424 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 741 



ordinary winds. The winds are so ubiquitous 

 and so incessantly in motion that their aggre- 

 gate geologic work is by no means negligible, 

 though it may be momentarily inappreciable. 

 If the winds are constantly carrying material 

 they must be carrying some of it to sea, and 

 of this the major part will be deposited in the 

 ocean and only a small fraction returned to 

 the land. Land breezes are notoriously dusty, 

 and that the winds blowing inward from the 

 ocean are much more free from solid contami- 

 nation is known, not only deductively and 

 from general observation, but as the result of 

 actual counts of the dust particles.' 



TJdden' has calculated on very conservative 

 data that the transport capacity of the winds 

 blowing outward from the Mississippi Basin 

 is at least one thousand times greater than 

 that of the river. This, of course, refers 

 only to transport capacity^ and no one imag- 

 ines that the actual amounts of material 

 moved are in the same ratio. The air, unlike 

 the water, is seldom loaded to any consider- 

 able fraction of its capacity. It is evident, 

 however, that if the wind performs only an 

 infinitesimal part of the carriage for which it 

 has the ability, its activity is nevertheless far 

 too great to be neglected. Neither is the 

 Mississippi Basin a region especially suscep- 

 tible to ssolian action. The immense amount 

 of wind-borne material carried out of deserts 

 is universally admitted, and the example of 

 the sirocco dust which constantly leaves the 

 Sahara for the Atlantic to the west and the 

 Mediterranean to the north is universally 

 familiar. 



From the information at present available 

 it is entirely impossible to estimate with ac- 

 curacy the yearly rate of seolian removal or 

 the resultant error in the calculations of the 

 rapidity of denudation. It seems, however, 

 not improbable that the error is of some 

 moment and that the present estimates are too 

 low in a not unimportant degree, even when 

 their admittedly approximate character is 

 taken into account. These conclusions derive 

 added force from two recent papers by 



=" Aitkin, Trans. Roy. 800. Edinh., 42: 486, 1902. 

 'Jour. Oeol., 2: 318-331, 1894. 



Thoulet' in which he records his conviction 

 that a considerable fraction of the mud of the 

 sea bottom is terrestrial dust borne to its 

 position by winds and fallen through the 

 overlying water in an approximately vertical 

 path. 



E. E. Feeb 

 BuEEAu OF Soils, 

 U. S. Depabtment of Ageioultube 



THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ZOOLOGISTS 

 The regular triennial joint meeting of the 

 Eastern and Central Branches of the American 

 Society of Zoologists was held at the Johns Hop- 

 kins University, Baltimore, Md., on December 29, 

 30 and 31, 1908. 



The following resolutions were adopted: 

 Resolved, That this society most urgently recom- 

 mends to the Committee on Ways and Means, or 

 other body having the matter in charge, that the 

 present duty on scientific books published in Eng- 

 lish, and on scientific apparatus be removed. 



Resolved, That, in the opinion of this society, 

 the migratory birds of the United States should 

 be properly protected by national laws, and that 

 this society urges immediate consideration of the 

 bill, introduced by Representative Weeks, now 

 before Congress. 



The oflScers elected were: 



EASTERN BRANCH 



President — Herbert S. Jennings, Johns Hopkins 

 University. 



Vice-president — H. V. Wilson, University of 

 North Carolina. 



Secretary-Treasurer — Lorande Loss Woodruff, 

 Yale University. 



Additional Member of Executive Committee — 

 Maynard M. Metcalf, Oberlin College. 



CENTEAL BRANCH 



President — Edward A. Birge, University of 

 Wisconsin. 



Vice-president — Michael F. Guyer, University 

 of Cincinnati. 



Secretary-Treasurer — Charles Zeleny, University 

 of Indiana. 



The following papers were presented: 

 Diverse Races of Paramecium and their Relation 



to Selection and to Conjugation: H. S. Jen- 

 nings, Johns Hopkins University. 



'Comptes Rendus, 140: 1184r-1186, 1346-1349, 

 1908. 



