518 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 796 



6. A separate bibliography, list of localities and 

 index appropriate to the volume of plates when a 

 separate volume is necessary, both indexes being 

 arranged under the specific as well as the generic 

 names. Edson S. Bastin, 



Secretary 



At the 227th meeting of the society, held at the 

 George Washington University on Wednesday, 

 February 9, 1910, under informal communications, 

 Mr. David White exhibited several lantern slides 

 prepared by the Lumifere Company, showing in 

 their natural colors the organic remains found 

 in coals. The sections used for this trial were 

 about seven microns in thickness and embraced 

 cannel coals from Lesley, Ky., and Calloway 

 County, Mo., and a brown xyloid lignite from 

 Lehigh, N. D. 



Mr. Francois E. Matthes described the site of 

 an extinct waterfall in the Yosemite Valley, still 

 conspicuous in the configuration of its north wall. 

 The waterfall was existent only during glaciaJ 

 times, when the glacier in the hanging valley of 

 Yosemite Creek sent a lobe up into the basin now 

 known as the Eagle Peak Meadows. From the 

 front of this lobe several streams coursed toward 

 the canyon rim, converging near the edge and 

 plunging over in several places but a few hundred 

 feet apart. Tlie cliff below receded under the 

 action of the falls, and a marked horseshoe-shaped 

 reentrant resulted. It is over the debris at the 

 foot of the fall site that the lower zigzags of the 

 Yosemite Falls trail are laid. 



Regular Program 

 Coal-mining and Goke-mal-ing at Dawson, Neio 



Memoo: Mr. E. W. Pakkek. 



The plant of the Stag Canyon Fuel Company, 

 which represents one of the highest types of coal- 

 mining development in the United States, is lo- 

 cated at Dawson, Colfax County, N. M., in Ts. 28 

 and 29 N., R. 20 E., and T. 2S N., R. 21 E. The 

 coal property embraces part of the Raton Moun- 

 tain region, and includes operations in and about 

 Trinidad, Col., and Raton, Koehler, Van Hout-en 

 and Dawson, N. M. There are two workable beds 

 in the field, only one of which is being mined at 

 the present time. The Dawson mines are on the 

 lower of the two workable seams, known as the 

 Raton or Blossburg bed. It lies nearly level and 

 varies from 6 to 11 feet thick, with an average 

 of about 7 feet. 



The mining company is a subsidiary organiza- 

 tion of the Phelps-Dodge interests, of Philadel- 



phia, and the idealistic character of the plant is 

 due to the beneficent infiuence of Dr. James 

 Douglas, the president of the company, and to the 

 administrative genius of Mr. E. L. Carpenter, its 

 general manager. 



The mining methods of the company, and the 

 arrangements for handling the coal and preparing 

 it for the coke ovens, are strictly modern through- 

 out. Instead of the ordinary bee-hive coke ovens, 

 modified underfiue ovens are employed by which 

 the gases from the coking operations are used for 

 heating the ovens and also for generating the 

 power used in the operation of the mines, the 

 heating of the oflice, and other company-buildings, 

 and for furnishing electric light to the town. Not 

 a pound of coal is used in the power plant, which 

 is a model of neatness and efiiciency. Special 

 provisions are made for the safety of the miners 

 and other employees, and no shot-firing is done 

 while any of the miners are within the mines. 

 Careful supervision is exercised over the methods 

 of undercutting and shearing coal and of placing 

 shots, in order to avoid any possibility of windy 

 or blown-out shots. A checking system is em- 

 ployed by which it is known that all employees 

 are out of the mines before the shot-firers enter. 

 The shot-firers make the electric connections, and 

 after they have left the mines, the entrances are 

 closed by iron gates and a red light is exposed in 

 front of each gate in order to warn persons away 

 and thus avoid accidents from iJying debris, in 

 ease an explosion should occur. 



The Stag Canyon Company further trains its 

 men in first-aid-to-the-injured work; conducts a 

 rescue station in which men are instructed in the 

 handling of rescue apparatus, and a hospital 

 service, provided for the employees at a minimum 

 expense. 



The Distrihtttion of Platimim in the United 



States: Mr. David T. Day. 



While recent high prices have caused active 

 search for platinum, showing it to be rather 

 widely distributed in many roclvs, useful accumu- 

 lations in the United States are at present lim- 

 ited to the Rambler mine, in southern Wyoming, 

 and the Key West group of mines in Bunkerville, 

 near eastern Nevada, and to about seven impor- 

 tant groups of accumulations in connection with 

 placer mines of the Pacific Slope. Most platinum 

 was produced last year from the neighborhood of 

 Oroville, Cal., where it occurs about in the pro- 

 portion of 1 to 500 of gold. The proportion has 

 not been determined for Trinity Coimty, Cal., 

 and Josephine County, Ore., the other two inland 



