June 13, 1902] 



SCIENCE. 



959 



strument, by printing the message on a sheet 

 of paper instead of on a tape, enables the at- 

 tendant official to detach and forward the tele- 

 gram as soon as it is concluded. If the sys- 

 tem proves to be successful in practice, the re- 

 sult will be to relieve the congestion from 

 which the wires now suffer, and thus to enable 

 many places, which, owing to their distance 

 from one another, have hitherto had to be con- 

 tent with an indirect service, to enjoy direct 

 communication." 



Consul G. W. Koosevelt, of Brussels, 

 writes to the Department of State: In 

 1898, an international competition for a paste 

 for matches not containing white sulphur was 

 announced, and a prize of 50,000 francs was 

 offered by the Belgian Government to the in- 

 ventor. The commission appointed to judge 

 results has now declared that, after four years 

 of careful experiment and analysis, it has 

 been found that none of the products so far 

 submitted fill the required conditions, being 

 defective in inflammability, igniting on all 

 surfaces, or, in igniting, ejecting inflammable 

 matter containing some poisonous substance. 

 The sum already expended in the matter 

 amounts to 8,178 francs. This covers cost of 

 printing, correspondence with foreign coun- 

 tries, purchase of material, analysis and ex- 

 periments. 



• We learn from the London Times that an 

 international agreement for the protection of 

 hirds useful to agriculture was concluded in 

 Paris on March 19. The parties to the agree- 

 ment are Belgium, France, Greece, Lichten- 

 stein, Luxemburg, Monaco, Austria-Hungary, 

 Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. 

 The agreement contains 16 clauses, of which 

 the first states that birds useful to agriculture, 

 especially insect eaters and birds enumerated 

 in the lists attached to the agreement, are to 

 enjoy an unconditional protection and that the 

 destruction of these birds, their nests, eggs and 

 broods is to be forbidden. Certain nocturnal 

 birds of prey, as well as woodpeckers, bee-eat- 

 ers, swallows, and several birds of the sparrow 

 species, appear as iiseful birds, while ravens, 

 magpies, jays and others are branded as mis- 

 chievous. Some exceptions protect sporting 



and other rights. Italy, a country in which 

 the capture of northward-bound birds is a 

 regular trade, does not appear amongst the 

 signatories. According to statistics recently 

 given in the Reichstag no less than seven hun- 

 dredweight of migratory birds were put on the 

 Verona market at one time. The agreement 

 will shortly be submitted to the Reichstag. 



During the coming summer the United 

 States Geological Survey will continue the 

 study of the lead and zinc fields in northern 

 Arkansas; this work will be under the charge 

 of George I. Adams, assistant geologist, who 

 will be assisted by Professor A. H. Purdee, of 

 the Aransas State University, and by Ernest F. 

 Burchard. In this investigation an attempt 

 will be made to describe all the camps of that 

 important section and in particular will in- 

 clude a careful survey of the territory covered 

 by the Government topographic map sheet 

 known as the Tellville quadrangle, which in- 

 cludes most of Marion and parts of Boone, 

 Newton and Searcy counties. This work will 

 be a continuation in detail of the study of the 

 Ozark lead and zinc region, which includes 

 northern Arkansas upon which a preliminary 

 report by Baine and Adams was issued in the 

 last annual. The results of the work will be 

 a report on the lead and zinc field of north- 

 ern Arkansas, together with a geological folio, 

 which will follow other similar folios, issued 

 by the Geological Survey, in giving an accur- 

 ate geological description of the region, illus- 

 trated by maps showing the topography and 

 also the surface, economic and structural geo- 

 logic features. At the close of his work in 

 northern Arkansas, Mr. Adams will be engaged 

 in a reconnaissance in northern Texas for the 

 purpose of determining the stratigraphic re- 

 lations existing there between the Carbonife- 

 rous and the so-called Red-beds ; it is expected 

 that this work will throw light upon the dis- 

 puted problem of the extent of the Permian for- 

 mation in that region. Mr. Adams has recently 

 published a report on the oil and gas fields of the 

 western interior and northern Texas Coal 

 Measures, and the Upper Cretaceous and Ter- 

 tiary of the western Gulf Coast, which ap- 

 peared as Bulletin 184 of the United States 



