352 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 715 



so abundant that the cross-section may be con- 

 sidered accurate within a few feet for a consid- 

 erable proportion of the whole width of the val- 

 ley, a distance of four miles, and to a depth of 

 300 to 500 feet. Several drawings illustrating 

 these features in detail, originally prepared for 

 the chief engineer of the Board of Water Supply, 

 were sjiown by permission, and the successive 

 stages in interpretation of results were pointed 

 out. 



Present Trend of Investigation on Underground 



Waters: James F. Kemp. 



Within a few years there has been a marked 

 change of views upon the sources, distribution 

 and extent of underground waters. As recently 

 as 1900, in one of the most important discussions, 

 they were believed to be practically continuous 

 from the groundwater level to the depth of pos- 

 sible cavities and to be almost, if not quite, solely 

 of meteoric origin. Whereas now a very large 

 nimiber of geologists have come to regard the 

 underground water as limited to a comparatively 

 shallow zone; to refer uprising heated waters 

 from deeper zones to magmatic sources in cooling 

 and consolidating bodies of igneous rock; and to 

 attribute some part of the underground waters to 

 the same place of origin. In the interpretation 

 of ore-bodies magmatic waters have been found 

 to be much more reasonable agents of deposition, 

 in many cases, than are the meteoric. 



In 1901, on the basis of experience in mines. 

 Professor Kemp made the argimient that the 

 groundwater only extended to depths of 1,000 to 

 2,000 feet. Recently this has had strong corrob- 

 oration in a paper by M. L. Fuller, of the U. S. 

 treological Survey (Water Supply and Irrigation 

 Papers, No. 160, pp. 61, 62, 72). Delesse, in 1861, 

 estimated the groundwater as equal to a layer 

 over the globe 7,500 feet deep; Schlichter, in 1902, 

 as equal to one 3,000 to 3,500 feet; Van Hise, in 

 1904, 226 feet; Chamberlin and Salisbury, in 

 1904, 800 to 1,600 feet; Fuller, with the com- 

 pletest data of all, to one of only 96 feet. If we 

 assign to the rocks an average of 5 per cent, of 

 cavities, 96 feet of water would just about extend 

 to 2,000 feet, and if 10 per cent, of voids, to 1,000 

 feet depths, strongly corroborative of the original 

 argument and per cents, used in previous dis- 

 cussions. 



From this we are forced to conclude that 

 meteoric sources and underground amounts have 

 been much overestimated. 



Chas. p. Bebket, 

 Secretary of Section 



THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



At the regular meeting of the Texas Academy 

 of Science, held in the Engineering Building of 

 the University of Texas, February 21, 1908, Miss 

 May Jarvis, B.A., tutor in zoology in the uni- 

 versity, presented a paper on " Lord Monboddo, 

 a Precursor of the Darwins"; Professor T. U. 

 Taylor, dean of the department of engineering, 

 followed with " Notes on City Surveying," and 

 Dr. William T. Mather, professor of physics, 

 gave a brief sketch of the life and work of Lord 

 Kelvin. 



On Friday, March 13, Dr. J. W. McLaughlin, 

 of Austin, a regent of the university and former 

 member of the medical faculty, read a carefully 

 prepared paper entitled " A New Theory of Fer- 

 ments " which, with the discussion that followed, 

 occupied the entire session. 



At the meeting of the academy held April 11, 

 Dr. G. S. Fraps, state chemist. College Station, 

 Texas, discussed " Soil Fertility and Phosphoric 

 Acid." 



The program of the meeting for May 8 in- 

 cluded " The Law of Fall of Rivers and the Value 

 of the Deduced Curve in River Improvements," 

 by Mr. F. Oppikoffer, U. S. Engineer, Department 

 of Texas, Tarpon, Texas, and a lecture " On 

 Apoidal Stars," by Dr. H. Y. Benedict, professor 

 of applied mathematics in the university. 



At the formal meeting, held Jime 8, papers 

 entitled " Some Figures on the Cost of Freight 

 and Passenger Train Service," by Mr. R. A. 

 Thompson, exp.ert engineer for the Railroad Com- 

 mission of Texas, and " Fossil Tracks in the Del 

 Rio Clay," by Professor J. A. Udden, of Rock 

 Island, Illinois, were read by title. The ballots 

 having been duly coxmted the following officers 

 for the year 1908-9 were declared elected: 



President — Dr. Eugene P. Schoch, University 

 of Texas, Austin. 



Vice-President — Dr. G. S. Fraps, A. and M. 

 College of Texas, College Station. 



Treasurer — Mr. R. A. Thompson, C.E., Austin. 



Secretary — Dr. Frederic W. Simonds, Univer- 

 sity of Texas, Austin. 



Librarian — Mr. P. L. Windsor, librarian of the 

 university, Austin. 



Members of the Council — Hon. A. E. Wilkin- 

 son, Austin; Dr. Homer Hill, Austin; Professor 

 0. C. Charlton, Bryan, Texas. 



Frederic W. Simonds, 



Austin, Texas, 

 July 15, 1908 



