128 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 161. 



fied from them by passing through a solu- 

 tion of bleaching powder, which readily 

 oxidizes them. The amount of acetylene 

 furnished per kilogram of commercial cal- 

 cium carbid should be not less than three 

 hundred liters. According to Fuchs and 

 Schiif in the Chemiker-Zeitung, two samples 

 of the Neuhaiiser carbid gave, the one 

 286.8, and the other 297.6 liters per kilo. 



J. L. H. 



■ SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 



In response to a resolution adopted Decern, 

 her 15th, the Secretary of the Interior has 

 transmitted to the Senate a report, prepared 

 by the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 of the operations of the survey in carrying out 

 those provisions of the last Sundry Civil Act 

 which relate to the survey of the public lands 

 which have been or may hereafter be designated 

 as forest reserves. 



The report goes into the subject of organiza- 

 tion of the work under the several branches, 

 the characters of the land to be surveyed, 

 progress and results, etc. To the date of the 

 report more or less work had been done in nine 

 reserves — the Black Hills, the Big Horn, the 

 Teton, the Uinta, the Bitterroot, the Priest 

 River, the Washington, the Lewis and Clarke, 

 and the Flathead. The work consists of (1) a 

 topographic and subdivision survey, and (2) an 

 economic examination of the forests of the 

 areas. The surveys comprise base-line measure- 

 ment, triangulation, detailed topography, in- 

 cluding the sketching of all timber areas on 

 the map, leveling and the placing of permanent 

 bench-marks, and land subdivision surveys. 

 The examination of the forests comprises the 

 study of the distribution of forest areas and 

 woodlands, the size and density of the timber, 

 and the distribution of species, the ravages of 

 forest fires, the extent of pasturage and its 

 effects and the extent of timber already cut. 

 The report shows that the progress made in the 

 work as a whole was not as great as had been 

 anticipated, this being especially true of the 

 surveys, and also that a large proportion of the 

 appropriation is still unexpended. There are 



two reasons why the progress has not been 

 greater: first, the fact that the work was not 

 started until very late in the season and was 

 thus greatly hampered by storms and cold; and, 

 second, the extremely rugged and density-tim- 

 bered character of the country under survey. 

 Professor Walcott reports in detail the progress 

 made in the few weeks in which work was 

 done. It is hoped, with the cooperation of 

 Congress, to resume operations early in the 

 spring and make a full season in these reserves. 

 W. F. M. 



GENERAL. 



The Bruce gold medal of the Asti-onomical 

 Society of the Pacific Coast has been awarded 

 to Professor Simon Newcomb, of Washington, 

 D. C, for his distinguished services to astron- 

 omy. This is the first award of the medal, to 

 the establishment of which we some time since 

 called attention. 



Representative Wheeler, of Alabama, has 

 introduced a joint resolution to fill the vacancies 

 in the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution by the appointment of Mr. Alexander 

 Graham Bell, to succeed Mr. Gardiner G. Hub- 

 bard, deceased, and the reappointment of Mr. 

 John B. Henderson and Mr. Wm. Preston John- 

 ston, whose terms expire January 26th. 



M. Wolf succeeds M. Chatin as President of 

 the Academy of Sciences, Paris, while M. Van 

 Tieghem, the botanist, has been elected Vice- 

 President in the place of M. Wolf. 



At its meeting on January 12th the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences elected John M. 

 Coulter, of Chicago, and Douglas H. Campbell, 

 of Palo Alto, as Associate Fellows in the Sec- 

 tion of Botany, and Elias Metschnikoff, of Paris, 

 as Foreign Honorary Member in the Section of 

 Zoology and Physiology. 



A banquet in honor of Professor Virchow's 

 fiftieth anniversary as a university teacher and 

 as editor of the Arehiv fur pathologisclie Ana- 

 tomie was given at Berlin on December 28th. 

 Speeches were made on Professor Virchow's 

 services as a teacher and man of science by Pro- 

 fessors Waldeyer and Liebreich, and Professor 

 Virchow replied. 



The memorial meeting in honor of the late 



