Apeil 20, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



619 



tiny. But we are ignoring a billion dollar 

 commerce on the Atlantic side of the isth- 

 mus. We have the wide sea as a trade 

 path to the markets of the West Indies, 

 Central America and the eastern portion 

 of South America. To reach these fields, 

 we have no more need of a canal at Panama 

 than of the Northwest Passage. By the 

 time we complete the Panama Canal, Japan 

 may be the dominant commercial power of 

 the Pacific. Even if the Chinese Empire 

 were to remain friendly to America and the 

 awakening of the whole orient be post- 

 poned until we are ready to travel through 

 our waterway, the canal itself would not 

 secure us the commerce of the far east any 

 more than the Atlantic and Caribbean have 

 secured us the trade of the eastern seaboard 

 of Latin America. 



John Franklin Ceowell, 



Secretary. 

 New Yoek Citt. 



THE ^rEBRASEA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The sixteenth annual meeting of the 

 Nebraska Academy of Sciences was held in 

 Mechanic Arts Hall, University of Ne- 

 braska, February 2-3, 1906, under the 

 presidency of Dr. R. H. Wolcott. 



Resolutions were passed approving and 

 urging the passage by Congress of the 

 Adams bill providing for an increase in the 

 appropriation granted to the Agricultural 

 Experiment Stations; that creating the 

 Mesa "Verde National Park, and the Lacey 

 bill providing for the preservation of 

 American Antiquities. 



The following ofScers were elected for 

 the ensuing year: 



President — Dr. S. R. Towne, Omaha. 



Viee-p7-esid€nt — Professor G-. E. Chatburn, 

 Lincoln. 



Secretary — ^Dr. F. D. Heald, Lincoln. 



Treasurer — Dr. H. H. Waite, Lincoln. 



Directors — Dr. C. E. Bessey, Lincoln; Mr. G. A. 

 Loveland, Lincoln; Dr. J. B. Hungate, Weeping 

 Water; Dr. H. B. Lowrey, Lincoln. 



The following papers were presented: 



President's Address—Biological Conditions 

 in Nebraska: Robert H. Wolcott. 

 Nebraska, owing to its geographical posi- 

 tion, topography, climate and vegetal con- 

 ditions, may be divided into five faunal 

 areas: (1) a wooded Missouri River bluff 

 area, (2) a prairie area, (3) the sand hills, 

 (4) the plains, (5) a pine-forest foothill 

 region in the northwest. These correspond 

 closely to the floral regions. In early days 

 the two wooded regions were shai-ply lim- 

 ited, but the planting of groves, orchards 

 and shrubbery, together with the extension 

 of the natural growth of timber and thick- 

 ets, have led to the extinction of prairie 

 and plains forms and the spreading into 

 these regions of woodland species. Further 

 and more pronounced changes are to be 

 expected in the future. Of these areas the 

 firat two named belong to the Carolinian 

 life zone as defined by Merriam, the next 

 two to the Upper Sonoran, the last to the 

 Transition. Merriam shows a close corre- 

 spondence between life zones and crop 

 zones. With the changing biological con- 

 ditions in the state, agricultural possibili- 

 ties are becoming increased. Crops may 

 now be confidently expected which under 

 former conditions could not have been se- 

 cured. A biological survey of the state 

 would bring out these possibilities, supple- 

 menting the work done by the experiment 

 station, and furnishing a scientific basis for 

 that work. Such an enterprise would be for 

 the academy most appropriate, and would 

 render its labors of great practical value, 

 and would furnish a powerful argument 

 upon which to base an appeal for support 

 from the people of the state. 



The Drifting of Sunspots: G. D. Swezet. 

 Observations of the sun were made every 

 clear day from October 26 to November 24, 

 1905, and the position of the principal sun- 

 spots on the sun's disk was measured. 



