August 2, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



117 



and acceptance of papers. The privilege of 

 reading before any of tlie sections will be 

 undoubtedly secured to any author of an 

 accepted paper, his election to membership 

 being almost certain to follow the approval 

 of a paper by the sectional committee. 



It win be noted by those interested that 

 the meeting of the Association has been 

 put at a somewhat later date this year than 

 usual, the object being to bring it as nearly 

 as may be just before the opening of the 

 fall terms in colleges and other institutions 

 of learning. This change was made after 

 much consideration of the inconvenience to 

 which reference has been made above, aris- 

 ing out of the fact that the meeting of the 

 Association broke into the annual vacation 

 of many of its members. By putting the 

 date a week later, it is believed that the 

 meeting will be found to come more nearly 

 at the end of the vacation for the great ma- 

 jority of its members and that they will, 

 therefore, find it convenient to be present 

 at its meetings after having enjoyed the rest 

 and recreation for which they have arranged 

 during the summer months, and will be 

 able to proceed directly from the meeting 

 of the Association to begin the work of the 

 year. 



The British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science has long been the great 

 scientific event of the year in England ; its 

 meetings are generally attended by not only 

 the very ablest and the most distinguished 

 men of science in England, but by all ranks 

 of those engaged in scientific investigation, 

 those engaged in teaching science and many 

 hundreds, if not thousands, of those who 

 have only a general interest in the advance- 

 ment of science. By reason of this very 



general and very united efibrt on the part 

 of all of these various classes, the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 has long been a power in Great Britain, 

 and to it may be attributed more than to 

 any other organization the wide interest in 

 and generous support of scientific research 

 which is to be found there in a degree 

 greater than in any other country in the 

 world. The American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science should sustain in 

 this country the same relation to the prog- 

 ress of science as that of the British Associ- 

 ation in England, and in a great degree it 

 already does ; but it must be admitted by 

 all that it falls short of reaching the high 

 degree of efficiency of which such an orga- 

 nization is capable, and it is to be hoped 

 that this state of affairs may be remedied in 

 the near future by the hearty and earnest 

 cooperation, in the support of the Associa- 

 tion, of all classes of men engaged in scien- 

 tific pursuits or interested in the progress 

 of science. 



A BOCK FISSURE. 

 In the autumn of 1891 the work of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey led me across the 

 Colorado plateau in northern Arizona. Can- 

 yon Diablo is a gorge about as broad and 

 deep as the gorge of Niagara, 40 or 50 

 miles in length, running northward and 

 ending at the Little Colorado Eiver. One 

 day I followed its east wall to the mouth, 

 and then turning westward on the road to- 

 ward Flagstaff, rode six or eight miles to 

 the McMillan place, where a rude cabin 

 constitutes the headquarters of a sheep 

 ranch. Drinking water for the ' sheep 

 herders ' (occidental for shepherds) is ob- 

 tained from a natural well close by, which 



