JULY 9, 1897.] 
of one of these parties, which will do the 
field work necessary to enable him to com- 
plete his monograph on the Yellowstone 
National Park. This was interrupted by 
his work on the Forestry Commission of 
the National Academy of Sciences last 
year. Professor Hague will survey the 
Absaroka Range, one of the most rugged 
and inaccessible of the Rocky Mountains. 
Dr. W. H. Weed will continue the study 
of ore problems, etc., in Montana. 
Mr. §. F. Emmons will be in Hurope the 
greater part of the season, but under his 
direction surveys of the Tintic mining dis- 
trict of Utah will go on. 
The Pacific region is covered by five 
parties, but the appropriation of $5,000 
made for work in Alaska was not passed in 
in time to be available during the present 
year. 
The paleontologic work is to be con- 
tinued on the same lines as during the last 
year. ‘‘Special attention,” says Professor 
Walcott, ‘‘ will be given to the identifica- 
tion of certain fauna and flora in the coal 
regions of the Appalachians and the Rocky 
Mountains, and a thorough study will be 
made of the Cretaceous fauna of Colorado, 
Texas and Kansas, and the Tertiary fauna 
of California and Oregon, with relation to 
areal and vertical distribution, for the pur- 
pose of aiding the geologist in the solution 
of problems in areal geology. This will re- 
quire that several members of the paleonto- 
logical force shall continue field work, 
either independently or in connection with 
geologic parties.” 
It is also proposed to continue the collec- 
tion and publication of data touching the 
mineral resources of the United States. Dr. 
D. T. Day has direction of this work, and 
$20,000 has been specifically appropriated 
for it. 
One hundred and seventy-five thousand 
dollars has been allotted for topographic 
surveys proper and $150,000 for forestry sur- 
SCIENCE. 
53 
veys, and the plan of work will not be 
changed in character and organization from 
that of last year, except that additional’ 
work is imposed by the survey of the forest 
reserves. 
The work of subdivision and topographic 
mapping in the Indian Territory is con- 
tinued under C. H. Fitch, with the same 
organization as last year. Mr. Fitch ex- 
pects to complete his field work by Decem- 
ber Ist, with the exception of the resurvey 
of the Chickasaw Nation, for which $141,- 
500 has been especially provided. 
THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
TuE Physical Society of London (or, as it 
is more generally called, the Physical So- 
ciety) was founded in 1874 and was the 
outcome of a movement set on foot by the 
late Professor Frederick Guthrie, at that 
time professor of physics in the institution 
now known as the Royal College of Science. 
Among the original members of the Society 
were Professor W. G. Adams, Dr. Edmund 
Atkinson, Mr. Crookes, Professor Carey 
Foster, Dr. Gladstone, Professor Guthrie, 
Mr. Haddon, Professor John Perry, Pro- 
fessor A. W. Reinold and Professor Tyn- 
dall. 
The purposes of the foundation were the 
receiving and discussing communications 
relative to physics, the exhibition of appa- 
ratus for physical research and of experi- 
ments illustrating physical phenomena and 
the publication of communications made 
directly to the Society and of other papers 
relating to physics. 
Through his official connection with the 
Royal College of Science, Professor Guthrie 
was able to secure the consent of the Lords 
of the Committee of Council on Education, 
who are the authorities having jurisdiction 
in the matter, to the meetings of the Society 
being held in the physics lecture room of 
the College of Science and to the use of the 
physical laboratory and apparatus of the 
