June 25, 1891] 



NATURE 



'83 



into the Mississippi River, will be seen on the second 

 day, and the Kettle moraines of the ancient Glacial 

 sheet will be visited under the guidance of Prof. Cham- 

 berlin. On the third day the twin cities of Minneapolis 

 and St. Paul, centres of the great wheat-growing region 

 of the north west, will be visited, and glacialists will have 

 an opportunity to see one of the time gauges of the 

 Glacial period, at the Falls of St. Anthony, on the Mis- 

 sissippi River. 



During the fourth day the Great Plains of Dakota will 

 be crossed, and toward its close the characteristic Bad- 

 land topography of the Upper Missouri region will be 

 seen. On the morning of the fifth day the travellers will 

 leave the train at the entrance to the Yellowstone Park, 

 and during the following week will be transported by 

 stages through the Park region, stopping at rustic hotels 

 established near points of special interest. The various 

 geyser basins, the hot lakes and mud volcanoes, the 

 obsidian cliffs, the falls and caiion of the Yellowstone 

 River, the Yellowstone Lake, and other objects of interest, 

 will be successively visited under the guidance of Messrs. 

 Arnold Hague and Jos. P. Iddings. 



On the twelfth day the railroad journey will be re- 

 sumed, and, after crossing the crest of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains in Montana, a stop of several hours will be made 

 at the famous mining town of Butte, whose mines pro- j 

 duced, during 1890, over 26 million dollars worth of | 

 copper, silver, and gold. 



The morning of the thirteenth day will find the tra- 

 vellers on the edge of the great lava plains of the Snake 

 River. Those especially interested in volcanic pheno- 

 mena will have an opportunity here of making a side trip 

 across these plains to Shoshone Falls, where the Snake 

 river makes a single leap of over 200 feet, and cuts a 

 narrow gorge 600 feet deep in the andesitic and basaltic 

 lavas. The main party meanwhile will proceed south- 

 ward into Utah, viewing the desert mountain ranges, the 

 shore-lines of ancient Lake Bonneville, and skirting the 

 shores of its present relic, the Great Salt Lake, will reach 

 Salt Lake City, the Mormon capital, in the afternoon. A 

 halt of three days will be made in Salt Lake City, which 

 will give the travellers an opportunity of seeing the 

 Mormons, the desert scenery around Salt Lake (with 

 bath in the lake), and the magnificent Wahsatch Moun- 

 tains. The Pleistocene phenomena will be explained by 

 Mr. G. K. Gilbert, and the mountain structure and 

 mining geology by Mr. S. F. Emmons. 



On the sixteenth day the railroad journey will Tae con- 

 tinued across the Wahsatch Mountains into the plateau 

 region of the Colorado River, crossing that stream in the 

 afternoon, and obtaining views of great monoclinal 

 scarps, and groups of laccolitic mountains in the dis- 

 tance. 



On the seventeenth day the Rocky Mountain region of 

 Colorado will be entered, through its finest canon gorges, 

 aftbrding wonderful geological sections. Halts of a few 

 hours each will be made at Glenwood Springs and at the 

 famous mining town of Leadville, which has produced 

 over 150 million dollars worth of silver and lead. 



On the eighteenth day the train will descend the great 

 mountain valley of the Arkansas River, between mountain 

 peaks over 14,000 feet high, and through canon gorges 

 3000 feet deep, debouching upon the plains through the 

 Royai Gorge at Caiion City^ where a remarkable geo- 

 logical section in the " Hogback " ridges will be visited. 

 A short stop will be made at Pueblo, a great centre of 

 smelting works ; and Manitou Springs, in a sheltered 

 nook under Pike's Peak, will be reached in the evening. 



The nineteenth day will be spent at Manitou Springs, 

 the vicinity of which abounds in objects of geological 

 and mineralogical interest, and those who wish may 

 make the ascent of Pike's Peak (14,200 feet) by rail. 



The twentieth day will be spent at Denver, the capital 

 of Colorado, a beautiful city of 130,000 inhabitants, 



NO. I I 30, VOL. 44] 



having a view of the whole eastern front of the Rocky 

 Mountains. For those who desire it, a further excursion 

 of ten days or more will be organized under the guidance 

 of J. W. Powell and C. E. Dutton, to the Great Cafions of 

 the Colorado River in Arizona, which they have so fully 

 described in their writings. More detailed visits to the 

 mining districts of Colorado will be directed by S. F, 

 Emmons for those who wish to remain over for that 

 purpose. Those who remain over will receive tickets 

 securing them passage to New York by regular trains 

 when they are ready to start. 



The special train will leave Denver on the evening of 

 September 21, crossing the Great Plains of Kansas and 

 Nebraska and the Mississippi Valley, and reaching 

 Chicago on the evening of the 23rd. A day will be 

 given to Chicago, and thence the train will skirt the Great 

 Lakes, Michigan, Huron, and Erie, crossing a portion of 

 Canada, and reaching Niagara Falls on the morning of 

 September 25. Leaving there in the evening, the tra- 

 vellers will descend the beautiful valley of the Hudson 

 River early the following morning, and reach New York 

 before noon of September 26. 



NOTES. 



The Delegates of the University Press have informed Prof. 

 Sylvester that they will be prepared to bear the expense of pub- 

 lishing in quarto a complete edition of his mathematical works. 

 We understand that a memorial recommending this course was 

 addressed to the Delegates of the Press, numerously signed by 

 leading mathematicians of the two English Universities, and by 

 eminent members of the French Academy of Sciences. 



Geologists on this side of the Atlantic will learn with deep 

 regret that Captain Dutton, whose admirable memoirs in the 

 Reports and Monographs of the U. S. Geological Survey are so 

 widely known and valued, has been ordered to take up military 

 duty in Texas — a wide pastoral region where his genius ai a 

 geological explorer will find no scope for exercise. As a member 

 of the Corps of Engineers, he has of course always been liable to 

 be taken away to mere routine service of this kind, for which any 

 ordinary officer of his grade would be sufficient. But the authori- 

 ties have hitherto appreciated his remarkable powers, and have 

 allowed them free exercise, much to their own credit and greatly 

 for the benefit of science. Whether a new martinet has resolved 

 to apply the rigid rules of the service we do not know. But 

 surely there ought to be public spirit enough in the United States 

 to put such pressure on the Engineer Department as will make 

 it reconsider its arrangements. It has only one Captain Dutton, 

 and should be proud of him and make the most of him. 



The Council of the Royal Meteorological Society has decided 

 to arrange for a general dinner, open to all Fellows and their 

 friends, to be held in commemoration of the entrance of the 

 Society on its new premises. The dinner will take place at the 

 Holborn Restaurant on Tuesday, July 7, at 6.30 p.m. 



The Committee appointed by the Hebdomadal Council, 

 Oxford, to consider in what way the University could assist 

 in the establishment of agricultural education, with a special 

 view to the needs of the County Councils, have now submitted 

 their report. By agricultural education the Committee under- 

 stand instruction in the sciences, or the branches of science, 

 specially applicable to agriculture, employing the latter term 

 with the larger meaning which must have been present to the 

 mind of Dr. Sibthorp when he designated the professorship 

 founded by him the professorship of " Rural Economy." Used 

 in this sense agriculture becomes not merely the science of the 

 cultivation of the soil, but includes the knowledge of its con- 

 stitution and properties, of its vegetable products, and of the 

 structure, habits, and uses of the domestic animals that are 



