April 17, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



591 



dred meters. In the valleys lie the mo- 

 raines of local glaciers, to which reference 

 has frequently been made by various ob- 

 servers. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Appalachia for January contains well 

 illustrated narratives of ascents in the Can- 

 adian and Montana Eockies, and the Cali- 

 fornia Sierra. The photographs by the 

 Topographical Survey of Canada exhibit 

 the great extent of lofty mountainous coun- 

 try in which deep valleys are dissected. 



The National Geographic Magazine (now is- 

 sued monthly) for January, February and 

 March contains descriptive articles on Eus- 

 sia by G. G. Hubbard, Venezuela by W. E. 

 Curtis, Arctic exploration by S. Jackson, A. 

 "W. Greely and "W. H. Dall, the Panama and 

 Nicaragua canals by E. T. Hill and A. W. 

 Greely, Tehuantepec ship railway by E. "W. 

 Corthell, the submarine cables of the world 

 by G. Herrle, and the survey of Indian 

 Territory by H. Gannett. Geographic lit- 

 erature and notes are briefly treated in 

 each number. 



An abstract of explorations by Obruchef 

 in central Asia is given in the Scottish Geog- 

 raphical Magazine for February. It empha- 

 sizes the mountainous character of much 

 of the desert of Gobi, which was treated as 

 a plain in older descriptions. "A marked 

 peculiarity of many chains in central Asia 

 is that they stand on high broad pedestals 

 insensibly sloping down to the low central 

 parts of the depressions. ' ' This is probably 

 an incorrect interpretation of ranges nearly 

 buried in alluvial wash. 



The same journal for March gives a sketch 

 of British Guiana, by Chalmers, briefly char- 

 acterizing the coastal plain, the inner high- 

 lands and their mountains, and the falls of 

 the rivers in their descent from the higher 

 to the lower district. Eoraima and Kail- 

 teur are outlined. 



Vatjghan's journeys in Persia are nar- 



rated in the London Geograjjhical Journal 

 for January and February. Special account 

 is given of the Dasht-i-Kavir, or Great Salt 

 desert, 360 miles east-west by 150 north- 

 south, with a central depression one or two 

 thousand feet below its margin, and includ- 

 ing a great salt bed 440 square miles in area. 

 The same journal for February has a 

 paper on the Japanese Alps by W. Weston, 

 speaking highly of their picturesque scenery. 

 They consist of a backbone of granitic 

 rocks, through or over which vast quanti- 

 ties of volcanic rocks have been poured. 



W. M. Davis. 

 Haevaed TJniveesity. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



Me. William I. Hoenaday, formerly of the 

 National Museum, has been appointed Director 

 of the proposed Zoological Park in New York. 

 He is eminently qualified for the position by his 

 extensive knowledge of zoology, his ability as 

 an untechnical writer upon travel and natural 

 history, and especially by his experience in con- 

 nection with the establishment of the National 

 Zoological Park at Washington. He enters 

 upon his duties immediately and will first con- 

 sider and report to the Executive Committee 

 upon the difficult question of location of the 

 Park. At the last meeting of the Societj'' the 

 three first honorary members were elected as 

 follows : Sir William H. Flower, Director of 

 the British Museum of Natural History, Presi- 

 dent of the London Zoological Society ; Prof. 

 Alexander Agassiz, of the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology, and Prof. J. A. Allen, of the 

 American Museum of Natural History. 



The first session of the Bahama Biological 

 Station under the direction of Prof. Charles L. 

 Edwards, University of Cincinnati, was held 

 during the summer of 1893, at Bimini Islands, 

 Bahamas. For the coming season it has been 

 decided to locate the laboratory at Biscayne 

 Bay, Florida, in the latitude of the Bimini Is- 

 lands, and just across the Gulf Stream. Here 

 is found the same equable climate, clear water 

 and sub-tropical fauna and flora, for which the 

 Bahamas are famous. An all-rail route of two 



