tinued its growth during the year is shown by the fact that whereas 

 in my last report, I stated that its salary roll for the ensuing year 

 would be in the neighborhood of $38,000, at the present itme it is at 

 the rate of $120,000 a year. 



The development of the Cottrell precipitation process has gone on 

 to such an extent that it is now being employed for the precipitation 

 of the dust in the air supplied to factories and to many other places 

 where it is essential in protecting the health and lives of employees 

 to rid the air of dust. 



Fog precipitation. — As stated at the last meeting, an allotment of 

 $2,000 from the Hodgkins fund was made to Dr. F. G. Cottrell to 

 further his studies and experiments in the electric precipitation of 

 fog. He has rendered an account of expenditures under this allot- 

 ment and submitted a full report of his work, which indicates that 

 the dispersion of fog by electricity is well within the bounds of pos- 

 sibility. The question of printing this report is now being considered. 



Earrimom trust fund. — Work under this fund by Dr. C. Hart Mer- 

 riam has been continued along the lines mentioned in previous re- 

 ports. Field work in northern California in advancing studies pre- 

 viously under way in ethnology and in the geographic distribution 

 of animals and plants was carried on during the latter part of the 

 summer, mainly in the Clear Lake region and the mountains to the 

 northward ; but work on the big bears has occupied the greater part 

 of the year. . 



A revision of the species of grizzly and big brown bears has been 

 prepared for the press, but owing to the absence of adult specimens 

 from certain localities, several problems still remain unsolved. The 

 effort to secure the needed material has been pressed with renewed 

 vigor. As a result it is gratifying to report that about 150 skulls, 

 including adult males of species the males of which were previously 

 unknown, have been added to the collection, chiefly from localities 

 in Alaska, Yukon Territory, and British Columbia. 



Alberta and British Columbia expedition. The Secretary contin- 

 ued his geological work along the Continental Divide of western Al- 

 berta and eastern British Columbia, with the object of determining 

 the geological horizon of the subfauna of the Cambrian series of 

 rocks and the determination of the age of a geological formation the 

 position of which has been called in question by Canadian geologists. 

 The two problems were worked out successfully and some collections 

 of fossils were secured. Much larger results would have been ob- 

 tained if it had not been for the unusual cold and the heavy snow- 



