94 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1413 



Dr. White's letter to the officers of the uni- 

 versity reads : 



It gives Mrs. White and myself much pleasure 

 to be able to transfer to the state university as a 

 Christmas gift, an undivided one-half interest in 

 1,911 acres of Sewickley coal located near Fair- 

 mont, Marion County, W. Va., for the benefit of 

 the geological department of the university. 

 Whatever of success has come to me in science 

 and business has been due in large degree to the 

 training I received at the university, my alma 

 mater, and it gives me much happiness to be one 

 of the first of her sons to recognize this obliga- 

 tion in a substantial manner. 



The tract conveyed is, ivith the exception of a 

 ten-acre tract, all in one solid block, and the 

 Helen's Run branch of the Western Maryland 

 Railway passes directly across the southwestern 

 end of the same at a point from which the coal 

 under the entire tract can be removed, with 

 natural drainage to a shaft sunk along that rail- 

 way. This Sewickley coal wiU have an average 

 thickness of six feet, and hence with a liberal 

 allowance for mining waste, the entire tract 

 should yield, in round numbers, about 15,000,000 

 net tons of coal, or 7,500,000 for the university's 

 portion. With the rapid exhaustion of the coal 

 from the Fairmont region, it is reasonable to 

 expect that within a period of a very few years 

 a lease at not less than 25 cents per ton royalty 

 can readily be obtained on this property, with 

 agreements for increase as the years go by, so 

 that on a graded' royalty this tract should finally 

 yield a net return to the university of approxi- 

 mately $2,000,000. It is doubly pleasing to make 

 this gift to the university during the presidency 

 of Dr. Trotter, under whose able administration 

 such wonderful growth and advancement have 

 been attained. 



Trusting that this donation to the university 

 is only the forerunner of others to come from its 

 prosperous graduates, and with best wishes, I 

 remain, 



EXPEDITIONS OF THE FIELD MUSEUM OF 

 NATURAL HISTORY 



South America will be the field of four 

 out of six scientific research expeditions to be 

 sent out by the Field Museum of Natm-al His- 

 tory during the next five years. Two of these 

 expeditions will gather geological specimens in 

 the area from Brazil to Patagonia and two, 

 one zoological and one botanical, will study 

 the animal and plant life of Peru. 



An archasological expedition will visit the 

 Isthmus of Panama and the State of Columbia, 

 South America, and at the same time an eth- 

 nology expedition will go to the Malay Penin- 

 sula. All expeditions wiU be gone by summer 

 and will remain in the field for periods from 

 two to five years. 



The department of geology plans to extend 

 its expedition over a period of five years. The 

 first of these will be headed by Dr. Oliver C. 

 Farrington, curator of the department, and 

 will proceed to the gem producing localities of 

 Brazil. One of the objects of this expedition 

 is to secure a full series of minerals associated 

 with the diamond. Two later expeditions under 

 Dr. Farrington's direction will visit the im- 

 portant gold and iron mining districts of Brazil 

 and the silver and copper producing districts 

 of Peru and Bolivia. The latter expedition 

 will also take specimens from the important 

 nitrate and vanadium deposits of Chile. 



Specimens of pre-historic vertebrate life will 

 be searched for by the second of the geological 

 expeditions which will visit the Santa Cruz 

 beds of Patagonia, certain areas of the Pam- 

 pean formation of northern Argentine and 

 some of the cave deposits of Brazil. It is 

 hoped to secure specimens of the great ground 

 sloths, the Pampas horse and other types of 

 vertebrate life of South America. The ex- 

 pedition will be under the direction of Mr. E. 

 S. Riggs, of the department of historical geo- 

 logy- 



The zoological and botanical expeditions will 

 work together in the interior of the Sierras of 

 Central Peru and in the region of the sources 

 of the Amazon. The work wiU take these ex- 

 peditions from sea level to the highest alti- 

 tudes where life is found. At times they will 

 penetrate into virtually tropical islands, large 

 areas of land entirely surrounded by snow 

 capped peaks which have developed species of 

 animal and plant Hf e that are found in no other 

 place. Dr. Wilfred Osgood, curator of zoology 

 of the museum will head the expedition which 

 expects to bring back many new specimens of 

 animal life. The botanical expedition will be 

 under the direction of Mr. J. Francis Mac- 

 Bride, assistant botanist of the museum. The 

 region the expedition will cover is almost 



