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



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



FEffiAT, June 8, 1906. 



CONTENTS. 

 Pueblo Environment: Dn. Walter Hough.. 865 

 Nathaniel Southgate Shaler 869 



Scientific Books: — 



Prick's Physical Technique, Milller-Pouil- 

 let's Lehrbuch der Physik: Professor J. S. 

 Ames 872 



Soientifio Journals and Articles 873 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Torrey Botanical Club: Dr. C. Sttjabt 

 Gagee. The Philosophical Society of Wash- 

 inglon: Charles K. Wead. The Elisha 

 Mitchell Scientific Society: Professor A. 

 S. Wheeler. The Missouri Society of 

 Teachers of Mathematics and Science: Dr. 

 L. D. Ames 873 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Plea to make the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion a National Institute of Research: 

 David Faihchild 876 



Special Articles: — 



A Machine for compounding Sine Curves: 

 Professor W. G. Cady 877 



Quotations : — 



The Teaching Profession; The Geological 

 Survey 881 



Astronomical Notes: — 



Suggestions for a Theory of the Milky Way 

 and the Clouds of Magellan; The Magellanic 

 Clouds; The Solar Origin of Terrestrial 

 Magnetic Disturbances ; Photometric Deter- 

 mination of the Stellar Magnitude of the 

 Sun; Recent and Coming Total Eclipses 

 of the Sun: Pbofessoe S. I. Bailey 884 



Fluid Lenses 886 



The International Geodetic Association 887 



The Congress of the United States 887 



The California Academy of Sciences 887 



The Ithaca Meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion 888 



Scientific Notes and News 890 



University and Educational News 895 



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

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



PUEBLO ENVIRONMENT.'^ 

 The southern portion of the Rocky- 

 Mountain Highland has two chief geo- 

 graphic features, the one a depression 

 called the Great Interior Basin and the 

 other the Pueblo Plateau. The latter may- 

 be subdivided into the Rio Grande Valley, 

 the Colorado Plateau and the Gila Slope, 

 lying in the four political divisions named 

 Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. 

 This plateau, which contains the bulk of 

 the elevation on the western half of the 

 United States, is mainly embraced in the 

 triangle lying between the eastern side of 

 the Rocky Mountains and the Rio Colorado, 

 the western side being bounded by the Great 

 Basin. Its slope is from north to south in 

 the eastern portion where the Rio Grande 

 drains the trough lying just east of the 

 continental uplift, but the main slope is 

 toward the southwest and is drained by 

 the Colorado and its affluents. The plateau 

 lies from four to ten thousand feet above 

 sea level, but there are great contrasts in 

 elevation from 14,000 feet above to 300 feet 

 below the datum. In this region the north 

 and south ranges of the Rockies break up 

 and form a complex of mountains running 



'Address of the vice-president and chairman of 

 Section H — American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, New Orleans, December, 

 1905. 



