632 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1140 



THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS HUD- 

 SON BAY EXPEDITION 



The University of Illinois geological ex- 

 pedition into the Hudson Bay region during 

 the past summer, which was made possible 

 by a grant from the graduate school, has been 

 completed recently with very successful 

 results. 



The primary purpose of the expedition was 

 to make a detailed study of the succession of 

 Paleozoic rocks comprising the great sedi- 

 mentary outlier west of Hudson Bay, with 

 the object of determining just what forma- 

 tions are represented in that region: a fact of 

 first importance in interpreting the oceanic 

 connections of the ancient epicontinental seas, 

 and the paleogeography of the continent dur- 

 ing early Paleozoic time. 



Inasmuch as the only source of supplies and 

 provisions throughout a large part of the 

 region is the various fur-trading posts of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, arrangements were 

 made to outfit through this company at The 

 Pas, Manitoba. The start was made from 

 that place on July 4, the party going as far 

 as Armstrong lake on the new Hudson Bay 

 railroad, and then proceeding down the Nelson 

 river by canoes to the Bay. 



Over nearly the entire region bordering 

 Hudson Bay on the west the land is a great 

 muskeg, or swamp, covered with a blanket of 

 peat varying from a few inches up to ten 

 feet or more in thickness. Owing to this fact 

 the country back from the streams is almost 

 impassable in the summer, there being no 

 overland trails except portage paths around 

 rapids in the rivers, or across the low divides 

 from one river system to another. Hence, the 

 party was obliged to travel entirely by canoes. 



The exposures of the sedimentary rocks in 

 this " region are practically confined to the 

 banks of the larger rivers which, almost with- 

 out exception, flow across the belt of sedi- 

 mentary strata. These rocks dip in general 

 towards the bay at a rate a little greater than 

 the fall of the streams, thereby making it 

 possible to obtain a practically complete sec- 

 tion of the strata outcropping along each 

 stream. The plan of work was to follow up a 



river, portage across the divide into the ad- 

 jacent river basin, follow that down to the 

 Bay, proceed along the coast of the Bay to 

 the next important river, ascend this, cross 

 the divide and follow down the next, etc. In 

 this manner a detailed section of the rocks 

 and a careful collection of fossils were ob- 

 tained from the Ordovician strata exposed 

 along the Nelson, and Shamattama rivers; 

 from the Silurian rocks along the Severn, 

 Winisk, and Ekwan rivers, and from the De- 

 vonian beds, at the south end of the Bay, along 

 the Moose and Abitibi rivers. 



Altogether about eighteen hundred miles 

 were traversed by canoes on this expedition, 

 the party reaching the railroad at Cochrane, 

 Ontario, on September 18. 



A detailed report containing the scientific 

 results of the expedition will be published as 

 soon as the fossil collections which it was 

 necessary to leave for shipment at the various 

 posts of the Hudson's Bay Company reach the 

 university and can be carefully studied. 

 T. E. Savage, 

 F. M. Van Tutl 



Department op Geology, 

 University of Illinois 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Dr. Cleveland Abbe, the distinguished 

 meteorologist, died on October 28, at his home 

 in Chevy Chase, "Washington, in the seventy- 

 eighth year of his age. 



Dr. Wilhelm von Waldeyer, professor of 

 anatomy in the University of Berlin, has been 

 raised to hereditary nobility on the occasion of 

 his eightieth birthday. 



A finely illustrated volume, containing 

 thirty-six articles and extending to over eight 

 hundred pages, has been dedicated to Dr. Erik 

 Miiller, professor of anatomy at the Univer- 

 sity of Stockholm, by his friends and pupils on 

 the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. 



Professor C. W. Balke, formerly at the 

 head of the division of general chemistry and 

 qualitative analysis at the University of Illi- 

 nois, is organizing a research laboratory for 

 the Pfanstiehl Company in North Chicago 



