148 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. i 



way Locomotives of the Swiss Mountain Eail- 

 ways," by Mr. T. Weber and Mr. S. Abt, of 

 Wintertbur ; " High-pressure Water-power 

 Works," by Mr. L. Zodel, of Ziirich. 



The preparations for the Australian Ant- 

 arctic expedition are, Eeuter's Agency learns, 

 practically completed, and the expedition ship 

 Aurora, under the command of Captain Davis, 

 left the Thames at noon on July 25. Only 

 two members of the staff of the expedition will 

 go out in the ship — viz., Lieutenant Ninnis, 

 assistant surveyor, and Dr. Mertz, zoologist. 

 All told, the officers and crew of the Aurora 

 will number 25; they will throughout remain 

 with the ship. The bulk of the stores for the 

 expedition is going out by the Aurora, which 

 will also take the 48 dogs secured in Green- 

 land, 30 sledges built in Norway and a very 

 extensive oceanographical equipment which 

 has been lent to the expedition by the Prince 

 of Monaco. The monoplane built for the ex- 

 pedition by Messrs. Vickers is now being tried 

 at Brooklands, and will be sent by mail 

 steamer to Australia. 



A CABLEGRAM from Sydney to the London 

 Times reports that one of the northern terri- 

 tory scientific expeditions has left the rail- 

 way at Pine Creek en route for the Eoper 

 River. It formed an imposing cavalcade, 

 with its four heavily laden buckboards, 50 

 horses, donkey-wagon and team, and many 

 camp attendants. Professor Baldwin Spencer 

 has made valuable observations on the na- 

 tives of the Adelaide Eiver Plains and Mel- 

 ville Island. Mr. Gilruth, the microbiologist, 

 has shot buffaloes, all free from the cysts 

 found in Australian beef; Dr. Breinl, the ex- 

 pert in tropical diseases, has been testing the 

 blood of white children of the third genera- 

 tion. Dr. Woolnough has examined the geo- 

 logical features of the mining fields. Another 

 expedition under Captain Barclay is safe at 

 Newcastle Waters, and intends to follow the 

 course of the McArthur Eiver to the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria, opening up stock routes. 



The work of the U. S. Geological Survey 

 shows no lessening in conservation activities. 

 During the month of June the land-classifi- 

 cation board of the survey appraised 174,910 



acres as coal land in the western states, plac- 

 ing a valuation thereon of $3,239,369. At the 

 minimum price under which these lands 

 could have been sold before the present regu- 

 lations were in force, this same area would 

 have brought only $1,392,179. During June 

 the survey also classified 1,415,415 acres as 

 noncoal land and transmitted the findings to 

 the General Land Office so that the land 

 might be restored to the public domain. 

 These classifications were based on the field 

 examinations of the survey geologists. There 

 have now been classified under the present 

 administration, in 40-acre tracts, 16,873,370 

 acres as coal land, with the valuation of $711,- 

 992,537. The valuation of these same lands 

 at the minimum prices would have been 

 $266,652,431, the difference in favor of the 

 government under the present policy being 

 therefore $445,340,106. During the same 

 period 39,215,844 acres have been classified as 

 noncoal land and restored to the public do- 

 main. In June three new withdrawals of sup- 

 posed coal land were made in North Dakota 

 and Wyoming, embracing 714,923 acres, and 

 four restorations were made in Idaho, Mon- 

 tana, Utah and Wyoming, aggregating 1,847,- 

 264 acres. In connection with the classifica- 

 tion of oil land, the secretary of the interior 

 withdrew in June 170,333 acres in Wyoming, 

 making a total of 3,970,429 acres of oil land 

 now standing withdrawn and awaiting needed 

 legislation in the interests of the conserva- 

 tion of the nation's extensive petroleum de- 

 posits. In administration of the phosphate 

 lands 149,129 acres found not to contain 

 phosphate deposits were restored to entry, 

 leaving a total of 2,399,416 acres of phosphate 

 land standing withdrawn and also awaiting 

 necessary legislation. The tonnage of these' 

 important deposits has been conservatively 

 estimated at over two billion tons of high- 

 grade phosphate rock. Of land available for 

 the development of water power 10,019 acres 

 were withdrawn during the month by the sec- 

 retary of the interior, making a total of 

 1,515,423 acres, including thousands of water- 

 power sites, standing withdrawn in aid of 

 proposed legislation which shall allow for 



