6l2 



NA TURK 



[April 29, 1 88a 



this singular mixture, but with so bad a result that from that 

 time (nearly four years ago) the mere recollection of the experiment 

 produces again not only the indescribably nasty taste of the 

 chimd, but sometimes even the vomiting, which was the end of 

 my first and only attempt to use this luxury of the Meridtfios. 

 And for this very same reason I hasten to put an end to this 

 note. A. Ernst 



Caracas, March 1 8 



Anchor-Ice 



The formation of anchor-ice has attracted a good deal of 

 attention in Upper Canada, although I am not aware of any 

 efforts having been made to describe theoretically the cause 1 f 

 its formation. Prof. H. Y. Hind, some time of Toronto, 

 alludes to it in a paper read before the Geological Society (Proc. 

 Geo!. Soc, xxi. p. 12S), and I believe the late Sir Wm. Logan, 

 director of the Canadian Geological Survey, also brought the 

 matter before the same Society, though I cannot trace up the 

 paper, and Mr. Keefer, C.E., of Ottawa, read a paper on this 

 subject before the Canadian Institute (Canadian Journal (new 

 series), viii, p 173, 1862). 



The conditions under which anchor-ice forms appear to be 

 those mentioned by Dr. Rae, as far as my own observation goes, 

 and Prof. Hind remarks, in the paper alluded to, that it is not 

 uncommon for the seal-nets off the Labrador coasts to be frozen, 

 in water as deep as 60 feet, and that the anchors of these nets 

 frequently bring up masses of frozen sand. The most interesting 

 question in connection with this subject seems to me to be, Does 

 the ice form, from the precipitation of the very minute ice- 

 particles, in passing over the rapids, or does the intense cold of 

 the ground favour the formation of razee, as it is locally called, 

 independently of the floating ice-particles passing over the 

 stones? I have never known it to form on clay or alluvial 

 bottoms. 



There is another form of anchor-ice to be found in the great 

 northern lakes, which floats in large sheets at a considerable 

 depth under the surface of the water. During the construction 

 of a large breakwater on the Georgian Bay I had a great deal of 

 trouble from large floes of this ice, which seemed to be floating 

 in layers at various depths in water 14 feet deep. The local 

 opinion was that this ice was formed on the extensive rocky 

 shoals which abound on that coast, and more particularly in the 

 neighbourhood of the work on which I was engaged, and that 

 the floes became detached by storms and the hammering of the 

 surface-ice upon them. Whatever may have been the cause of 

 their formation, they were very destructive in their force upon 

 the timher caissons which were being sunk. 



Edinburgh, April 22 Alan Macdougaix 



The Songs of Birds. — D. W., of Freiburg im Breisgau, 

 writes that Mr. C. C. Starling (Nature, vol. xxi. p. 590) will 

 find an elaborate paper, " Ueber Vogelstimmen, &c. " (especially 

 on their musical properties, with many notes), by Prof. Oppel, of 

 Frankfurt-on-Main, in the monthly journal Der zoologisc/n- 

 Garten, February, 1871 (vol. xii. No. 2), published by the 

 Zoologische Gesellschaft of that place. 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED 

 STATES 

 T T is now about a year since the Congress of the United 

 ■*• States took seriously in hand the question of the 

 national scientific surveys and made a complete reorgan- 

 isation of them, consolidating the geological work into 

 one general Geological Survey of the United States, under 

 Mr. Clarence King as director. Some time had neces- 

 sarily to elapse before much fruit could be teen from the 

 new tree. It was especially needful in the first place to 

 justify the large expenditure of money required for the 

 organisation, by showing that not merely pure science, 

 but the industrial and commercial interests of the country 

 were materially aided by the Survey. Consequently while 

 ordinary geological surveying has not been neglected, the 

 chief strength of the staff has been expended upon 

 economic geology, and more especially on the deposits of 

 iron, lead, silver, and gold. Some of the great mining 

 districts of the West have been ver-y carefully explored, 



and the results will be embodied in the Annual Report. 

 It is understood that Mr. King's general plan is to 

 arrange his forces in two divisions, one charged with the 

 investigation of the economic geology, the other with 

 general geology or the geological map. The second 

 division will no doubt be mainly engaged in the Western 

 States and Territories, which will be parcelled out into 

 large districts each under a special officer. Thus there 

 will probably be a corps placed on the Pacific slope, 

 another on the Great Basin, a third on the Plateau country, 

 and a fourth in the eastern mountain ranges, or Rocky 

 Mountains proper. But besides this general distribution 

 of the staff there is an intention, we believe, to devote 

 attention to special problems further east, and, in a most 

 liberal and thoroughly scientific spirit, to employ for their 

 study the best geologists who can be found in these regions 

 to undertake the duty. 



Rumours of this last branch of Mr. King's scheme have 

 been rife for some months past in the Eastern States ; 

 and, like most rumours, they have doubtless exaggerated 

 the true state of the case. In a recent number of Nature 

 (vol. xxi. p. 197) attention was directed to his alleged 

 proposal to extend the operations of his staff not only over 

 the Western Territories and other parts of the public 

 domain, but also over the Eastern and long-settled States. 

 In spite of the serious and emphatic protest made by Prof. 

 Dana against this proposal, we spoke of the proposal 

 itself as a kind of joke, meant chiefly to flutter the geolo- 

 gists of the East, but with no serious thought of claiming 

 in any way jurisdiction in the Eastern States. It appears, 

 however, that the Director, in answer to official inquiries, 

 has written a letter, which has been laid before the Senate 

 by the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, to 

 be printed in connection with a joint resolution authorising 

 the extension of the Survey. In this letter he states that 

 the Survey as at present constituted, being understood to be 

 limited in its application to the national domain or public 

 lands, cannot possibly present a general exposition of the 

 mineral resources of the whole country, and that in spite 

 of its labours for their enlightenment, "the people of the 

 United States must remain ignorant of the extent, nature, 

 and broad practical relations of their mineral posses- 

 sions." He therefore insists on receiving from Congress 

 authority "to work over the whole United States and to 

 study its whole economical geology," summing up his 

 arguments by declaring that " briefly and finally, in my 

 belief, the question of the passage or defeat of the resolu- 

 tion under consideration is the question whether it is or is 

 not desirable and needful for the people of the United 

 States to thoroughly know the nature, extent, and uses of 

 their mineral possessions." 



In Mr. King's view the work of his Survey should be to 

 collect statistics of the annual output of minerals, to 

 publish a yearly volume giving full information of the 

 progress of the mineral industries, "to actually and 

 directly aid in their development," " to promote the wise 

 and guarded influx of foreign capital," and generally to 

 study the mineral wealth of the country in its extent, in 

 the relations of one kind of deposit to another, and in the 

 relations of all the deposits to industrial and commercial 

 progress. 



Mr. King no doubt knows intimately the temper of 

 Congress, and understands precisely the tactics to be 

 pursued to get from that body an appropriation of 

 8340,000. He is aware that he will be much more likely 

 to gain his end by showing that he can augment the 

 number of dollars in the national exchequer than by 

 trying to persuade the legislature to believe in the import- 

 ance of discovering the southern limits of the Northern 

 Drift. He must be allowed to be a better judge of how 

 to get a large vote from Congress than any quiet on- 

 looker here can pretend to be. Yet even from his own 

 point of view there are some aspects of his letter to 

 which, with all deference to his well-known tact and 



