742 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 935 



ing: Dr. L. 0. Howard, member of the Inter- 

 national Commission on Agriculture and 

 chief, Bureau of Entomology; Dr. A. 0. True, 

 director, OfEce of Experiment Stations; Mr. 

 John Hamilton, specialist in farmers' insti- 

 tutes, OflSce of Experiment Stations; Dr. C 

 r. Langworthy, chief, nutrition investigation. 

 Office of Experiment Stations; Dr. J. I. 

 Schulte, assistant agriculturist. Office of Ex- 

 periment Stations. 



The last Congress made appropriations for 

 the U. S. Geological Survey for the fiscal year 

 ending June 30, 1913, as follows: 



Topographic surveys $350,000 



Geologic surveys 300,000 



Mineral resources of Alaska 90,000 



Mineral resources of the United States . . 75,000 



Chemical and physical researches 40,000 



Geological maps of the United States . . 110,000 



Gaging streams, etc 150,000 



Surveying national forests 75,000 



The bill also appropriates $145,000 for print- 

 ing and binding survey reports, to be expended 

 by the public printer. 



The will of the late Catherine E. Beecher, 

 in compliance with the wishes of her husband, 

 bequeaths her estate for the endowment of a 

 department in the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences of Philadelphia to be known as the J. F. 

 Beecher Biological and Anthropological Labo- 

 ratory. The bequest, with the conditions de- 

 fined in the will, has been accepted by the 

 academy. The estate is to be kept intact for 

 ten years before the income is available for 

 the designated purpose. 



Among the geological and mineralogical col- 

 lections of the United States National Mu- 

 seum is an odd boulder of solid copper, known 

 as the Ontonagon Boulder, which has a very 

 interesting history. This large mass of copper 

 has been in the possession of the Smithsonian 

 Institution since 1860, and has recently been 

 moved to the new museum building, where it 

 is now on exhibition in the southeast comer 

 of the east hall on the second floor. The 

 boulder has the appearance of a dull bronze- 

 colored rock, muclj chipped and worn. It is 

 Si feet long, 3 feet wide and li feet in its 



thickest part, and owing to the great density 

 of copper, weighs nearly 3 tons, a large weight 

 for such a relative small bulk. For ages this 

 remarkable mass of copper lay on the west 

 bank of the Ontonagon River in the upper 

 peninsula of Michigan, where it was known 

 for many years by the Chippewa Indians of 

 that region. It was not until 1766, however, 

 that the first white man, Alexander Henry, an 

 English adventurer and trader, visited this re- 

 markable specimen. During the next 75 years 

 many explorers and scientists followed Henry's 

 footsteps until the boulder became well 

 known as a mineralogical curiosity. It was 

 undoubtedly a valuable specimen worth sev- 

 eral thousands of dollars, but its weight pre- 

 vented any one from making away with it. 

 In 1841, Julius Eldred, a hardware merchant 

 of Detroit pvirchased this copper rock from 

 the Chippewa Indians on whose lands it was 

 located, and two years later, after many diffi- 

 culties, succeeded in transporting it down the 

 Ontonagon River, through Lake Superior to 

 Sault Ste. Marie, and thence to Detroit, where 

 it was placed on exhibition for a brief period. 

 Soon after its arrival, the government claimed 

 it, and towards the end of 1843 it was shipped 

 to Washington and deposited in the yard of 

 the Quartermaster's Bureau of the War De- 

 partment, where it remained until 1860, when 

 it was transferred to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. Some years later the government re- 

 paid Mr. Eldred for his time and energy in 

 securing this boulder, congress having ap- 

 propriated the sum of $5,664.90 for his relief. 

 This specimen represents the first consider- 

 able quantity of copper from the Lake Su- 

 perior region, a district which has since be- 

 come one of the important copper-producing 

 regions of the world. It undoubtedly came out 

 of the adjacent copper-bearing rocks, and was 

 probably transported southward a short dis- 

 tance during the Glacial Period in the Gla- 

 cial drift which now covers that country. The 

 museum specimen, though large and interest- 

 ing, is not by any means the largest solid 

 piece of copper ever found. Copper masses of 

 immense size are encountered from time to 



