400 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 401. 



as near the 81st degree of latitude. These 

 large depots, together with the houses and 

 stores left at Camp Ziegler, as well as provi- 

 sions for the five ponies and 150 good dogs now 

 on board, besides the pack itself, will afford 

 means for a large Polar dash party next year. 

 The fact that all the channels through Franz 

 Josef Land remained blocked by ice during 

 the autumn of 1901 prevented the establish- 

 ment of depots by steamer last year. The 

 breaking up of the ice early in June compelled 

 us to use our reserve supply of coal, and hence 

 our departure from Camp Ziegler on July 1 in 

 order not to imperil the expedition. We dis- 

 patched 15 balloons with 300 messages in June. 

 We have obtained the first moving pictures of 

 Arctic life. We discovered Hansen's hut, re- 

 covering the original document left there and 

 securing paintings of the hut. We have also 

 secured marine collections for the National 

 Museum, new charts, etc. Thirty men, with 

 13 ponies, 170 dogs and 60 sledges, were em- 

 ployed in field work from January 21 to May 

 21, this severe work resulting in the destruc- 

 tion of the sledges ; this and the depletion of 

 the food for the ponies and the dogs rendered 

 a return imperative. 



The water resources of the Great Plains 

 will be the subject of continued investigation 

 this summer by the United States Geological 

 Survey. For the last two or three years Mr. 

 N. H. Darton, of the Survey, has been en- 

 gaged in tracing the source of the copious 

 underground waters which appear in the wells 

 of North Dakota and South Dakota. From 

 careful studies of well borings and other geo- 

 logical phenomena of the region, it has been 

 discovered that extensive water-bearing strata 

 underlie the whole plains region and are bent 

 upward and reach the surface on the eastern 

 flanks of the Rocky and Bighorn Mountains 

 and in the Black Hills uplift. This season 

 Mr. Darton, assisted by Mr. C. A. Fisher, is 

 engaged in continuing the survey of the 

 water-bearing rocks in the Black Hills and 

 Bighorn Mountains, and in a reconnaissance 

 of the Great Plains for the preparation of a 

 map showing the general geology and the loca- 

 tion of the water-bearing beds of the whole 



region. The map will also indicate the dis- 

 tance at which the sandstones lie beneath the 

 stirface, and the probable depths of the wells 

 necessary to reach them. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The will of the late Francis B. Loomis, of 

 Cincinnati, has been sustained by the courts, 

 and the Ohio Wesleyan University will receive 

 $150,000. 



Dr. Howard A. Kelly, professor of gyne- 

 cology in the Johns Hopkins University, has 

 given $10,000 for an extension of the gyneco- 

 logical ward of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. 



The University of Nebraska has adopted a 

 course of study in forestry, which will be open 

 to students this year for the first time. It is 

 four years in length, and the conditions for 

 admission to the freshman year are the same 

 as for admission to other university courses. 



The University of Nebraska Medical Col- 

 lege will be opened this fall. It provides for 

 two courses, one six years, and the other four 

 years, in length, the first leading to the degrees 

 B.Sc. and M.D., and the second to M.D. En- 

 trance to these courses requires the work of 

 four years in a good high school or academy. 



A COURSE in practical physiology, commen- 

 cing on October 10, 1902, i^s offered to public 

 school teachers at the University and Bellevue 

 Hospital Medical College (26th street and 

 First avenue). The course includes much ex- 

 perimental work on nervous physiology which 

 is of advantage for the comprehension of psy- 

 chology. An exercise of two hours or more is 

 given once a week for thirty weeks. The exer- 

 cise commences at half past three on Fridays 

 and may last until six o'clock. The students 

 perform the experiments themselves. A short 

 talk precedes each exercise and a conference 

 over the results obtained follows the comple- 

 tion of the day's work. This course is one 

 authorized for obtaining a degree in the grad- 

 uate school of the New York University. It 

 is identical with the course prescribed for sec- 

 ond year medical school students. It will not 

 be given to more than thirty applicants. The 

 course is conducted by Professor Graham 

 Lusk. 



