Mat 31, 191S] 



SCIENCE 



529 



that it is not so far, after all. From the 

 highways and byways from one end of this 

 country to the other are coming the men 

 who are to fight the battle for freedom ; 

 in last analysis the idealism for which this 

 nation stands is rooted in the minds of its 

 people ; and the extent to which the govern- 

 ment can prosecute the war, it may be even 

 victory itself, depends upon the strength 

 of that idealism in the minds of even the 

 most humble and least traveled of our citi- 

 zens. 



But after the war will come peace, when 

 we will resume to a large degree our 

 former daily habits of life and thought, 

 when the communities in which we live will 

 once more take up the tasks of civic and in- 

 dustrial development, when our nation will 

 turn again to those problems of govern- 

 ment and soeietj- upon the successful solu- 

 tion of which its future prosperity, if not 

 its existence, depends. Then will be needed 

 more than now the idealism which a crisis 

 like the present calls forth in such strength, 

 but which slumbers in time of peace; then 

 will we need to consider most seriously the 

 means by which that idealism may be de- 

 veloped and kept active. Then will democ- 

 racj- even more than at the present time 

 need to be fostered and will we need to 

 make use of every agency which will edu- 

 cate people to a broader view of their re- 

 sponsibilities and increase sympathy, the 

 love of truth, right and justice, regard for 

 the welfare of others, and a feeling of kin- 

 ship with all mankind. And if the study 

 of animal life can contribute even in a 

 small degree to the effectiveness of our peo- 

 ple and to the development of that idealism 

 upon which the future of democracy de- 

 pends, then is it worthy of consideration 

 and the value of zoological science has one 

 more claim to recognition. 



R. H. WOLCOTT 



ITsrvESSiTT or Nebbasea 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 

 TIN IN VIRGINIA 



The United States is almost entirely de- 

 pendent on foreign countries for its supply of 

 tin. As this metal is a war-time necessity, 

 and as a domestic source of supply is urgently 

 needed, all known deposits of tin ore (cas- 

 siterite) in the United Stiites have recently 

 been examined by geologists of the United 

 States Geological Survey, Department of the 

 Interior. One of the most promising of these 

 deposits is in the Irish Creek district, in the 

 eastern part of Rockbridge County, Va., near 

 the summit of the Blue Ridge. This deposit 

 was recently examined by H. G. Ferguson, of 

 the United States Geological Survey, which in 

 this research is acting in cooperation with the 

 Virginia Geological Survey. The existence of 

 tin ore in the Irish Creek district has been 

 known for many years, and between 1883 and 

 1893 the deposit there was actively mined. 

 The mining company, however, became in- 

 volved in litigation as to land titles and aban- 

 doned work in 1893. Work on the deposit was 

 never resumed, and the old workings are now 

 caved and heavily overgrown with brush, so 

 that a thorough examination of them is difS- 

 cult, but what Mr. Ferguson saw in the field 

 and the information he derived from old re- 

 ports led him to conclude that the deposits 

 along the Blue Ridge in this vicinity offer 

 some promise as a source of tin, both through 

 the systematic working of the known veins and 

 the possible discovery of other deposits. The 

 cassiterite occurs in quartz veins that cut a 

 granitic rock of peculiar appearance known as 

 a hypersthene granodiorit*. The veins do not 

 continue for long distances and their content 

 of tin is probably very irregular from place to 

 place. Some high-grade ore was found, how- 

 ever, and some tvmgstcn ore occurs with the 

 cassiterite. It is believed that the district is 

 worthy of further investigation. A copy of 

 the report may be secured on application to 

 Dr. Thomas Leonard Watson, director, Vir- 

 ginia Geological Survey, Charlottesville, Va. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLA- 

 TURE' 



In the Comptes reridus of the Paris Acad- 

 1 From Nature. 



