Mabch 18, 1910] 



SCIENCE- 



413 



tained in the artesian water and on the effect 

 of the water as it comes direct from the well 

 on trout and other fish, have already been laid 

 before the institute. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to consider the Animals' Protection 

 Act, and to suggest amendments with the 

 view of giving more effective protection to the 

 native fauna of the Dominion. A conference 

 was held with a similar committee appointed 

 by the Canterbury Acclimatization Society, 

 and a number of recommendations were made 

 which received the approval of the council. 

 It is intended to submit the proposals to other 

 institutes for their consideration, and if they 

 meet with approval to bring the matter under 

 the notice of members of parliament and of 

 the minister for internal affairs. It is hoped 

 later to send a party to the Chatham Islands 

 for purposes of scientific investigation. 



In reclaiming the Great Valley of Cali- 

 fornia the removal and control of mining 

 debris in the rivers play a very important part. 

 It is estimated that the bed of Yuba River 

 alone contains three hundred million cubic 

 yards of this debris. By these deposits the 

 low-water stage of this stream was raised 15 

 feet at MarysviUe between 1849 and 1881, and 

 the stream bed near this place is now 13 feet 

 above the level of the surrounding farm land, 

 so that it has been necessary to build large 

 dikes or levees along the river. For four 

 years the United States Geological Survey has 

 been studying this debris problem, as it has 

 been called, and in connection with the study 

 a hydraulic laboratory was built at the Uni- 

 versity of California, Berkeley, Cal., for the 

 experimental investigation of the laws of 

 transportation of sand and gravel by water. 

 This investigation has outgrown the narrow 

 limits of the laboratory, and it is proposed to 

 continue this work on a much larger scale in 

 connection with one of the projects of the 

 United States Eeelamation Service. In a 

 preliminary report now in preparation the 

 apparatus and methods employed will be de- 

 scribed and the results obtained wUl be dis- 

 cussed in detail. The results will be ex- 

 pressed by formulas and represented graph- 

 ically by curves. Relations eonnecting the 



discharge, slope and load will be given for 

 eight sizes of sand and gravel and for artificial 

 and natural mixtures. The experiments in- 

 clude stream transportation, in which the 

 stream bed is sand or gravel — a seK-made bed 

 — and flume transportation, in which the bed 

 is wood or metal, as in sluicing. The accu- 

 racy and the applicability of the results to 

 practical problems will be discussed and the 

 data that have only an indirect bearing on the 

 debris problem wiU be presented in three ap- 

 pendixes. If means are provided for the use 

 of the larger apparatus and the much larger 

 water supply that wiU be available in connec- 

 tion with the reclamation project some of the 

 data thus far obtained will be tested and the 

 relations connecting the factors of transporta- 

 tion will be extended so as to make them more 

 directly applicable to problems of stream con- 

 trol and economic sluicing. 



VNITER8ITT AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Columbia University has received an an- 

 onymous gift of $.350,000 for the erection of 

 a building for the faculty of philosophy, which 

 has charge of the graduate work in philosophy 

 and languages. The university has also re- 

 ceived anonymously $15,000 for work in agri- 

 cultural education. 



A ZOOLOGICAL laboratory is to be erected at 

 the University of Pennsylvania, at a cost of 

 about $250,000. In making the announcement 

 on university day. Provost Harrison stated 

 that it would be " the most complete biological 

 laboratory yet erected." 



By the will of Mrs. Mary A. Richardson, 

 Tufts CoUege receives $40,000 for fellowships. 



At Columbia University William B. Fite, 

 Ph.B. and Ph.D. (Cornell), professor of mathe- 

 matics at Cornell University, and H. E. 

 Hawks, A.B. and Ph.D. (Yale), assistant pro- 

 fessor of mathematics at Yale University, have 

 been appointed professors of mathematics. 

 George B. Wendell, B.S. (Massachusetts In- 

 stitute), Ph.D. (Leipzig), professor in the 

 Stevens Institute, has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of physics. Charles H. Burnside, of 

 the University of Wisconsin, has been ap- 



