October 17, 1902.J 



SCIENCE. 



637 



problem is presented in a somewhat polemical 

 reply by Buckman, entitled ' Eiver Develop- 

 ment ' (Geol. Mag., Vol. IX., 1902, pp. 366- 

 375). 



DISSECTION OF LACCOLITHS. 



An ingenious use of physiographic methods 

 has been made by Jaggar in discussing the 

 former size of the laccolith of which the fa- 

 mous butte, Mato Tepee, northwest of the 

 Black Hills, is believed to be a remnant (The 

 Laccoliths of the Black Hills,' 21st Ann. Eep. 

 U. S. Geol. Surv., Pt. Ill, pp. 163-303). Suc- 

 cessive stages in the dissection of laccoliths 

 are summarized about as follows: An early 

 stage produces a dome-shaped hill with radial 

 drainage. One radial stream gains advan- 

 tage over its fellows and eats out the soft 

 stratum beneath the central portion of the 

 dome; the outward dipping hard beds are 

 undermined and drainage formerly radial 

 outward (consequent) becomes radial inward 

 (obsequent) ; a former mountain becomes a 

 quaquaversal basin inclosed by a horseshoe 

 ridge. Recession of this ridge and continued 

 erosion on the soft bed uncover a deeper 

 dome of harder rock. Monoclinal shifting of 

 the streams on the soft bed becomes easier 

 than deep cutting into the dome, and thus 

 an encircling (subsequent) valley is devel- 

 oped with a new series of radial streams (re- 

 sequent) from the stripped mountain core. 

 This alternation from mountain to basin will 

 continue until the igneous mass is discovered; 

 if its upper surface is strongly convex, mono- 

 clinical shifting will withdraw the encircling 

 valley from it, leaving an igneous dome 

 with radial ravines; if the upper surface is 

 but slightly convex, the innermost annular 

 streams may be superposed on the laccolith 

 somewhat within its periphery; and still later 

 they may be superposed on the bedded rocks 

 beneath the laccolith. The last condition is 

 thought to occur around Mato Tepee, whose 

 bold column is therefore interpreted to be 

 the remnant of a laccolithic sill about a mile 

 and a half in diameter. W. M. Davis. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 Dk. Charles S. Minot, professor of histology 

 and embryology in the Harvard Medical 

 School, was given the degree of Doctor of 



Science at Oxford University, on the occasion 

 of the tercentenary of the Bodleian Library. 



We learn from the Naturwissenschaftliche 

 Rundschau that, on the occasion of the jubilee 

 of Abel at Christiania, the honorary doctorate 

 was conferred on the following German mathe- 

 maticians: Professor Georg Cantor (Halle), 

 Professor J. "W. R. Dedekind (Brunswick), 

 Professor David Hilbert (Gottingen), Profess- 

 or Felix Klein (Gottingen), Professor Leo 

 Konigsberger (Heidelberg), Professor H. A. 

 Schwarz (Berlin), Professor Heinrich Weber 

 (Strassburg), Professor Ludwig Blotzmann 

 (Vienna). 



At the first autumn meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Academy of Arts and Sciences, of Boston, 

 Professor Luigi Cremona, of Rome; Professor 

 J. J. Thomson, of Cambridge, England; Pro- 

 fessor Emil Behring, of Marburg, and John 

 Morley, Esq., of London, were elected foreign 

 honorary members; and President Hadley, of 

 Yale University, was elected an associate fel- 

 low. President Agassiz gave an account of 

 his observations on the coral reefs of the Mal- 

 dives in the Indian Ocean, and Mr. H. H. 

 Clayton spoke on the observed movements of 

 the dust from the volcanic eruptions in the 

 West Indies and their bearing on theories of 

 atmospheric circulation. 



Dr. S. p. Langley, secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, has returned to Washing- 

 ton from Europe. 



Mr. Frederick V. Coville, of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, has returned to Washing- 

 ton from a botanical expedition to the Klamath 

 country, Oregon. It is understood that a 

 part of his work has been ethno-botanical. 



V. I. JocHELSON, one of the explorers of the 

 American Museum of Natui-al History, has 

 arrived at Moscow on his way to New York. 

 He has been making ethnographical studies 

 and collections in the Amur and Yakoust ter- 

 ritories for two years. 



Professor B. E. Fernow, professor of for- 

 estry of Cornell University, has been requested 

 to advise the New York park commissioners as 

 to the best policy to pursue in regard to the 

 trees in Central Park, which are thought to be 

 suffering from lack of sufficient eai'th. 



