150 
POPULAR SCIEI^CE KEWS. 
[October, 1891. 
number of Popular Science News. You ask 
whether we cannot have a iride-atcake Correspond- 
ing Entomological Cliapter. To me that seems a 
fine idea. It is what I have been longing for for 
the last Ave years. Will you kindly publish a 
note in "The Out-Door World,"'" inviting those 
interested to correspond witli me, — and we will 
see whether we cannot organize a truly "wide- 
awake" Chapter. 
Yours very truly, 
Egbert A. Campbell. 
REPORTS FROM CHAPTERS. 
136, New London, Conn., [A]. — This has been 
one of our most prosperous years. The first two 
months were spent in the study of ornithology, 
many of the members reading interesting papers 
on our local birds. I^ater the study of astronomy 
was added, and afterward botany. All our mem- 
bers have collections of some kind. We are now 
engaged on Professor Guttenberg's course in min- 
eralogy. We extend our most hearty wishes for a 
prosperous year to all the other Chapters of the 
A. A., and to the President. — William P. Benja- 
min, Sec. 
142, Roswell, Ga., [A]. — We have done fairly 
good work, having made special studies of butter- 
flies, birds, and mosses. We have learned that 
even intelligent people are too prone to rest con- 
tent with the traditional statements of books, 
accepting them as true without personal verifica- 
tion. Please let us thank you for your response 
to our last report, with its touches of the exqui- 
site spring among the Berkshire hills. It is glo- 
rious with us in the South ; but I can appreciate a 
certain delicate charm we may miss, with whom 
the roses bloom always. Gratefully and sincerely 
yours, Phcebe E. Packard. 
148, Pittsfleld, Mass., [C].— Our Chapter is still 
on its feet. We have made considerable addition 
to our collection of insects and to our library. 
We greatly enjoy Professor Guttenberg's course. 
—Charles L. Adams, Sec. 
180, London, England, [A]. — We now number 
twenty-three members, but, many being non-resi- 
dent in the neighborhood, the average attendance 
at our tri-weekly evening meetings is about ten. 
Our ages range from eleven to forty-two, with a 
preponderance of adult years. We have wholly 
revised our rules and by-laws. Every fifth meet- 
ing is a "Miscellaneous" one; on other evenings 
a paper is given by one member and discussed by 
the others. The following i)apers have been read 
during the past year: "Electricity," "Proto- 
plasm," "Earthworms," "Cats," "Personal Ex- 
periences in Australia," "Hawk-moths," "Liz- 
ards," "British Snakes," and "Corals." The 
essay on "Lizards," by the Secretary, was mainly 
the outcome of a visit to Jersey, w hence the author 
brought some interesting live specimens, produced 
at the meeting. The paper on "British Snakes," 
by the Ti-easurer and Librarian, — daughter of a 
German " naturtorscher," — was likewise sug- 
gested by a live specimen — a ringed snake sent 
by a friend from South Wales. We have added 
new books to our library and natural history ob- 
jects to the museum. The latter has been en- 
riched by some beautiful butterflies from our hon- 
orary member in San Salvador. Our Secretary 
has unfortunately, owing to business, had to 
resign his post, after three years' good work, and 
the Chapter recognized his services by a present 
of A. R.Wallace's "Darwinism." On the occa- 
sion of our fiftieth meeting, January 17, the Presi- 
dent took as his subject, "Wliat is tlie Agassiz 
Association?" and the ensuing discussion led to 
the general expression of a desire to improve the 
Chapter by more thorough devotion, greater sys- 
tem, and, in short, by acting more after the spirit 
inculcated by the founder of the Association, and 
thus becoming worthier of the name of Agassiz. — 
Alfred N. Coupland, Pres. 
181, Sanford, Florida, [A]. — We have now a 
muster-roll of six members, having added one 
new name since our inauguration in August. We 
have held regular monthly meetings, with full 
attendance from the start. Tlie time of year has 
been unpropitious for out-door work, especially in 
botany, entomology, and ornithology, which are 
the principal subjects intended to be taken up by 
our members. We have started a collection of 
miscellaneous specimens, which we Iseep at head- 
quarters ; we have quite a nucleus, which we hope 
during the coming spring and summer will be 
much enlarged. One of our members has man- 
aged to collect seventj' specimens of the Lepidop- 
tera and over twenty of the Hymenoptera. We are 
utilizing the winter months by the study of as- 
tronomy, in which all our members take great 
interest. We have at headquarters a library of 
thirty-five volumes on subjects appropriate to the 
work of the Association. Apropos, the Chapter 
desires me to ask whether the study of travels in 
connection with geography is appropriate work 
for our members. We enclose you on a separate 
slip a notice of our wish to be included in the list 
of "corresponding" Chapters. Of course, being 
a young Chapter, we fear we shall not be able to 
give much information ; but we are very desirous 
of learning, and will do our best to answer any 
questions addressed to us. We hope to be able to 
exchange specimens collected in the South for 
those of northern States. — R. E. Wyllie, Sec. 
192, Boston, Mass., [C]. — We have taken Pro- 
fessor Guttenberg's second grade in minerals, and 
are especially interested in the flame tests. In 
the spring we devoted our time to botany, and 
analyzed many flowers. Last May an enjoyable 
excursion was taken to Wayland, Mass. A few 
months ago we joined the Massachusetts State 
Assembly. Our meetings are held at 5 Ringgold 
street, and our oflicers are as follows : Lillian 
Mason, I'resident, 5 Ringgold street; Fannie 
Rothenburg, Treasurer, 166 West Newton street; 
Grace Smith, Secretary, Hotel Harvard. 
. ■<»> 
[Written for " The Out-Door World."] 
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. 
BY GEORGE c;. ALBERT, 
Member of the Agassiz Association. 
The most beautiful scenery of the Blue Mount- 
ains is to be seen in the cliff's of limestone strata 
which rise in high perpendicular escarpments, 
and, standing in their dark gray colors, present a 
rich contrast to the green foliage of the forest 
beneath. The precipitous hills and wooded val- 
leys form the most beautiful scenery of Canada. 
The Beaver River, which is well known for its 
wild scenery, flows through a richlj' wooded val- 
ley formed by the folding and erosion of the un- 
derlying Niagara limestone. One cannot but ad- 
mii-e the beautiful manner in which large pinnacles 
of rock project vertically to a great height above 
the river, sending their shadows far over the thick 
forest beneath, forming dark glens frequented by 
deer and foxes. 
The land, attaining in some places a height of 
eight hundred feet above the (Jeorgian Bay, is 
very irregular. Whether this is owing to the 
folding of the underlying strata, or the une<iual 
disposition of the drift, is uncertain, but one 
would be inclined to suppose the former, from the 
many outcrops of the strata in all directions. A 
curious instance of erosion was observed where a 
large pinnacle of rock stood out some distance 
from an escarpment witli its under strata almost 
eaten away, leaving a monument to commemorate 
the extent of the ancient bed. On the top of the 
highest land, nine miles from the Georgian Bay, 
many Laurentian boulders are found, of which 
micaceous and hornblendic quartzite form the 
greater number ; while among the slate and local 
limestone, granites, syenite-gneiss and garnetife- 
rous rock are found, appearing in some places to 
be glacial moraines. A large granite boulder was 
found on the top of the clift" about eight hundred 
feet above the bay, in the district of the caves, 
but no striae were found as evidence of glacial 
action. In this vicinity a long terrace, caused by 
the outcrop of the Clinton or Niagara limestone, 
strikes in a direction north and south until a 
height of nearly two hundred feet is reached, 
when it strikes towards the southeast. I^arge 
blocks and pillars of rock stand as monuments of 
Nature's architecture, while below, far beneath 
the immense fragments which have fallen, are 
snow and ice which remain unmelted from year 
to year. How long these huge masses have laid 
here, how many winters' snow has melted on 
their gray faces, or how many autumns have seen 
the crimson leaves of the trees fall and decay 
between these dark ci'cvices, we do not know; 
only the high gray cliff's and the moss-covered 
fragments are left as memorials of the enormous 
power of Nature in their upheaval. 
The ravine known as "Ice Glen" has been 
caused by the splitting of the clifi' into immense 
fragments, and their removal to some distance 
from the old bed. These have fallen against each 
other at the top, forming a peaked roof, and by 
their close contact make intense darkness. Large 
fragments or boulders of limestone are suspended 
between the walls, which seem as if it would only 
require a slight touch to send them crashing down 
on the rocks below. The cliflT presents a picture 
of grandeur as we look from the ravines beneath. 
Huge fragments of rock form caverns and crev- 
ices which lead about in intense darkness between 
icy walls and rocks, over which we slip and climb ; 
and one is almost overpowered with awe as he 
stands and looks upward at the black-gray masses 
above, which are rent and cracked into long seams 
as if by an earthquake. We think as we stand 
and gaze at the cliff's, or as we listen in the caves 
and hear the gurgling of the rushing water under 
the rocks, what a strange history these rocks 
would tell were they able to converse with us. 
Owing to the fine texture of the limestone, 
water cannot percolate it, and we have not the 
curious phenomenon exhibited in stalagmites. 
The walls of the caverns have sharp edges, except 
where the dampness has decomposed the lime- 
stone, when we see a thin coating on the rock. 
There is an entire absence of fossils in the strata 
—not even a small Silurian shell is found. It has 
been maintained by some local geologists that car- 
bonaceous minerals exist under the strata, but I 
do not think that they exist to sufficient extent 
to pay the expense of mining. Many mineral 
springs are found on the northeastern outcrop of 
tlie beds, but these seem only superficial, and the 
gas may arise from the underlying Utica shale, 
which is rich in carbon. 
