94 
The latter lacks illustrations, but has a soil 
map. 
DUNGENESS FORELAND. 
Dr. F. P. Guttiver continues his 
studies on Cuspate Forelands (Bull. Geol. 
Soe. Amer. VII., 1896), by a study of 
Dungeness foreland, on the southeastern 
coast of England, one of the best examples 
of its class ; having read his paper on this 
subject at the Liverpool meeting of the 
British Association in 1896 (London Geogr. 
Journ. IX., 1897, 536-546). He gives a 
restoration of the initial shore line of the 
region, and outlines of successive stages in 
the growth of the foreland, whose cusp has 
grown eastward and outward during its en- 
largement. It now projects about ten 
miles into the channel from the original re- 
entrant of the coast; near the apex the 
shingle ridges or ‘ fulls’ indicate the lines 
of progressive growth with much clearness. 
It is noted that English sailors have recog- 
nized forms in other parts of the world 
similar to this homé example, and have 
applied the home name to two widely sepa- 
rated forelands; one in Puget Sound, the 
other in the Strait of Magellan. 
A FAULT LINE IN AFGHANISTAN 
An account of the southern borderland 
of Afghanistan by Captain McMahon (Lon- 
don Geogr. Journ., I[X., 1897, 392-415) in- 
eludes a description of a remarkable fault 
line, along which the topography of a 
growing displacement is visible. It was 
examined for a distance of 120 miles, on 
an almost direct course a little east of 
north, near the southeastern corner of 
Afghanistan; a well defined broad line of 
deep indentation, in many places as dis- 
tinct as a deep railway cutting. It ran 
for a time along the border of the Registan 
plains, then obliquely traversed two moun- 
tain ranges, cutting the crest of one near 
its highest peak. Springs are common 
along it, and for this reason as well as be- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Vor. VI. No. 133. 
cause it forms a short cut across mountain 
spurs, the depression is commonly used 
as a thoroughfare. Igneous rocks form 
the country to the west, and sedimentaries 
lie to the east of the fault line. During 
the lifetime of the older natives, on the 
occasion of three severe earthquakes, deep 
fissures appeared along the depression, 
and the springs increased in volume. The 
line crosses a frontier railway near Chaman, 
beyond Quetta. A severe earthquake on 
December 20, 1892, opened a fissure where 
the fault crossed the track, distorting the 
rails, and lessening the distance between 
Quetta and Chaman by 24 feet. All the 
region is desert—bold, barren mountains, 
stony slopes, shifting dunes, alluvial and 
saline plains; many camels died in McMa- 
hon’s trip across it. 
W. M. Davis. 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
PROFESSOR ALFRED M. MAYER, the eminent 
physicist, died at Maplewood, N. J., on July 
13th, aged sixty-one years. 
On the recommendation. of Hon. Chas. D. 
Walcott, acting Assistant Secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution, in charge of the U. 8. 
National Museum, an important change has 
been made in the administration of the Museum. 
Three sections have been organized—a section 
of anthropology, a section of biology and a sec- 
tion of geology, each having a head curator 
with an annual salary of $3,500. Dr. W. H. 
Holmes has been appointed head curator of an- 
thropology; Dr. Frederick W. True, head 
curator of biology, and Dr. George P. Merrill, 
head curator of geology. Dr. True and Dr. 
Merrill are already connected with the Museum, 
and it is expected that Dr. True will continue 
to act as the executive curator. Dr. Holmes 
leaves the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 
to accept this position, but was formerly con- 
nected with the U. 8. Geological Survey and 
the Bureau of Ethnology. 
THE Berlin Academy of Sciences made, at its 
last meeting, awards for scientific purposes 
