758 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1012 



The fossil plants described by Mr. Knowlton 

 were collected by A. J. Collier, a geologist of 

 the Survey, while engaged in the study of the 

 coal resources of the Cape Lisburne region. 

 The coal deposits are extensive and are the 

 only mineral resources of the region known to 

 be of commercial importance. A little mining 

 has been done by vessels short of fuel, which 

 occasionally lie off shore and load on a few 

 sacks of coal. This, however, is a rather dan- 

 gerous practise, as there is no harbor. Cape 

 Lisburne is the bold headland which marks 

 the northwestern extremity of a land mass 

 projecting into the Arctic Ocean from the 

 western coast of Alaska between latitudes 68° 

 and 69°. It lies 160 miles north of the Arctic 

 Circle, about 300 miles directly north of 

 Nome, and is the only point in Alaska north 

 of Bering Strait where hills above 1,000 feet 

 in height approach the sea. The Jurassic sec- 

 tion to which the name Corwin formation has 

 been given is said by Collier to consist of 

 shales, sandstones, conglomerates and coal 

 beds. Fossil plants occur in the shale beds 

 wherever they have been examined. This for- 

 mation reaches the enormous thickness of 

 over 15,000 feet and contains 40 to 50 coal beds 

 which range in thickness from 1 or 2 to over 

 30 feet, ten of them being 4 feet thick and 

 suitable for mining. The various beds aggre- 

 gate at least 150 feet of coal. Mr. Knowlton 

 correlates the Jurassic flora of Alaska with that 

 of eastern Siberia and concludes that the 

 land connection between North America and 

 Asia at this early period of the world must 

 have been practically continuous. In review- 

 ing the character and geographic range of 

 Jurassic floras, especially as developed in 

 Arctic and Antarctic regions, he states that 

 the wide areal distribution of Middle and 

 Upper Jurassic floras has long been one of the 

 marvels of plant distribution. The living 

 , flora of to-day, of course, affords many indi- 

 vidual examples of wide distribution, such as 

 those found throughout the tropics of both 

 hemispheres, and others, chiefly weeds, that 

 have, largely through human agencies, spread 

 widely over temperate lands, but altogether 

 these plants form but an insignificant part of 



the whole flora, whereas in Jurassic time a large 

 percentage of the whole flora was practically 

 world-wide in its range. Even Cape Lisburne 

 is by no means the northern limit of this 

 nearly tropical vegetation; it has been found, 

 preserved in the rocks, 180 miles northeast of 

 Cape Lisburne. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 Mrs. Helen H. Le Fe^tie has made to New 

 York University a gift of $10,000 in memory 

 of her husband, the late Dean Egbert Le 

 Fevre. The gift is in the form of a trust to 

 be known as the Dr. Egbert Le Fevre Dean- 

 ship Fund. 



The trustees of the University of Chicago 

 have announced the appointment of a com- 

 mittee to decide on the date and character of 

 the celebration of the twenty-iifth anniversary 

 of the founding of the University. The Uni- 

 versity of Chicago was incorporated on 

 September 10, 1890. 



The New York State College of Forestry 

 has announced plans for the establishment of 

 a course in paper and pulp making. 

 • It is stated in Nature that the British 

 clianeellor of the exchequer in explaining his 

 budget proposals said that the education grant 

 is to be reconstituted on the principle of 

 making a distinction between the richer and 

 the poorer areas, and between the areas that 

 spend much and those that spend little on 

 education. The increased cost of the exche- 

 quer of the education grant will be £2,Y50,000, 

 but this year the grant will be confined to the 

 necessitous school areas. The government is 

 to contribute one half of the cost of the feed- 

 ing of hungry school children, and also to 

 make grants for physical training, open-air 

 schools, maternity centers and technical, sec- 

 ondary and higher education. Eeferring to 

 these grants, Mr. Lloyd George said : " The 

 grants for technical, secondary and higher 

 education are to make it more accessible to 

 the masses of the children, and to extend its 

 sphere of influence where children show any 

 aptitude to take advantage of it. We compare 

 very unfavorably with Germany and the 

 United States of America in this respect. 



