June 19, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



965 



tte meeting. An invitation of this character 

 could only be extended to a national associa- 

 tion. For the following summer the officers 

 of the association are planning an excursion 

 to Hawaii and a meeting there. The associa- 

 tion in thus serving the interests of scientific 

 men and of those interested in science in both 

 summer and winter deserves the support of 

 all, and this can be best given at present by 

 attending the Hanover meeting. Each one 

 who goes will add to the pleasure of others, 

 and will find himself amply repaid. 



8GIENTIFI0 NOTES AND NEWS 

 Following the conference of the governors 

 at the White House, President Eoosevelt has 

 appointed a National Conservation Commis- 

 sion, divided into sections for waters, forests, 

 lands and minerals. Mr. Gifford Pinchot, 

 chief forester, is chairman of the commission, 

 which, in addition to senators and representa- 

 tives, includes Dr. W J McGee, Mr. F. H. 

 NeweU, Professor George F. Swain, Professor 

 Henry S. Graves, Mr. Overton W. Price, Mr. 

 Charles McDonald, President Charles E. Van 

 Hise, Mr. John Hays Hammond, Professor 

 Irving Fisher and Mr. J. A. Holmes. 



Professor Liberty H. Bailey, director of 

 the College of Agriculture at Cornell Uni- 

 versity, has been given the degree of doctor 

 of laws by Alfred University, where he made 

 a commencement address. 



The University of Cincinnati has conferred 

 its doctorate of laws on Dr. F. C. Shattuek, 

 Jackson professor of clinical medicine in the 

 Harvard Medical School. 



The University of Arizona conferred the 

 degree of LL.D. on Professor William Phipps 

 Blake, at its annual commencement on June 

 3, in recognition of his achievements in ex- 

 ploration and geology. Professor Blake 

 began his work in the southwest as a member 

 of the Williamson expedition which traversed 

 southern California and the Colorado desert 

 in 1852, discovering the San Gorgonio Pass 

 and making clear the nature of the Salton 

 Easin. 



Sir George Darwin, K.C.B., F.E.S., and 

 Professor E. B. Tylor, F.E.S., have been 

 elected corresponding members of the Vienna 

 Academy of Sciences. 



An expedition, under the combined auspices 

 of the American Museum of Natural History 

 and the Geological Survey of Canada, is now 

 on its way to the mouth of the Mackenzie 

 Eiver and adjacent country to collect ethno- 

 logical and zoological material. The party is 

 being conducted by Mr. V. Stefansson, who is 

 well acquainted with the Eskimos of the re- 

 gion, having wintered with them in 1906, 

 and Mr. E. M. Anderson, a well-known 

 naturalist. The expedition was organized for 

 the purpose of making scientific studies of the 

 Eskimos of the country, of procuring as ex- 

 haustive collections as possible illustrating not 

 only the material cultures of the uncivilized 

 tribes of the region, but also of the zoological 

 conditions which prevail there, and of in- 

 creasing our knowledge of the geological 

 formation of that portion of the world. The 

 expedition will commence its return journey 

 during the summer of 1909. 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman on his recent 

 ornithological expedition for the American 

 Museum of Natural History procured ma- 

 terial for a "habitat group" illustrating the 

 rookery bird life, at one time so characteristic 

 a feature of Florida. He succeeded in reach- 

 ing doubtless the last general rookery of the 

 region. The museum group wiU contain large 

 and small White Egrets, Eoseate Spoonbills, 

 Louisiana and Blue Herons and White Ibises. 

 Mr. Chapman also secured a series of moving 

 pictures of pelicans on Pelican Island, show- 

 ing the habits of the birds during the nesting 

 period. These pictures will be of especial in- 

 terest, as evidencing the results of the pro- 

 tection which has been accorded the birds 

 for the past five years. 



In compliance with a request of the secre- 

 tary of the interior. Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, 

 of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, has gone to the 

 Mesa Verde National Park, Mancos, Colorado, 

 to take charge of the excavation and preserva- 

 tion of the cliff dwellings there. His work 



