SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Feidat, April 15, 1904. 



contents: 



Levees, Outlets and Reservoirs as Means for 

 Protection against Overfovy of the Alluvial 

 Lands of the Mississippi Valley helow 

 Cairo: Eobert S. Tatloe, ^vith maps 601 



Museums as Places of Popular Culture 610 



Scientific Books: — 



Ball's Contributions to the Tertiary Fauna 



of Florida : H. A. Pilsbry 613 



Scientific Journals and Articles 615 



Societies and Academies: — 



Tlie Biological Society of Washington : Wn- 

 FEED H. Osgood. The Anthropological So- 

 ciety of Washington: De. Walter Hough. 

 2'he Neiv York Academy of Sciences, Section 

 of Geology and Mineralogy : De. Edmund 

 Otis Hovey. The American Chemical So- 

 ciety, New York Section: De. H. C. Sher- 

 man. Northeastern Section: Aethub M. 

 Comet. The Onondago Academy of Sci- 

 ences: J. E. KiEKWOOD. The Science Club 

 of the University of Wisconsin: Victor 

 Lenher 615 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Convocation Week: De. Arthur Hollick, 

 Dr. E. p. Felt. The Writings of William 

 J. Long: Professor W. P. Ganong, Ellen 

 Hayes. The Present Status of Soil In- 

 vestigation: Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins 620 



Special Articles: — 



On a Leptocepholus of the Conger Eel: Pro- 

 fessor C. H. EiGENMANN. lon Action: 

 Drs. a. S. Loevenhart and J. H. Kastle. 

 Death Gulch: De. F. W. Traphagen. A 

 Loach from Nanaimo : President David 

 Starr Jordan 629 



Quotations : — 



The Department of Agriculture 635 



James Hyatt : John J. Schoonhoven 635 



Hans Hermann Behr: Alice Eastwood 636 



Scientific Notes and News 636 



University and Educational News 640 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 

 for review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garri- 

 son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



LEVEES, OUTLETS AND RESERVOIRS AS 

 MEANS FOR PROTECTION AGAINST OVER- 

 FLOW OF THE ALLUVIAL LANDS OF THE 

 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY BELOW CAIRO. 



The alluvial valley of the Mississippi 

 River below Cairo contains 29,790 square 

 miles of land subject to overflow in its 

 natural state. It is all capable of protec- 

 tion and reclamation by levees except a 

 small area at the foot of each closed drain- 

 age basin, which must be left open for the 

 escape of surface water, and a fringe of 

 sea marsh along its southern border. It 

 has been in course of progressive reclama- 

 tion by that method for nearly two hundred 

 years. For the last twenty years the 

 United States government has been assist- 

 ing in the work and its progress has been 

 rapid. The existing lines of levee are about 

 1,350 miles long. About 80 miles remain 

 to be constriTcted to complete in length the 

 main river system, not including some areas 

 so small that they are not worth the cost 

 of reclamation at the present time. In only 

 a few places, however, are the embankments 

 as high and strong as they should be for 

 the greatest safety. It is not known, in 

 fact, just how high they ought to be in 

 order to accomplish that purpose. The 

 work of building them began at the lower 

 part of the river and has been carried up 

 stream progressively. As they advanced 

 they confined within the channel more and 

 more of the water of great floods which had 

 previously escaped over the bank and made 

 its way to the sea by other paths. This 

 process raifsed the flood levels within the 

 levees higher as they were extended up 



