734 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIl. No. 306. 



Harvard Corporation to the Ohio State Arche- 

 ological and Historical Society. The mound 

 has been in the possession of the Peahody Mu- 

 seum since 1886, when it was purchased by 

 private subscriptions amounting to $6,000, 

 chieily from citizens of Boston. The under- 

 standing was that the Museum should take 

 charge of the mound until some local society 

 should be able to receive it. Of late years 

 there has been diflSculty in taking care of the 

 Serpent Mound Park, and it has therefore 

 been transferred to the Ohio society. 



The appropriation of |20,000, made by the 

 New York Legislature of this year for repairs 

 and improvements in Geological Hall of the 

 State Museum, is now being expended in the 

 installation of a steam heating plant and vari- 

 ous repairs and new features which will greatly 

 aid the work of the museum and permit the 

 concentration of the departments of the State 

 botanist and the State entomologist in the same 

 building with the department of geology. 



Plans are being formulated for an entomo- 

 logical exhibit, in connection with other divi- 

 sions of the New York State Museum, at the 

 Pan American Exposition. A small synoptic 

 collection, representing many of the more im- 

 portant economic insects causing trouble in 

 the house, field or forest, together with ex- 

 amples and illustrations of their operations, 

 and a collection showing something of the his- 

 tory and work of the ofBce, will be some of the 

 principal features of the exhibit. 



A MUSEUM of commerce has recently been 

 established at Bangkok under the direction of 

 the Japanese Government, which pays all the 

 running expenses except the salary of the direc- 

 tor. It is proposed to exhibit in the museum 

 samples of all the commercial products of 

 Japan. 



President Clausen, of the New York City 

 Park Department, asked the Board of Estimate 

 some time ago for a bond issue of $3,000,000, 

 the proceeds to be used in building the New 

 York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and Forty- 

 second street. The application was referred to 

 Comptroller Coler, and his engineer, Mr. Eugene 

 McLean, has reported practically approving the 

 proposed plans. He estimates that a bond issue 



of $2,850,000 will cover the cost. Of this 

 amount Mr. McLean estimates that $2,700,000 

 will be needed for construction, $108,000 for 

 architects' fees and $27,000 for engineers' sala- 

 ries and other incidentals. In removing the 

 old reservoir $500,000 has already been ex- 

 pended. 



Besides small collections received in ex- 

 change from other museums, the Peabody 

 Museum has recently received some important 

 additions to its general collection. Among 

 them is a set of fossils and of Indian relics ob- 

 tained by Professor Beecher during his trip to 

 Arizona last summer. Professor Brewer and 

 Dr. Coe, who went with the Harriman expedi- 

 tion to Alaska in the summer of 1899, have 

 presented to the Museum two painted Alaskan 

 totem poles, one representing a bear, the other 

 a kingfisher with extended wings. Professor 

 Penfleld has given the Museum some interesting 

 calcite crystals obtained by him near Cayuga 

 Lake, New York. The Egyptian collection, 

 derived from the Egyptian exploration fund 

 and secured at Abydos, is on its way to the 

 Museum. It consists mainly of implements, 

 pottery and ornaments, some of them of gold. 



The American Section of the Free Museum 

 of Science and Art of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania has received an important collection 

 of ethnological objects from many North Amer- 

 ican tribes, the result of an expedition under- 

 taken last summer by the curator, Mr. Culin. 

 The expedition was fitted out at the expense of 

 the Hon. John Wanamaker. Mr. Culin ac- 

 companied Dr. George A. Dorsey of the Field 

 Columbian Museum who planned the trip. 

 Sixteen tribes were visited scattered from Iowa 

 to British Columbia, and the collections illus- 

 trate the life of the North American Indian in 

 many phases. The objects obtained from the 

 Pacific coast tribes are particularly valuable. 

 Even more important collections were made by 

 Dr. Dorsey for the Field Columbian Museum. 



The U. S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross 

 has now returned to San Francisco after a four- 

 teen months' cruise in the South Seas and in Jap- 

 anese and Alaska waters. Mr. Alexander Agas- 

 siz's account of some of the scientific results of 

 the voyage has already been published in this 



