December 7, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



751 



final trials, consisting in a lecture on a sur- 

 gical theme, the same for all of them, and 

 communicated to them twenty-four hours in 

 advance. It is generally reported that the 

 judges found it very difficult to decide which 

 of the three mentioned surgeons was most 

 qualified to succeed to the disputed chair." 



According to Nature the promise of an in- 

 teresting and \iseful addition to the local 

 museums in the London district has been 

 furnished by the spirited action of the Totten- 

 ham Local Board. In 1892 the Board pur- 

 chased the fine ' Queen Anne ' mansion known 

 as Bruce Castle from Mr. Joshua Pedley at 

 the price he had given for it, 15,000Z., toward 

 which sum he contributed 700L^ in the hope 

 that some day the house would become the 

 home of a museum for Tottenham. The 

 estate included twenty acres of garden and 

 timbered land, which was soon thrown open as 

 a public park. The idea of a museum having 

 been grasped, many specimens and offers of 

 aid came in from neighbors and friends. By 

 gift, and as a result of a public subscription, 

 several important collections were acquired. 

 Especially worthy of mention are the long 

 series of birds, small mammals and insects in 

 cases and cabinets, made by Mr. H. W. 

 Koberts, formerly a resident in Tottenham; a 

 collection of minerals and fossils formed by 

 Mr. Penstone, a friend of John Ruskin; and 

 the collections of fossils and wax models made 

 and lent by Mr. H. E. H. Smedley. Mr. 

 Smedley is acting as honorary curator, and 

 has generously devoted much time and skill to 

 getting the collections into a fit state for 

 public exhibition. Other important gifts have 

 been made by Mr. C. C. Knight, the Horn 

 Walter Rothschild, Mr, Ruck, Mr. Currie, and 

 others. The museum was publicly opened by 

 Mr. W. W. Lewin, chairman of the libraries 

 conunittee, and Councillor Knight on October 

 26. Mr. Smedley is responsible for the scheme 

 of the museum, which will embrace a purely 

 local collection of Middlesex natural history 

 and illustrations of ancient Tottenham, while 

 the educational aspect will be kept well in 

 view, including exhibitions of living animals 

 and plants designed to encourage observation 

 at first-hand in the field. 



The Scottish Geographical Magazine has 

 received from Dr. J. P. Thomson some partic- 

 ulars of a great irrigation scheme which the 

 New South Wales government proposes to 

 carry out in the Murrumbidgee Valley and the 

 Lachlan, Namoi, and Gwydor basins. The 

 first work which it is proposed to undertake 

 is the construction of a dam and reservoir at 

 Barren Jack. Barren Jack is about thirty 

 miles from Bowning Railway Station on the 

 Sydney to Melbourne line. The site is a deep 

 gorge, where the river has cut through a solid 

 ridge of granite. The sides of the gorge are 

 between 300 feet and 400 feet high. The 

 proposal embraces constructing a wall 200 feet 

 in height right across the Murrumbidgee, thus 

 damming the waters back for a distance of 40 

 miles. The reservoir will contain one and a 

 half time more water than Sydney Harbor, 

 and, in fact, will be little inferior to the great 

 Nile dam. Much of the area of the actual 

 dam site is now under cultivation as agri- 

 cultural farms, and these will all have to be 

 resumed. The full capacity of the reservoir 

 will be 33,380,864,000 cubic feet, and the cost 

 of the dam, including resumption of lands, is 

 £758,000. The dam will first be built to a 

 height of 120 feet, and its full height will be 

 reached, it is anticipated, in seven years from 

 the date of its commencement. The catch- 

 ment area is 5,000 square miles, embracing the 

 whole of the country drained by the head- 

 waters of the Murrumbidgee. One great fea- 

 ture of this scheme is that the waters will be 

 brought to the land irrigated entirely by gravi- 

 tation, and pumping will not be necessary. 

 The new dam when constructed will be one of 

 the greatest sights in the commonwealth, and 

 the New South Wales government have 

 selected a proposed site for the Federal capital 

 right in its immediate neighborhood. This 

 site is known as Makoolma. Two or three 

 alternative lines for a light railway have been 

 surveyed to connect Bowning with the dam. 



The total value of the stone produced in 

 the United States during 1905, according to a 

 forthcoming report of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey, was $63,798,748. This total 

 includes granite at $17,563,139, trap rock at 

 $3,074,554, sandstone, not including grind- 



