718 
THE Mining School of McGill University will 
this year carry on its summer work in British 
Columbia. The class expected to leave Mon- 
treal by special car on the Canadian Pacific 
Railway on May 1st, and to go out to the 
Pacific coast, visiting the various collieries 
along the line of the railway and on Vancouver 
Island. The party will then go into southern 
British Columbia for the purpose of studying 
the mineral deposits of the Slocan, Trail Creek 
and Boundary Districts, and, returning by the 
Crows’ Nest Pass route, will visit the coal mines 
at Fernie Hethbridge, reaching Montreal again 
about the middle of June. 
THE daily papers state that a party of 
students from Harvard University will under- 
take, this summer, an expedition to Venezuela 
for botanical and zoological research. They are 
to leave New York on the steamer Caracas, on 
June 15th, and will proceed to La Guayra and 
Margarita Island. 
THE assignment of field parties by the U. 8S. 
Geological Survey for the present season are as 
follows: Arizona: T. A. Jaggar, Waldemar Lind- 
gren, J. M. Boutwell, F. L. Ransome, Jobn D. Ir- 
ving and R. T. Hill; Arkansas: GeorgeI. Adams ; 
California: George F. Becker, W. Lindgren, J. 
C. Branner, J. S. Diller, Geo. H. Eldridge and 
H. W. Turner; Colorado: C. W. Cross, Ernest 
Howe, J. Morgan Clements, S. F. Emmons, 
John D. Irving and George I. Adams ; Connec- 
ticut: William H. Hobbs and H. E. Gregory ; 
Delaware: R. D. Salisbury and George B. 
Shattuck ; Georgia: Arthur Keith; Idaho: 
Bailey Willis; Indiana: George H. Ashley ; 
Indian Territory: J. A. Taff and George I. 
Adams; Kansas: W.S. Tangier-Smith ; Ken- 
tucky : M. R. Campbell and George H. Ashley ; 
Louisiana: George I, Adams; Maryland : Con- 
tinuation of cooperative work as in previous 
years, William B. Clark, EH. B. Matthews and. 
George B. Shattuck, study of ancient crystalline 
rocks, paleozoic stratigraphy and coastal plain 
deposits; Massachusetts: B. K. Emerson ; 
Michigan : Frank Leverett, F. B. Taylor, C. 
R. Van Hise, C. K. Leith and W. S. Bayley ; 
Minnesota: C. R. Van Hise and J. Morgan 
Clements; Missouri: W. S. Tangier-Smith ; 
Montana: Continuation of special studies in the 
' SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 381. 
Rocky Mountains, Charles D. Walcott, director; 
W. E. Weed and Bailey Willis; Nevada: G. 
K. Gilbert ; New Jersey: R. D. Salisbury and 
George B. Shattuck ; New Mexico: George H. 
Girty, R. T. Hill and C. W. Cross; New York: 
L. C. Glenn, T. N. Dale and J. F. Kemp; 
North Carolina: Arthur Keith ; North Dakota ; 
N. H. Darton and C. M. Hall; Ohio: Charles 
S. Prosser; Oklahoma: J. A. Taff; Oregon: 
J. S. Diller; Pennsylvania: Parts of Butler, 
Armstrong, Indiana, Washington, Westmore- 
land, Fayette and Tioga counties, M. R. Camp- 
bell, A. C. Spencer, George B. Richardson and 
L. Fuller; northern Pennsylvania : George H. 
Girty; Philadelphia and vicinity, Professor 
Florence Bascom and C. R. Van Hise ; refrac- 
tory clays of Pennsylvania, C. W. Hayes; 
Fulton and Franklin counties, George W. Stone; 
coal measures, C. D. White; South Carolina : 
Arthur Keith; South Dakota: N. H. Darton 
and J. EK. Todd; Tennessee: Arthur Keith; 
Texas, R. T. Hill and George I. Adams; Utah: 
C. K. Gilbert; Vermont: T. N. Dale and J. E. 
Wolff: Washington: F. L. Ransome and Geo, 
Otis Smith ; West Virginia: Cooperation with 
State survey under Professor I. C. White; 
Wayne county: M. R. Campbell, survey of 
Ceredo quadrangle; Wisconsin: C. R. Van 
Hise and W. C. Alden; Wyoming: W. C. 
Knight, N. H. Darton, George I. Adams and 
Arnold Hague. 
THE correspondent from India of the London 
Lancet, writes under date of March 28th: 
“Plague has caused 11,560 deaths throughout 
India during the past week. The mortality is 
increasing with alarming rapidity in the Lower 
Provinces. Of the above total, no fewer than 
7,315 deaths occurred in the Bengal districts. 
In Calcutta there were 1,040 deaths. The 
plague cases reported in this city were 1,199 
against 993 during the previous week and the 
number of fresh living cases seen was 345. 
Disinfection continues to be extensively prac- 
ticed, not only in respect of the rooms and 
houses where the cases occur, but in many of 
the adjoining houses. The process adopted 
consists in flushing the floors and spraying the 
walls with the standard solution of perchlo- 
ride of mercury. Cases continue to occur in 
