Decembee 13, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



82S 



Dr. David Axenfeld, professor of physiology 

 at Perugia, has died at the age of sixty-four 

 years. 



Members of Section E, Geology and Geog- 

 raphy, of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, are urged to send 

 as soon as possible to Professor G. F. Kay, 

 Iowa City, Iowa, the titles of papers to be read 

 at the Cleveland meeting. 



W. Cameron Forbes, '92, governor-general 

 of the Philippine Islands,' has given to the 

 Peabody Museum of American Archeology 

 and Ethnology and to the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology some important collections 

 of objects which illustrate life on those islands. 



Mr. Austen Chamberlain has received 

 £48,000 towards the £100,000 which he is 

 raising for the London School of Tropical 

 Medicine. 



The estimate of expenditure for the Bureau 

 of Mines for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 

 1913, is as follows: for general expenses, 

 $70,240; for investigating mine accidents, 

 $347,900; for fuel investigations, $135,000; 

 for investigations into the treatment of ores 

 and other mineral substances, $250,000; for 

 inspecting mines in Alaska, $6,500; for books 

 and publications, $2,500; toward the erection 

 of a suitable laboratory for the Bureau of 

 Mines at Pittsburgh, $115,000; for the collec- 

 tion of statistics concerning accidents in the 

 miining industry, etc., $25,000; for the pur- 

 chase or lease of land for headquarters for 

 mine safety cars, $2,000. A total of $954,140. 

 The increases asked for include $4,140 for 

 general expenses, $27,900 for investigating 

 mine accidents, $200,000 for investigations 

 into the treatment of ores and other mineral 

 substances, $1,000 for the purchase of books 

 and other publications, $115,000 towards a new 

 fire-proof laboratory and $25,000, for the col- 

 lection of statistics concerning accidents in 

 the mining industry and other interests. 



The interesting region of the Arizona 

 Petrified Forest was surveyed by the United 

 States Geological Survey in 1910, and the re- 

 sulting map has just been issued. The field 

 work was done by Topographic Engineers 



Pearson Chapman and J. G. Staack, under 

 the direction of E. B. Marshall, chief geog- 

 rapher. The area covered by this survey is 

 known as the Petrified Forest quadrangle, and 

 the map will be of especial interest and value 

 to visitors to this remarkable region. It in- 

 cludes the principal portions of the Petrified 

 Forest National Monument, a reservation cre- 

 ated by executive order to protect these natural 

 wonders against commercial vandalism, which 

 was making serious inroads into the petrified 

 specimens. The map shows the location and 

 topography of six separate forests, including 

 the famous Petrified Natural Bridge. The 

 fossil trees of these forests are hundreds of 

 thousands if not millions of years old, the 

 wood of the trees having been submerged be- 

 neath a heavy covering of soil and then silici- 

 fied and turned to stone. This stone is ex- 

 ceedingly hard ; in fact, it is an agate, of many 

 colors — red, yellow, purple, blue and inter- 

 mediate shades — and is susceptible of a very 

 high polish. The Petrified Forest is just south 

 of the line of the Santa Fe Railway, in Nav- 

 ajo and Apache counties, Ariz., and is reached 

 by wagon road from the town of Adamana. 

 The map is sold by the director of the Geolog- 

 ical Survey at a nominal price. 



The surface of the United States is being 

 removed at the rate of thirteen ten-thousandths 

 of an inch a year, or 1 inch in 760 years, ac- 

 cording \o the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey. Though this amount seems trivial when 

 spread over the surface of the country, it be- 

 comes stupendous when considered as a total, 

 for over 270,000,000 tons of dissolved matter 

 and 513,000,000 tons of suspended matter are 

 transported to tidewater every year by the 

 streams of the United States. This total of 

 783,000,000 tons represents more than 350,- 

 000,000 cubic yards of rock substance, or 610,- 

 000,000 cubic yards of surface soil. If this 

 erosive action had been concentrated upon the 

 Isthmus of Panama at the time of American 

 occupation, it would have excavated the prism 

 for an 85-foot level canal in about 73 days. 

 The amounts removed from different drain- 

 age basins show interesting comparisons. In 

 respect to dissolved matter, the southern Pa- 



