486 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 876 



and other statistics are given in an advance 

 chapter on quicksilver from " Mineral Re- 

 sources of the United States," 1910, by H. D. 

 MeCaskey, of the United States Geological 

 Survey. 



During the past few years various expedi- 

 tions from the University of Chicago have 

 secured from the fossil fields of northern 

 Texas the largest and best collection of Per- 

 mian vertebrate fossils in the world. The past 

 summer an expedition from the university, 

 under the direction of Professor S. W. Willis- 

 ton, has explored the Permian deposits of 

 northwestern New Mexico with valuable re- 

 sults. These Permian deposits, of small ex- 

 tent, in Eio Arriba County, were discoverd 

 more than thirty years ago, but have been 

 neglected by explorers ever since, and their 

 precise location even was unknown to geolo- 

 gists. As a result of Professor Williston's ex- 

 cavations, numerous fossils have been shipped 

 to the university, many of which are unknown 

 to science. This collection includes six or 

 seven new genera of reptiles and amphibians, 

 one of which is represented by one of the most 

 perfect skeletons, about six feet in length, ever 

 found in any deposit in America. This skel- 

 eton will be mounted in Walker Museum the 

 coming year by Mr. Paul Miller, who collected 

 its parts. The scientific results of the expedi- 

 tion will shortly be published in detail. 



A CONFERENCE of the International Aviation 

 Map Commission took place recently in Brus- 

 sels under the presidency of Prince Roland 

 Bonaparte. In the proceedings of the con- 

 ference as reported in the British Oeograph- 

 ical Journal, a distinction was made between 

 questions ripe for discussion and those of a 

 more problematical character; definitely for- 

 mulated votes being adopted only in the case 

 of the former. They arose for the most part 

 directly out of the discussions of the confer- 

 ence, while the more theoretical matters were 

 the subject of lectures by specialists. The 

 recommendations adopted had to do with (1) 

 scale; (2) subdivision of the map and boun- 

 daries of the several sheets; (3) the number- 

 ing and naming of the sheets; (4) the orthog- 

 raphy of geographical names. An important 



decision was reached in the adoption of the 

 scale of 1 : 200,000, while it was also agreed 

 that the separate sheets should each embrace 

 the field of one degree. The initial meridian 

 to be that of Greenwich, the descriptive text 

 in the language of the nation concerned. A 

 single sheet of the International millionth 

 map would correspond to 25 sheets of the new 

 aviation map, but considerable objection was 

 made to the employment of the former for 

 the purpose of giving a general view of the 

 area in question. As regards the method of 

 representing the surface, the only recommen- 

 dation that found acceptance (out of some 

 twenty-five different suggestions) was that on 

 the occasion of the next great overland avia- 

 tion contest, a variety of such systems might 

 with advantage be tested. Exception was 

 taken by the English representative to over- 

 loading the map with conventional signs in 

 red; stress was, however, laid on the desira- 

 bility of a uniform representation of electrical 

 power stations by series of red crosses. The 

 question of the representation of relief was 

 also held to be not yet ripe for decision. On 

 this subject a paper was read by Dr. K. 

 Peucker, one of the Austrian representatives, 

 who insisted on the need of a special method 

 of representation fitted to bring out visibly to 

 the eye the extent of the difference in altitude, 

 so that the aviator might be able to grasp the 

 exact measure of the obstacles to free progres- 

 sion. In accordance with this view, it has 

 been decided by the German Association of 

 Aviators to construct a specimen-map of a 

 portion of the Rhine basin on the color-plastic 

 system. The recommendations of the confer- 

 ence, as also the results of experiments in the 

 desired directions, are to be laid before the 

 International Aviation Congress at Rome in 

 October. Special mention should be made of 

 an address by Professor Berget before a gen- 

 eral meeting of the Belgian Aero Club on the 

 subject of topography and aeronautics. The 

 lecturer brought out on the one hand the rea- 

 sons which lead aeronauts to make a new claim 

 on cartography, and on the other, the extent 

 to which aviation may help to raise cartog- 

 raphy to a higher level. 



