640 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 642 



eea level. Bennetts Well, whicli is near this 

 point, is 266 feet below sea level. These 

 figures are probably not more than three feet 

 in error. The Geological Survey now has ele- 

 vation marks on the highest and lowest 

 points of dry land in the United States. It is 

 a coincidence that these two extremes are both 

 in southern California and only 75 miles 

 apart. Mount Whitney is a foot or two over 

 14,500 feet above sea level, while Death Valley, 

 as above stated, is 276 feet below. Before the 

 Salton Sink, also in southern California, was 

 flooded by the Colorado River, it contained the 

 lowest point of dry land in the United States, 

 a spot 287 feet below sea level. Previous esti- 

 mates of the depth of Death Valley based on 

 barometer readings gave for the lowest point 

 figures varying from 250 to 450 feet below sea 

 level. 



Nature states that at the annual general 

 meeting of the Geological Society on Feb- 

 ruary 22, Sir Archibald Geikie, the president, 

 described the arrangements contemplated for 

 the celebration of the society's centenary next 

 September. Invitations to attend the meet- 

 ings will be sent to all the foreign members 

 and foreign correspondents of the society, and 

 geological societies, geological surveys, and 

 learned institutions which have a geological 

 side, will be asked to send delegates. Personal 

 invitations will also be addressed to geologists 

 of note in the old and the new world, who are 

 not already enrolled in the foreign lists of 

 the society. The official program will prob- 

 ably extend over three days in London. The 

 arrangements for each of these three days are 

 under consideration, but Sir Archibald Geikie 

 proposes to give his presidential address as the 

 piece de resistance of one of the forenoon or 

 afternoon meetings. In that address he will 

 offer a sketch of the state of geological science 

 outside Britain at the time when the Geo- 

 logical Society of London was founded, and 

 indicate the external influences that affected 

 its start. By this choice of a subject he hopes 

 to interest the foreign guests, while at the 

 same time inviting the fellows of the society 

 into a domain of the history of science which 



is perhaps less familiar than it deserves to be. 

 The chronicle of the society itself during the 

 first hundred years of its existence has been 

 carefully and fully compiled from all avail- 

 able sources by Mr. Horace B. Woodward for 

 publication in volume form. Excursions to 

 places of geological note in Great Britain will 

 probably be arranged, some to precede and 

 others to follow the meeting in London. The 

 various museums and places of interest in the 

 metropolis will, of course, be shown to the 

 expected visitors, and there will doubtless be 

 no lack of public and private hospitality. It 

 is anticipated that the Universities of Oxford 

 and Cambridge will both receive the foreign 

 guests. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 The Drapers Company has decided to con- 

 tinue its grant of £800 a year for the stipend 

 of the professor of agriculture at Cambridge 

 for another period of ten years. The com- 

 pany has also given £200 for the completion 

 of the astronomical equipment of the Uni- 

 versity of London. 



Mrs. Russell Sage has given $150,000 to 

 the Northfield (Mass.) Seminary for a new 

 chapel and a music building. 



The Johns Hopkins University will here- 

 after admit women to graduate courses in 

 cases where no objection is made by the in- 

 structors. Women have been admitted to the. 

 medical department of the university since its 

 opening in 1893. 



The London University holiday course for 

 foreigners wiU be held from July 22 to Au- 

 gust 26. 



It has been decided by the council of the 

 University of Leeds to create a separate chair 

 of botany. This has arisen out of the resigna- 

 tion of Professor Miall, who combined the 

 teaching of botany with zoology. 



Dr. W. Peddie, lecturer in natural philos- 

 ophy in the University of Edinburgh, has been 

 appointed to the Harris chair of physics in 

 University College, Dundee, in succession to 

 Professor Kuenen. 



