886 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 677 



tribution was made. A number of sunken 

 craters, some of whicb were a mile in diameter 

 ■and several hundred feet in depth, were dis- 

 covered and measured, and material for the 

 compilation of a map of the region was ob- 

 tained. In addition to somewhat unexpectedly 

 valuable data on the occurrence and distribu- 

 tion of desert plants and animals, splendid 

 specimens of the big horn and antelope were 

 secured, together with important information 

 as to their habits and general behavior in this 

 secluded region. 



Nature says " Professor Bedson last June 

 completed his twenty-fifth year as professor 

 of chemistry at the Armstrong College, New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne. The event was the occa- 

 sion of many congratulations and suitable 

 presentations. In addition to the celebration 

 arranged last summer, we notice from the 

 report of the principal of the college that the 

 council has ' deemed it only fitting to mark 

 the occasion, and its profound appreciation 

 of Professor Bedson's exceptional services to 

 the college, by unanimously voting him a 

 " jubilee " vacation of six months, to take 

 effect in the coui*se of the coming year, to- 

 gether with a svun of £200.' We congratulate 

 Professor Bedson, and commend the course of 

 action adopted by the Newcastle authorities 

 to the notice of other college councils." 



We regret to record the death of Sir James 

 Hector, F.E.S., the British geologist, at the 

 age of seventy-three years; of Admiral Mc- 

 Clintock, the British Arctic explorer, at the 

 age of eighty-eight years, and of Professor T. 

 Barker, who formerly held the chair of mathe- 

 matics at Owen's College, at the age of sixty- 

 nine years. 



The Michigan Academy of Science will 

 hold its '.fourteenth annual meeting at Ann 

 Arbor, Michigan, on April 2, 3 and 4, 1908. 

 The titles of all papers to be presented at this 

 meeting should be sent to the vice-presidents 

 of the different sections before March 1, 1908. 

 The officers of the academy are: President, 

 Mark S. W. Jefferson, Tpsilanti; Acting Sec- 

 retary-Treasurer, Walter G. Sackett, Agricul- 

 tural College; Librarian, G. P. Burns, Ann 



Arbor. Vice-Presidents : Agriculture, A. C. 

 Anderson, Agricultural College; Botany, W. 

 E. Praeger, Kalamazoo; Geography and Geol- 

 ogy, E. H. Kraus, Ann Arbor; Sanitary Sci- 

 ence, J. G. Cumming, Ann Arbor; Science 

 Teaching, S. D. Magers, Tpsilanti; Zoology, 

 A. G. Ruthven, Ann Arbor. 



The Physical Society, London, held its third 

 annual exhibition of electrical, optical, and 

 other physical apparatus at the Eoyal College 

 of Science, South Kensington, on Friday 

 evening, December 13, from seven to ten 

 o'clock. 



The Smithsonian Institution has published 

 a fourth edition of meteorological tables. The 

 publication of meteorological, physical and 

 geographical tables is in furtherance of a 

 policy adopted as early as 1852 by Secretary 

 Henry, two years after the establishment of 

 the Smithsonian weather service. In the 

 preparation of the voliune the institution was 

 aided by Professors Alexander McAdie and 

 Cleveland Abbe of the U. S. Weather 

 Bureau. 



Bulletin No. 33, from the Bureau of Amer- 

 ican Ethnology, by Ales Hrdlicka, entitled 

 " Skeletal Eemains suggesting or attributed to 

 Early Man in North America," reviews the 

 Calaveras, Lansing, Nebraska and other crania 

 which have been supposed by various writers 

 to indicate the existence of crania of low 

 type in North America. The author reaches 

 the following conclusion : " The various finds 

 of human remains in North America for 

 which geological antiquity has been claimed 

 have been thus briefly passed under review. It 

 is seen that, irrespective of other considera- 

 tions, in every instance where enough of the 

 bones is preserved for comparison the somato- 

 logical evidence bears witness against the 

 geological antiquity of the remains and for 

 their close afiinity to or identity with those 

 of the modern Indian. Under these circum- 

 stances but one conclusion is justified, which 

 is that thus far on this continent no human 

 bones of undisputed geological antiquity are 

 known. This must not be regarded as equiva- 

 lent to a declaration that there was no early 

 man in this country; it means only that if 



