916 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 834 



in a survey of the public oyster grounds of 

 Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound. This 

 work, undertaken by the division of scientific 

 inquiry, is under the immediate charge of Dr. 

 H. r. Moore, assisted by Mr. T. E. B. Pope, 

 assistants of the Bureau of Fisheries. The 

 survey has for its object the accurate chart- 

 ing of all areas of oyster growth, detailed ex- 

 aminations of such growth respecting quality, 

 quantity and conditions of oysters located, 

 and the determination of suitable but unuti- 

 lized ground. 



According to information printed in the 

 Geographical Journal, the Austrian African 

 traveler, Herr Otto Artbauer, set out in Oc- 

 tober with the intention of making his way 

 into the Tibesti region between Fezzan and 

 Wadai — the portion of Africa which best de- 

 serves the epithet " dark " in our own day. 

 He is accompanied by an Austrian artillery 

 officer, First Lieutenant Emil Kraft von 

 Helmhacker. The leader is an Arabic scholar 

 and is also master of a number of African 

 dialects, besides possessing ethnographical 

 and geological qualifications. His companion 

 will undertake the cartographical work and 

 meteorological observations. As is well 

 known, the relatively fertile highlands of 

 Tibesti are inhabited by the Tibbu — a race 

 known to the ancient Romans — who have an 

 evil reputation for wildness and barbarity. 

 Nachtigal has been, so far, the only traveler 

 who has come into contact with them and es- 

 caped with his life, though the opinion has 

 been expressed, both by Slatin Pasha and by 

 Oskar Lenz, that their country might be 

 safely crossed by a traveler who could con- 

 vince them of his peaceable intentions. The 

 new expedition is well equipped, and provided 

 on the one hand with presents likely to be 

 held in esteem in that region, and on the 

 other with serviceable weapons. After com- 

 pleting their proposed examination of Tibesti, 

 the travelers hope to cross Wadai by a route 

 leading well east of Lake Chad, though should 

 the state of affairs in that country make this 

 impossible, they will take the easier way 

 towards the Kamerun. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



The progress thus far made in ascertaining 

 the approximate value of the Wyman bequest 

 for the Graduate College of Princeton Univer- 

 sity confirms the original estimate of between 

 $2,000,000 and $3,000,000. Erection of the 

 buildings will be started in the spring, and will 

 include, in a large quadrangle, the Thomson 

 Graduate College, the Cleveland Memorial 

 Tower and the Proctor Memorial Dining Hall. 

 The faculty committee on the graduate school 

 has been reconstituted with one member from 

 each of the eleven departments of the univer- 

 sity, as follows: Dean Andrew F. West, chair- 

 man; department of philosophy, Professor 

 John G. Hibben; history, politics and eco- 

 nomics. Dean Edward Elliott; art and arche- 

 ology, Professor Allan Marquand; classics, 

 Professor Frank Frost Abbott; modern lan- 

 guages. Professor W. U. Vreeland; English, 

 ^ Professor T. M. Parrott ; mathematics, Pro- 

 fessor L. P. Eisenhart; physics. Professor W. 

 F. Magie; chemistry. Professor Fred Neher; 

 geology. Professor W. B. Scott; biology, Pro- 

 fessor E. G. Conklin. 



As a memorial to her husband, Mrs. Ed- 

 ward H. Harriman, of New Tork City, has 

 endowed with $100,000 the chair in forest 

 management in the Tale Forest School. 



The foundation for the new $50,000 science 

 hall of Dakota Wesleyan University has been 

 completed and work on the superstructure will 

 be advanced as rapidly as weather conditions 

 will permit. This building will consist of 

 two stories and basement and will contain 

 laboratories for physics, chemistry and biol- 

 ogy besides class rooms and a large lecture 

 room. 



The Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 will hold a Congress of Technology on April 

 10 and 11 next to celebrate the fiftieth anni- 

 versary of its establishment. 



The Oxford congregation has rejected the 

 plan to make Greek optional in the entrance 

 examinations by a vote of 188 to 152. 



A DESPATCH from Munich says that the oath 

 disavowing modernism, required of theolog- 

 ical professors by the Vatican, has caused a 

 schism in the faculty at the University of 



