OcToBER 1, 1897.] 
in Adobe Deposits in the Valley of Mexico,’ 
by Dr. Lumholtz and Dr. Hrdlicka ; it was 
presented by the junior author, and illus- 
trated by photographs, diagrams and tables. 
The skeleton presents several remarkable 
features which were described in detail ; in 
general it is of strikingly low somatic type. 
The characters, particularly of the skull, 
differ from those of the Aztec or Nahuatlan 
and approach those of other ancient inhab- 
itants of the same valley, especially the so- 
called Toltecs. The paper was discussed 
at length by Dr. Matthews, Professor Morse 
and others, the former pointing out, by ref- 
erence to many examples, the general fact 
that supposedly low somatic characters fre- 
quently result from the form of exercise de- 
termined by the habits of life of certain 
tribes; he referred especially to the olecra- 
non perforation, which he ascribes to the 
custom of grinding on the metate. Several 
papers were then read by title, and the sci- 
entific work of the section was brought toa 
close by a highly suggestive communica- 
tion on ‘The Genesis of Implement Mak- 
ing,’ by Frank Hamilton Cushing, which 
will appear elsewhere in this JouRNAL. 
The session was brought to an end within 
the last minute of the time allotted to the 
sectional work at the Detroit meeting, ev- 
ery moment of the working time having 
been occupied. In a vote of thanks to the 
presiding officer of the section, courteously 
presented by Miss Fletcher, special refer- 
ence was made to this activity; and in 
seconding the motion, ex-President Morse 
observed that, during the many years of his 
connection with the Association, he had 
never seen the sectional work performed 
with so great harmony and scientific zest. 
Anita Newcoms McGexz, Secretary. 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ZOOLOGICAL EXPE- 
DITION OF 1897. 
Tue results obtained by the zoological ex- 
pedition sent out by Columbia University 
SCIENCE. 
513 
in the summer of 1896 were so valuable as 
to warrant a second expedition to continue 
the examination of the waters of the north- 
west Pacific coast. It was decided this 
year to carry the exploration to Alaska and 
to examine new regions on Puget Sound, 
in the vicinity of Port Townsend. 
As before, the party obtained the most 
satisfactory rates from the Canadian Pacific 
Railroad, and it gives me great pleasure to 
say that the magnificence and grandeur 
of the scenery along the route is not the 
only recommendation for the road. The 
great care taken for the safety of their 
passengers, together with many courtesies 
and polite attentions which we received 
from every official with whom we came in 
contact, added greatly to the pleasures of 
the trip. 
I also take this occasion to thank Lieu- 
tenant Hetherington, U.S. N., of the Brem- 
erton Naval Station, for many courtesies 
shown us both before and after our arrival 
at Port Orchard. 
The original members of the party were 
G. N. Calkins (in charge), N. R. Harring- 
ton, B. B. Griffin, J. H. McGregor and F. 
P. Keppel. Professor E. B. Wilson and 
Professor F. E. Lloyd joined the party 
somewhat later. We reached Port Town- 
send, which again was to be our headquar- 
ters, on the morning of June 16th. There 
was little to be done at this time, for 
our experience last year had shown that 
few of the marine forms were ripe so early 
in the season. We added a few new spe- 
cies, however, to our collection of last year; 
among them were three siphonophores 
(Monophyes, Diphyes and Physophora); one 
ctenophore (Beroé); five medusz, one nu- 
dibranch molluse; one turbellarian, a liz- 
ard and a snake, but our attention was 
turned mostly towards our anticipated ex- 
cursions to Port Orchard, to Sitka, Alaska, 
and to Neah Bay. Owing to the lateness 
of the maturation-period in the cold waters 
