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[Vol. XVIII. No. 4f)0 



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JOHN FRANCIS WILLIAMS. 



John Francis Williams, Ph.D., assistant professor of 

 geology and miueralogy in Cornell University, died at Ithaca 

 Monday evening, Nov. 9. 1891. Although Dr. Williams was 

 only twenty-nine years of age, he had achieved eminent dis- 

 tinction. He took his baccalaureate degree at the Troy 

 Polytechnic Institute, and afterward studied at Gottingen 

 for three years with such success that when his professor, 

 Dr. Klein, went to Berlin, Dr. Williams accompanied him 

 as assistant. Returning to America, he was appointed curator 

 of the mineralogical and industrial collection of the Pratt 

 Institute of Brooklyn, L.L, which, conjointly with Professor 

 Nason of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, was 

 formed in Europe. He then became decent in Clark Univer- 

 sity, and afterwards was employed in a very important part 

 of the State survey of Arkansas. In the course of the survey, 

 extending over two years, he collected minerals for a very 

 complete report on the mineralogy and petrography of the 

 State, a volume of some four hundred pages being now in 

 press. Some of his work has been complimented by Dr. 

 Rosenbusch, the greatest living authority, as among the best 

 he had ever seen done by an American. 



Dr. Williams had just entered on his work of instruction 

 in Cornell, when it became apparent that he had brought 

 from the malarious regions of Arkansas the seeds of a fatal 

 disease. His instruction was highly praised by his students, 

 and he was universally esteemed by his colleagues. 



Dr. Williams was one of the best of the new school of 

 mineralogists, being thoroughly rounded in his knowledge 

 of the science, being an excellent chemist, crystallographer, 

 petrologist, and geologist. 



Dr. Williams was born at the old family homestead, in 

 Salem, N.T. He was the son of John N. Williams, and be- 

 longed to one of the oldest families in New York. 



Among his published papers were "Eudialyte and Eucol- 

 ite, from Magnet Cove, Arkansas," in American Journal of 

 Science, December, 1890; " Manganopectolite from Magnet 

 Cove."' Zeitschrift f. Krystallographie und Mineralogie, P. 



Groth, Leipzig, November, 1890, pp. 386-389; "Igneous 

 Rocks of Arkansas," Vol. II. of the Publications of the Sur- 

 vey, 1890; " Ueber den Monte Amiata in Toscana und Seine 

 Gesteine" [Mit. Taf., XII.-XVI.]. Neues Jahrbuch fiir 

 Mineralogie, Geologic und Paleontologie, BB. V. 381, 1886, 

 his most important work; and a volume of some four hun- 

 dred pages on the mineralogy and petrology of Arkansas, 

 now in press. 



THE COMMON EDIBLE CRAB FOUND FOSSIL IN 

 THE HUDSON RIVER TUNNEL. 



During work on the Hudson River tunnel, as carried on 

 from the New Jersey side, and when at a distance of about 

 3,100 feet from the New Jersey opening, one of the work- 

 men noticed a hard nodule among the silt as it was being 

 taken out at the heading, and secured it as an object of cu- 

 riosity. On being washed the nodule, which is about six 

 and a half inches long by two and a half wide and an inch 

 thick, was seen to contain quantities of a small sea shell 

 (Mactra lateralis say) and remains of a crab. 



Subsequently this nodule, which is of a hard limestone 

 nature on the inside, although soft and muddy externally, 

 came into the possession of William Dutcher, Esq., of this 

 city, who presented it to the American Museum of Natural 

 History, where it will be preserved in section 12 of case Q 

 of the Geological Hall. 



On removing some of the stone from the left side of the 

 back, the lateral spine characteristic of our common blue or 

 edible crab (Cullinectes hastatus. Fabricus ; = Litpa di- 

 cantha, Latreille, of the New York State Natural History, 

 Zoology, plate III., fig. 3l is shown, which proves it to be 

 an ancient example, about two-thirds grown, of this much 

 esteemed and highly prized frequenter of our city markets, 

 restaurants, and hotels, as well as of many private tables, 

 although at present by no means in the soft shell condition, 

 for the nodule is so hard internally as to yield only to the 

 action of a hammer and chisel; although externally looking 

 like a nodule of hardened mud. The nodule exposes a little 

 more than half of the upper surface of the back, and parts 

 of each of the large claws; and in removing the stone from 

 the surface, impressions of several leaves were exposed, and 

 a fragment of sea grass. 



The finding of this species in a fossilized condition, in the 

 position from which it was taken, is a matter of considerable 

 interest, as it is the only instance known of its existence in 

 a fossil condition. It proves this animal to have inhabited 

 the shoals and bays of this region for a period dating back 

 to probably long before the advent of man, for its depth be- 

 low the bottom of the river at that point, which is about 

 thirty-five to forty feet to the centre of the tunnel, together 

 with its perfectly fossilized condition, would indicate the 

 lapse of considerable time since its entombment. 



R. P. W. 



ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 



On May 22, 1886, Mr. W. R. Brooks, then living at Phelps, 

 N.Y., discovered a telescopic comet which has beeri the sub- 

 ject of an extensive discussion by Dr. S. Oppenheim of 

 Ottakring. He finds that the comet is a short-pei'iod one, of 

 from 5.7 to 6.1 years. In No. 3,064 of the Astronomische 

 Nachrichten Dr. Oppenheim publishes a sweeping ephemeris 

 covering the period from Jan. 1 to Sept. 17, 1892. 



Previous to his death. Professor Theo. Oppalzer had under 

 his charge the orbit of the short-period comet discovered by 



