Aphil 10, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



599 



assured. Dr. Arthur de Claparede, as presi- 

 dent of the Geneva Geographical Society, will 

 be the president of the congress. Among the 

 honorary presidents is the president of the Swiss 

 Confederation, while those who have accepted 

 office as honorary vice-presidents comprise the 

 presidents of former congresses, including Sir 

 Clements Markham and Commander Eobert 

 Peary; the presidents of over a score of the 

 leading geographical societies of the world, 

 and a long list of distinguished explorers and 

 scientific geographers. The governments of 

 eleven counties (France, Austria, Hungary, 

 Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Ru- 

 mania, Turkey, the United States and Brazil) 

 have intimated their intention of being offi- 

 cially represented at the congress, and dele- 

 gates are also expected from between eighty 

 and ninety universities and geographical 

 and other learned societies. Por the pur- 

 poses of the meetings, the field of geog- 

 raphy has been divided into fourteen 

 sections, each of which covers some par- 

 ticular aspect of the science, ranging from 

 mathematical geography and cartography 

 through seismology, oceanography, anthropol- 

 ogy and economic geography to geographical 

 education and questions of nomenclature. In 

 any of these sections approved contributions 

 may be submitted in one of the four official 

 languages of the congress — English, French, 

 German and Italian. 



The nineteenth annual session of the Bio- 

 logical Laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute 

 of Arts and Sciences will be held at Cold 

 Spring Harbor during six weeks, beginning 

 Wednesday, July 1. The laboratory will be 

 open for investigators during the entire sum- 

 mer. The courses of instruction offered are: 

 (1) Field Zoology, by Drs. Davenport, of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington; H. E. 

 Walter, of Brown University, and W. M. 

 Wheeler, of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, together with others. (2) Bird 

 Study, including both field and laboratory 

 work and a set of lectures by Mrs. H. E. 

 Walter, joint author of "Wild Birds in City 

 Parks." (3) Comparative Anatomy, by Pro- 

 fessors H. S. Pratt, of Haverford College, and 



D. S. Hartline, of Pennsylvania State Normal 

 School. (4) Beginning Zoological Investiga- 

 tion, with lectures on Animal Bionomics and 

 evolution, by Dr. Davenport. (5) Cryptogamic 

 Botany, by Professor D. S. Johnson, of Johns 

 Hopkins University, and H. H. York, of the 

 University of Texas. (6) Plant Ecology, by 

 Mr. George D. Fuller, of the University of 

 Chicago. (7) Beginning Research in Botany, 

 by Messrs Johnson and Fuller. No formal 

 course in embryology and microscopic tech- 

 nique is given this year, but Mrs. Davenport 

 and Miss Mabel Bishop, of Smith College, 

 will give the necessary practical instruction 

 to those desiring assistance in these subjects. 

 The Biological Laboratory undertakes to pro- 

 vide dormitory rooms and boarding arrange- 

 ments for all students and its equipment in 

 this respect has been greatly increased by the 

 gift from Mrs. Blackford of a new fire-proof 

 building as a memorial to Mr. Eugene G. 

 Blackford. Tuition for those taking courses 

 of instruction is $30. Further details are 

 given in the announcement just issued, which 

 may be obtained from the director of the 

 laboratory, C. B. Davenport, Cold Spring 

 Harbor, Long Island, N. T. 



The Russian government is despatching a 

 research commission to investigate one of the 

 latest discoveries of m'ammoth remains in 

 the Yakutsk Province of Northeast Siberia. 

 The commission consists of a doctor of 

 zoology of the Academy of Science; the 

 senior curator of the zoological department of 

 the academy, and six junior laboratory stu- 

 dents. One of the most remarkable features 

 of the discovery is the existence in the in- 

 testines of this extinct animal of perfectly 

 conserved food, relics of a vegetation until 

 now unknown to science. The expedition, 

 which is expected to be absent for a year or 

 more, is supplied with a grant of 16,000 

 roubles. The framework of this mammoth 

 is to be deposited in the St. Petersburg Mu- 

 seum of the Academy of Arts, where there is 

 already one other specimen. 



The State University of Idaho, located at 

 Moscow, has just entered into a cooperative 

 agreement with the United States Forest Ser- 



