November 19, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



723 



1906, however, quartz mining has progressed 

 steadily and has rested upon a substantial 

 basis. In 1913 the production of the district 

 for the first time exceeded $100,000, but in 

 1914 it was almost treble that amount. Three 

 mills are in operation, and more will soon be 

 installed. With the increase in the depth of 

 mining the veins show no diminution in the 

 amount or tenor of the gold. A study of the 

 geologic conditions in this general area leads 

 to the conclusion that veins similar to those 

 now worked may be found beyond the borders 

 of the present mining district, and prospects 

 already being developed confirm this conclu- 

 sion. The district lies near the route of the 

 government railroad from Seward to Fair- 

 banks, and the cheaper transportation should 

 greatly stimulate its development. There is 

 thus every indication that the Willow Creek 

 district will steadily increase in importance as 

 a gold-mining camp and that it will have a 

 long period of productiveness. Since the dis- 

 trict's establishment as a gold quartz mining 

 camp the gold placers which originally were 

 regarded as the only valuable gold deposits, have 

 decreased in importance until their annual 

 output is now small, yet under the more favor- 

 able conditions of transportation soon to be 

 realized it is possible that placer mining may 

 again be profitably carried on. A report on 

 the Willow Creek district by S. E. Capps, 

 published as Bulletin 607 of the United States 

 Geological Survey, includes in addition to a 

 description of the mines and prospects, a dis- 

 cussion of the history, geography and geol- 

 ogy of the district. The report is illustrated 

 by a topographic and a geologic map on a 

 scale of about 1 inch to the mile, and by nu- 

 merous photographs and text-figures. 



A PHASE of the stud.y of the underground 

 waters of southern Louisiana is their utiliza- 

 tion in the cultivation of rice by irrigation. 

 In 1888 lowlands near the bayous suitable for 

 growing sugar cane, corn and cotton could be 

 p\u"chased for $.3.50 an acre, and the prairie 

 lands back from the bayous could be bought 

 for $1 an acre. With almost the first crop 

 under irrigation, however, the values showed a 

 marked rise and have continued to increase. 

 In the first five years the value of the best rice 



lands rose to $10 an acre, and soon after that 

 it rose to $30 and even $50 an acre. The first 

 people to plant rice in southern Louisiana, ac- 

 cording to the United States Geological 

 Survey, were the Acadians, who, after their 

 expulsion from Nova Scotia by the English in 

 1755, settled in considerable numbers in Loui- 

 siana. Their cultivation of rice, almost abso- 

 lutely primitive in its methods, was confined 

 to the lowlands along the bayous, the prairies 

 affording pasturage for the Acadians' herds of 

 cattle. Few of the lowland areas admitted of 

 satisfactory drainage, and they were too small 

 for profitable cultivation. The crops fre- 

 quently failed in years of deficient rainfall. 

 Attempts were made to create additional water 

 supplies by building levees across low sags or 

 coulees at points higher than the cultivated 

 areas, but generally either the rainfall proved 

 deficient or the reservoirs were too small. 

 Little advance was made over the Acadian 

 methods until very recently. Experiments in 

 unusually wet years had shown that the soils 

 of the prairies were adapted to the growth of 

 rice if siifficient water was at hand. This led 

 to the trial of pumps as a means of raising 

 water from the bayous to the rice fields. So 

 successful was the test that pumps were at 

 once installed at many points, and in a few 

 years tens of thousands of acres of previously 

 almost useless land, lying 10 to 70 feet above 

 the bayous, were put under cultivation. The 

 first large pump was installed in 1894 on the 

 Bayou Plaquemine, in Acadia Parish, near 

 Crowley. Although its failure at a critical 

 time involved the partial loss of the crop, it 

 showed that rice could be cultivated by pump- 

 ing, which has been gradually adopted on 

 larger and larger scales until now in the larger 

 plants batteries of pumps operated by com- 

 pound Corliss engines are in common use. 



The areheological work carried on in Mani- 

 toba for the Geological Survey, Canada, by 

 Mr. W. B. Nickerson, has been completed for 

 the season. An artificial mound was found on 

 the most conspicuous headland overlooking the 

 Assiniboine River about six miles north of 

 Alexander. This Mr. Nickerson explored and 

 found to be a burial mound. Among the finds 

 were one hundred and sixty-two marine shells 



