1010 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 313. 



aid whicli power of this kind can give to regular 

 university work in field geology that this com- 

 munication is written. 



The Cornell Summer School of Field Geology 

 had for headquarters this season the classic 

 region of Trenton Falls, N. Y., where collect- 

 ing, section-making, map-making, etc., were 

 carried on in great detail. At different times 

 the two divisions of the class were taken by 

 boat along the Erie Canal to Troy, and, by short 

 railway trips to the Helderberg Mountains, the 

 Cambrian east of Troy and to Oriskany Falls. 

 The farthest north reached by boat was Platts- 

 burg on Lake Champlain. During the summer 

 the students had an opportunity to study the 

 Archsean at several localities, also the Lower 

 and Upper Cambrian, the Calciferous, Chazy, 

 Birdseye, Black River, Trenton, Utica, Hud- 

 son River, Clinton, Onondaga, Water Lime, 

 Lower Pentamerus, Delthyris shalj^ Upper 

 Pentamerus, Oriskany, Caudagalli, Schoharie, 

 Corniferous, Marcellus and Hamilton forma- 

 tions. Owing to boat accommodations, the class 

 was limited to fifteen (four women and eleven 

 men) though many more applications for ad- 

 mission to the class were made. 



For the coming summer (1901) there will be 

 room for forty-five. The Helderberg Moun- 

 tains (Country man hill section) will be used as 

 a rendezvous, where a camp will be formed 

 similar to that of the past summer at Trenton 

 Falls. This place has been selected because of 

 the large number of formations (about a dozen) 

 accessible within a radius of one mile. Ex- 

 cursions by boat down the Hudson to Rondout, 

 up the Champlain to Valeour Island, westward 

 on the Erie Canal to Syracuse, will be made 

 without fail. 



Many of the places visited could be reached 

 by rail supplemented by hack drives, but I ven- 

 ture to say not so economically for the student. 

 By camping and cooperation in the work, 

 no one need spend over $65 for a ten-week 

 term. This includes tuition, board and every- 

 thing, and is the result of experience and not a 

 mere estimate. Compare these figures with 

 estimates of expenses as usually given in an- 

 nouncements for summer schools of field geol- 

 ogy (usually for six weeks only) and observe 

 the difierence. Special attention is called to 



this fact, for it has often seemed to the writer 

 that not enough consideration is usually given 

 to the class of students who would profit most 

 by opportunities for field work. 



That the most advantageous place to study 

 geology is in the field is too obvious to need any 

 explanation here. The drawback in such work 

 is the expense. In a recent English publication 

 we read : '' Would that some munificent person 

 would found in the basin of the river Ribble a 

 geological station where Cambridge students 

 would have the means of acquiring a knowl- 

 edge of field geology under conditions more 

 favorable than those presented by the flats 

 around the sluggish Cam."* The points of 

 special note in our method of work, with the 

 Helderbergs as a center of operation, are the 

 following : (1) The mountains were long ago 

 recognized by the illustrious Lyell and others 

 as most ideal for geological study. (2) By 

 camping and cooperating in camp duties we 

 can make fair progress without the ' munificent 

 person ' so often appealed to. (3) By making 

 long excursions by boat in various directions a 

 far broader view of geology can be obtained 

 than by remaining all the time at one station, 

 however well it may be equipped, or however 

 well located. (4) The more advanced student 

 can keep his eyes open and ask the partjf to 

 stop and stay at localities affording new ma- 

 terials so long as seems advisable. f There is no 

 hurrying to catch trains and no fear of the on- 

 coming of the night. Original VFork can ac- 

 cordingly be done to great advantage, serving 

 not only to advance our knowledge of geo- 

 logical science, but also to demonstrate to the 

 less advanced students the meaning of real geo- 

 logical work. 



Gilbert D. Harkis. 



Cornell University, 

 December 8, 1900. 



CURRENT NOTES ON 3IETE0R0L0GY. 

 DE SAUSSUEE'S essays ON HYGEOMETET. 



No. 115 of Ostwald's ' Klassiker der exacten 

 Wissenschaften,' is a German translation of de 

 Saussure's ' Essais sur I'hygrometrie,' which 



* 'The Principles of Stratigraphic Geology,' by J. 

 E. Marr, 1898, p. 98. 



fSee Bull. Amer. Paleont, No. 13, November, 1900. 



