March io, 1898] 



NATURE 



451 



may be climbed wiih greater or less safety by the aid of several 

 small hol^ in its face. These holes were doubtless made 

 artificially, but as the narrow pathway at this point is now a 

 drainage course during periods of storm, the soft sandstone has 

 become so much eroded that they have apparently lost their 

 former shape. 



The summit of Encantada was reached after some difficulty. 

 It has been swept and carved and swept again by the winds and 

 rains of centuries since the .ancestors of the simple Acomas 

 climbed the ladder-trail of which we found the traces. The 

 pinnacled floor has not always appeared as it is to-day, for it 

 was once thickly mantled by the sherd-strewn soil that now 

 forms a goodly part of the great talus heaps below. 



There is little wonder, then, that the party despaired of finding 

 even a single relic when they had reached the top of the trail 

 and looked about at the destruction wrought ; and yet they had 

 been on the summit only a few minutes when a sherd of pottery 

 of very ancient type, much crackled by weathering, was found. 

 This fragment is of plain grey ware, quite coarse in texture, with 

 a degraissant of white sand. 



Fig. 2.— The Great Sandstone Cleft of the Mesa. Through this cleft the 

 traditional trail passed, and distinct traces of it were found on each side 

 of the vertical fissure to the right of the upper ladder. • 



During the twenty hours spent on the summit, every oppor- 

 tunity was taken of making a critical study of ihe general features 

 of the top of Katzimp throughout the 2500 feet of its length, 

 special consideration being devoted to the topography of the site, 

 the erosion, the earthy deposits, the drainage, and the great cedars 

 that stand gaunt and bare or lie prone and decaying because 

 their means of subsistence have been so long washed away, and 

 the party was forced to the conclusion that had house- walls, 

 whether of stone or adobe, ever existed on the summit at a 

 reasonably remote period, there was no possibility that any trace 

 of them could have remained to this day. Ne\ertheless. the 

 abundance of ancient relics in the talus, the distinct remains of 

 the ladder-trail, the specimens found on the summit coupled 

 with the destruction wrought by nature, the tradition itself— all 

 testify to the former habitation of the site. 



To the Acomas Katzimo is still enchanted, and as a subject 

 in the study of mysticism tl.e man of science must yet regard it. 

 The law of a millennium is. not undone by a few hours of 

 iconoclasm. 



NO. 1480. VOL. 57] 



UNI VERS IT V A ND ED UCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — On March 15, Convocation will consider some 

 alterations in the statute relating to the Aldrichian Demon- 

 stratorship in Comparative Anatomy, rendered vacant by the 

 resignation of Dr.Blaxland Benham, who has been appointM 

 Professor of Biology at Otago, New Zealand. Mr; "Gilbert 

 Bourne, of New College, has, in the meantime, been nominated 

 as Lecturer in Comparative Anatomy, and his name will be sub- 

 mitted to Convocation on the same day. 



Dr. Benham will be entertained at a farewell dinner by his 

 colleagues on Friday. 



The Junior Scientific Club met on Wednesday evenirig, 

 March 9. • Mr. A. W. S. Fisher read a paper on the salmon, 

 and Mr. T. Annandale discussed the habits of British Am- 

 phibia. The officers for next term were elected. The Club 

 proposes to hold its biennial conversazione next term, and 

 arrangements are being pushed forward rapidly. 



The cast of the skeleton of Iguanodon, which has been pur- 

 chased by subscription, has now been set up in the court of the 

 University Museum. Some valuable casts of other fossil 

 reptiles have also been recently added to the collections. 



Ca.mbridge.— The honorary degree of Doctor of Science is 

 to be conferred on Dr. Wilhelm Pfeffer, Professor of Botany in 

 the University of Leipzig, and Croonian Lecturer at the Royal 

 Society. 



The Agricultural Examinations Syndicate report that ten 

 candidates presented themselves for Part I., and nine for Part 

 IT. of the Examination for the diploma of the University. 

 Six candidates were successful in both parts. The numbers 

 show some increase on those of past years. 



Regulations for the Gedge Prize in Physiol(^y, taken in a 

 broad sense, have been published. The prize will be given 

 biennially for an original memoir or essay, and will consist of 

 two years' interest on the capital sum of 1000/. Candidates 

 must have worked in the University laboratories during six 

 terms, and be of at least five, and at most seven, years' standing 

 from matriculation. 



The application for the recognition of St. Edmund's Hostel 

 as a place of residence for students preparing for the secular 

 priesthood of the Church of Rome, led to an animated dis- 

 cussion in the Senate on March 3. The weight of opinion was 

 in favour of granting the application. . 



The Senatus Academicus of the University of Edinburgh 

 have resolved to offer the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws 

 to Mr. Horace T. Brown, F.R.S. 



President Charles de Garmo, of Swarthmore College, 

 Pa., has been elected to the professorship of the science and 

 art of education at Cornell University, rendered vacant by the 

 resignation of Prof. S. G. Williams ; and Prof. Herbert 

 Hibbard, of the University of Minnesota, has been elected 

 assistant professor of mechanical engineering of railways and 

 principa of the graduate school of railway, mechanical 

 engineering. 



Nearly 55 per cent, of the net total of the Estimates for 

 Civil Services, agreed to by the House of Commons on March 3, 

 arises under the class of education, science and art, which shows 

 a net increase of 457,094/. over the grants of last Session. Tp 

 the total of the class — viz. 11,965,796/. — the three Public Edu- 

 cation Estimates contribute 11,028,776/., being a net increase 

 of 425,903/. The chief remaining increase is 22,663/. under the 

 Science and Art Department Estimate (mainly for additional 

 payments to science schools for attendance and on results). An 

 important change ha,9 been effected in transferring to the Educa- 

 tion Departments, England and Scotland, the grants, &c.', for 

 drawing in elerffentary schools, hitherto borne on the Science 

 and Art Department's Vote, and in transferring to the Scotch 

 Education Department the other Science and Art grants in 

 Scotland. 



A noteworthy feature of the little volume of annoiince- 

 ments of classes held in the Northampton Institute, Clerken- 

 well, is a table of special courses adapted to various classes of 

 students. By referring to this table, any young artisan can see 

 what courses he ought to take to educate himself in the scientific 

 principles of his trade. Similar guides to study, now often in- 

 serted in the prospectuses of technical institutes, are of great value 

 in inducing students to take up systematic courses of instruction^ 



