Mat 14, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



723 



Alaska, with an opportunity on the return trip 

 to visit San Francisco, Los Angeles, San 

 Diego, Grand Canyon and the Petrified For- 

 ests. Two or three other shorter trips have 

 been provided, one taking in Yellowstone Park 

 and the Glacier National Park, and the other 

 ending with the Yellowstone Park. In the 

 case of students specializing in geology, credit 

 will be given for the trip, under certain con- 

 ditions, in the various schools of the uni- 

 versity. 



In connection with the geographical work 

 of the Columbia University summer session. 

 Professor D. W. Johnson will conduct a physi- 

 ographic excursion in the western United 

 States, next summer. The party will visit the 

 Devil's Tower, Yellowstone National Park, 

 Glacier National Park, Crater Lake, the 

 Yosemite Valley, Eoyal Gorge of the Arkan- 

 sas, and the Colorado Springs and Pike's Peak 

 region. It is probable that the new Lassen 

 Peak volcano and the neighboring recent 

 cinder cone will be visited, as well as the Lake 

 Bonneville shorelines and recent fault scarps 

 near Bingham and Provo. While in San 

 Francisco, the party will participate in the ex- 

 cursions of the Geological Society of America 

 to the San Andreas earthquake rift near Point 

 Eeyes Station, and the uplift marine terraces 

 at Santa Cruz. Two field courses will be 

 given: a general course on the elements of 

 physical geography and an advanced course 

 on the physiography of the western United 

 States. The courses are open to students and 

 teachers of geology and geography. It is ex- 

 pected that the party will leave New York 

 about the first of July, and be gone two 

 months. 



According to the American Museum Jour- 

 nal Mr. James P. Chapin, of the museum's 

 Congo Expedition, after six years' absence in 

 Africa, has ^arrived in New York. He brings 

 details of the success of the expedition, not 

 only in the work of a scientific survey but also 

 in having lived without mishap for the ex- 

 tended period of six years amidst the dangers 

 of the equatorial forest and among the negro 

 races of Central Africa — a success due in part 

 to the cordial cooperation of the Belgian gov- 



ernment. Mr. Chapin brings with him about 

 one fourth of the expedition's collections. The 

 balance remains in the hands of Mr. Lang, 

 leader of the expedition, who also will come 

 out of the Congo immediately after the fin_al 

 work of packing and shipment is completed. 

 The entire collection numbers some 16,000 

 specimens of vertebrates alone, 6,000 of which 

 are birds and 5,000 mammals. The specimens 

 are accompanied by some 4,000 pages of de- 

 scriptive matter and 6,000 photographs. It in- 

 cludes full material and careful studies for 

 miiseum groups of the okapi, the giant eland 

 and white rhinoceros, besides many specimens 

 of lions, elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, bongos, 

 situtungas, yellow-backed duikers, black forest 

 pigs, giant manis and chimpanzees. The ethno- 

 logical section of the collection is rich in speci- 

 mens of native art of the Congo, including sev- 

 eral hundred objects of carved ivory, a revela- 

 tion as to the capacities of the Congo 

 uneducated negro. There are also seventy 

 plaster casts of native faces from the Logo, 

 Azande, Avungura, Mangbetu, Bangba, Anadi, 

 Abarambo, Mayoho, Mabudu, Medje, Mobali 

 and Pygmy tribes. Each cast is supplemented 

 by a series of photographic studies of the in- 

 dividual. 



The 134th meeting of the Science Club, 

 held March 1, 1915, was addressed by Dr. John 

 F. Hayford, director of the college of engi- 

 neering. Northwestern University, on " The 

 Surveys and the Decision in the Costa Eica- 

 Panama Boundary Arbitration." An innocu- 

 ous uncertainty regarding the boundary be- 

 tween Spanish colonies became a serious dis- 

 pute when these colonies became independent 

 of the mother country and of each other, in 

 1825. The controversy increased in acuteness 

 as the region in doubt became economically 

 more important. The question, after 75 years 

 of contention, was submitted in 1900 to Presi- 

 dent Loubet, of France, who settled the 

 boundary on the Pacific slope to the satisfac- 

 tion of both parties, but from lack of geo- 

 graphical information the award gave more 

 territory on the Atlantic side to Colombia than 

 that country had originally claimed, and de- 



