Septembeb 10, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



3o7 



of the United States Geological Survey. 

 These organizations are commonly known as 

 the Hayden, King, Powell and Wheeler Sur- 

 veys, from the men in charge, of whom Clar- 

 ence King later became the first director of 

 the United States Geological Survey and J. 

 W. Powell the second. The publications of 

 these earlier surveys constitute a storehouse 

 of geographic, geologic, ethnologic and arche- 

 ologic information concerning the then almost 

 unknown western portion of the United States 

 and though their usefulness may have dimin- 

 ished as a result of more detailed surveys and 

 more precise work, they are still invaluable to 

 all who are interested in the study of the 

 development of the west. The United States 

 Geological Survey has published a catalogue 

 and consolidated index of these publications, 

 by Mr. L. F. Schmeckebier, that will make the 

 information they contain easily accessible. 

 This catalogue can be obtained free on appli- 

 cation to the director, U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, Washington, D. C. 



The total production of coal in the United 

 States in 1908, as reported by Mr. E. W. 

 Parker, of the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey, was 415,842,698 short tons, having a spot 

 value of $532,314,117. Of this total, 83,268,- 

 Y54 short tons, with a spot value of $158,178,- 

 849, was Pennsylvania anthracite and 332,- 

 573,944 short tons, with a spot value of 

 $374,135,262, was bituminous and lignite. In 

 1907, when the maximum output of both 

 anthracite and bituminous coal was recorded, 

 the total production amounted to 480,363,424 

 short tons, valued at $614,798,898, of which 

 85,604.312 short tons, valued at $163,584,056, 

 was Pennsylvania anthracite and 394,759,112 

 short tons, valued at $451,214,842, was bitu- 

 minous, semibituminous and lignite, with 

 scattered lots of anthracite and semianthra- 

 cite. The total production in 1908 showed a 

 decrease of 64,520,726 short tons, or 13.43 per 

 cent, in quantity, and of $82,484,781, or 13.42 

 per cent, in value. In spite of the depressed 

 conditions, the decrease in the production of 

 Pennsylvania anthracite was only 2,335,558 

 short tons, or 2.73 per cent, in quantity and 

 $5,405,207, or 3.3 per cent, in value. In the 



production of bituminous coal, the decrease in 

 1908 amounted to 62,185,168 short tons, or 

 15.75 per cent, in quantity and to $77,079,574, 

 or 17.08 per cent, in value. 



The next to the largest of the Brenham 

 (Kiowa County, Kansas) siderolites, weighing 

 something over 218 pounds, has lately passed 

 from the Snow estate, into the possession of 

 Dr. F. W. Cragin, of Colorado Springs, Colo. 

 These meteorites belong to the rare and re- 

 markable group known as pallasites, named 

 for Pallas, who described the first example of 

 this class, from Medwedewa, Krasnojarsk, 

 Eussia, in 1776. They were first identified as 

 pallasites, by Professor Cragin, the original 

 purchaser of the main part of them, in letters 

 to Professor John S. Newberry and others. 

 The first printed descriptions of them were 

 published in Science of May 9 and July 18, 

 1890, by Mr. George F. Kunz and Professor 

 F. H. Snow, and were more elaborately studied 

 in Vol. XXI. of the Proceedings of the Amer- 

 ican Academy of Arts and Sciences, by Dr. O. 

 W. Huntington. A beautiful and character- 

 istic illustration of the structure of these pal- 

 lasites, is that of a polished section which was 

 published in 1900 by Professor Henry A. 

 Ward, as Plate VI. of his book on the great 

 Ward-Coonley Collection of Meteorites, in 

 Chicago. The fact that a few siderites, or 

 plain nickeliferous irons, constituted a part 

 of the same " fall " with the Kiowa County 

 pallasites, was a remarkable circumstance, and 

 led Dr. Huntington to suggest the interesting 

 and plausible theory that the eruption of the 

 heavenly body that yielded the Brenham 

 meteorites, had ejected them from an inter- 

 mediate or transitional zone, between the 

 deeper, heavier, metallic, or siderite-yielding 

 zone (such as the terrestrial one whose exist- 

 ence we may infer from the specific gravity 

 of the earth's whole mass being much greater 

 than that of its outer and known portion) 

 and the more superficial, lighter zone, that 

 would yield meteorites of the stony class 

 known as aerolites. This dual or transitional 

 composition of the Kiowa County " fall " may 

 exceptionally occur in an individual pallasite. 



