May 8, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



703 



We learn from the London Times that the 

 resolution of the Government of India on the 

 annual report of the Geological Survey for the 

 past ofl&cial year mentions that, although survey 

 work was continued in Rewah, the Central 

 Provinces, and Beluchistan, the amount of work 

 of this kind done was much less than usual, 

 owing to officers being withdrawn for inquiries 

 on economic subjects. The Eewah survey has 

 led to some modification of the views hitherto 

 held in regard to the Vindhyan system, the 

 chief point established being the separation of 

 the lower from the upper Vindhyans. On the 

 northwestern frontier the survey extended to 

 the range between the Luni plain and the Zhob 

 country to the Tochi valley and to the country 

 lying between Dera Ghazi Khan and Zarat. 

 The publications of the Survey during the year 

 include a fresh volume of the ' Palseontologica 

 Indica, ' dealing with the fossils from the cera- 

 tite beds on the lower trias of the Salt Range, 

 and part of a volume on Himalayan fossils de- 

 scriptive of the Cephalopoda of the Muschelkalk. 

 This is said to be the first and a very important 

 instalment of the special monographs now being 

 prepared in Europe, for which a special grant 

 has been made by the Government of India. 

 Certain miocene fossils of upper Burma were 

 also treated in a publication of the Survey. As 

 to the economic side of the work of the depart- 

 ment, the oil-boring operations at Sukkur were 

 continued without success; in Burma Dr. Noet- 

 ing brought to a close his inquiries into the 

 occurrence and nature of earth oil ; and in 

 various other districts mineralogical surveys 

 have been made, and existing gold and coal 

 mines in Mysore, the Central Provinces and 

 Hyderabad have been visited, while proposals 

 for the regulation of the working of mines in 

 India have been drawn up. 



James Mercur, assistant professor of natural 

 and experimental philosophy at West Point 

 Military Academy, died on April 22d, at West 

 Point. He had been assistant engineer on the 

 survey of the northern lakes and assistant 

 engineer in the removal of Hallet's Point and 

 Flood Eock, Hell Gate, and had charge of 

 various other engineering works. 



We have received from The Engineering and 



Mining Journal advance sheets of Volume IV. 

 of The Mineral Industry, giving statistics for the 

 year 1895, from which it appears that the 

 United States last year took the first rank as a 

 producer,, not only of the precious metals, but 

 also of the most important of the useful metals, 

 iron and copper, while in coal it is second only 

 to Great Britain. The production of iron in 

 1895, as compared with that of 1894, showed 

 the remarkable increase of 42 per cent. Steel 

 showed an increase of over 10 per cent, and 

 copper nearly an equal increase. Coal shows 

 an increase of ten per cent. Silver is the only 

 important product showing a decrease. 



The London Times states that important al- 

 terations are in progress in the Natural History 

 Museum. Many of the less important speci- 

 mens have been removed to store rooms, leav- 

 ing space free in the exhibition galleries. The 

 marsupials have been entirely rearranged and 

 maps have been prepared showing their geo- 

 graphical distribution. A gallery in the western 

 corridor has been set aside for the antelopes, 

 and the unrivalled series of British birds has 

 been removed to the ground floor. Space has 

 been found for the birds through the rearrange- 

 ment of the reptile gallery. Other changes are 

 also in contemplation, as, for instance, in the 

 first gallery, where the larger fishes are now 

 seen suspended from the roof, so as not to cum- 

 ber valuable floor space; while on the geologi- 

 cal side there are signs of the approaching 

 abolition of the hard-and-fast division which 

 has so long separated paleontology from zoology 

 and botany. Thus there may now be seen in 

 the gallery of fossil mammalia skeletons of the 

 Indian elephant, Indian rhinoceros and musk 

 ox, placed for comparison with the fossil forms. 

 1,225 separate gifts, many of them comprising 

 a large number of specimens, such as the See- 

 bohm bequest, were received by the Museum 

 last year. 



In his address, as President, before the Lin- 

 coln Microscope Club, Prof Bessey stated, ac- 

 cording to the Microscopical Journal, that micro- 

 scopes are extensively used in the public schools 

 of Nebraska, most of the high schools owning 

 at least six. 



Popular Astronomy states that at the last ses- 



