Maech 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



387 



Platte and Kansas. The western part of th.e 

 basin is in the arid belt and the eastern part is 

 in the semiarid and humid regions. Ten states 

 of the Union are drained in part by Missouri 

 River. Rising at the Red Rock Lakes, at an 

 elevation of 6,Y00 feet above sea level, this 

 stream descends through the Rocky Mountains 

 and emerges on the broad prairie land a few 

 miles below the city of Great Falls, Montana. 

 From that point it is accounted a navigable 

 stream with an easy grade, and in passing 

 through the Dakotas and along the borders of 

 Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa it receives the 

 flow of great tributaries, so that as it crosses 

 the State of Missouri and joins the Mississippi 

 a short distance above St. Louis it becomes one 

 of the large rivers of the world. Its total 

 drainage area is about 492,000 square miles in 

 extent and comprises, in addition to the states 

 above mentioned, large areas in Wyoming and 

 Colorado and a smaller area in the south- 

 western part of Minnesota. 



The Michigan College of Mines has received 

 a collection of minerals from the Shattuck 

 Cave, near Bisbee, Arizona, one of the wonders 

 of the mining world. This cave was opened 

 in 1913 by a drift on the third level of the 

 Shattuck Mine. When the miner who had 

 been drifting in this part of the level returned 

 one night after a heavy blast, he found that 

 the working face had entirely disappeared and 

 that before him was a great opening reaching 

 farther than his light would shine. Looking 

 upward he could see tiny lights flashing and 

 believing that they were stars he ran back to 

 the shaft, declaring that he had blasted a hole 

 clear through to surface. Mine officials inves- 

 tigated at once and found that a great natural 

 cavern had been opened up, circular in shape, 

 340 feet in diameter and 175 feet high. It was 

 a virtual fairyland of beauty, myriads of 

 crystals in the roof reflecting back the lights 

 from the miners' lamps. Walls, roof and floor 

 were covered with great clusters of crystals, 

 and near the center of the cavern a cluster of 

 stalactites hung from the ceiling in the form 

 of a great chandelier 40 feet long. The crys- 

 tals were for the most part pure white, but in 

 places where the filtering waters had contained 



iron and copper, the beauty was enhanced by 

 great transparent stalactites and stalagmites, 

 some ruby red, others a clear emerald green 

 or azure blue. The mining company illumi- 

 nated the cave with electricity and has allowed 

 thousands of visitors the privilege of seeing it. 

 An attempt was made to have the Smithsonian 

 Institution at Washington remove and repro- 

 duce a portion of the cave, but nothing came 

 of it. It is because the mine operators have 

 now found it necessary to fill the cave with 

 waste rock that the Shattuck-Arizona Mining 

 Company sent the specimens to the College of 

 Mines. Superintendent Arthur Houle, of the 

 Shattuck Company, is a brother of Professor 

 A. J. Houle of the college. 



UNIVEBSITT AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



The Massachusetts committee on education 

 voted unanimously on February 25 in favor of 

 " taking initial steps toward the establishment 

 of a state university." 



Robert Fleesheim has left a bequest of a 

 million marks to the University of Frankfurt. 



De. Frank J. Goodnow will be formally in- 

 augurated president of the Johns Hopkins 

 University on or about May 20. It is planned 

 to give the occasion a double significance in 

 inaugurating the third president of the uni- 

 versity and formally dedicating the new site 

 at Homewood. 



At Smith College the following promotions 

 have been made: from assistant professor to 

 associate professor, Inez Whipple Wilder, 

 A.M., department of zoology; from instructor 

 to assistant professor, Mary Murray Hopkins, 

 A.M., department of astronomy, and Grace 

 Neal Dolson, Ph.D., department of philosophy. 



The senate of the University of London has 

 conferred, as we learn from Nature, the titles 

 of professor and reader in the university upon 

 the following: Dr. A. L. Bowley (London 

 School of Economics), statistics; Mr. L. R. 

 Dicksee (London School of Economics), ac- 

 counting and business organization ; Mr. J. E. 

 S. Frazer (St. Mary's Hospital Medical 

 School), anatomy; Dr. T. M. Lowry (Guy's 



