734 
discussions of university education in Germany, 
will, we regret to learn, be suspended, owing 
to lack of financial support. The Hochschul- 
Nachrichten will, however, be continued at a 
cost of 6 Marks per annum. 
In the address on behalf of the faculties of 
the University of Chicago at the dedication of 
the Yerkes Observatory, described elsewhere in 
the present issue, President Harper gave details 
regarding the cost of the equipment. There 
was first of all the forty-inch objective, the 
greatest and last work of its maker, Alvan G. 
Clark. This objective cost, when finished, 
$66,000; the equatorial mounting, and the dome 
and rising floor cost $55,000 and $45,000 respec- 
tively. To these there must be added, as dis- 
tinct gifts, the 30-foot dome for the southeast 
tower which cost $7,000, the 26-foot dome and 
mounting of the Kenwood telescope; likewise 
the stellar spectrograph, constructed by Mr. J. 
A. Brashear, costing $3,000. Besides all these, 
the building with its piers for the instruments, 
its steam-heating plant, engines, dynamos and 
motors, the cost of which has been in round 
numbers $135,000. Acknowledgment was also 
made of three additional gifts which had al- 
ready come to the Observatory: The grounds 
- on which it has been built, consisting of 55 
acres valued at $50,000, a contribution of Mr. 
John Johnston, Jr. ; the instruments and equip- 
ment of the Kenwood Observatory, presented 
to the Yerkes Observatory by Mr. William E.- 
Hale, and the gift of Miss Catharine Bruce, of 
New York City, of $7,000, for a ten-inch pho- 
tographic telescope with building and dome. 
Mr. H. C. Cooper writes us from Heidel- 
berg calling attention to a curious exhibition of 
paternalism on ‘the part of the University. All 
students doing laboratory work, and even at- 
tending experimental lectures in chemistry or 
physics, are required to take out an accident insur- 
ance policy covering accidents occurring in the 
exercises. Students entirely disabled are to 
receive $500 per annum, with a corresponding 
allowance for lesserinjuries. The risk is prob- 
ably not as great as outsiders may suppose 
from this regulation, as the premium for lecture 
courses per semester is only two and a-half 
cents. 
SCIENCE. 
LN. S. Vou. VI. No. 150. 
Proressor J. A. UDDEN, of Augustana Col- 
lege, Rock Island, Ill., writes us that Dr. N. 
O. Holst, of the Geological Survey of Sweden, 
has lately had two years’ leave of absence from 
his work on the Survey for the purpose of study- 
ing the new gold fields in western Australia. 
After leaving this southern continent he visited 
New Zealand, China, and Japan, and then re- 
turned by way of Canada and the United States. 
He has seen the ancient Australian glacial de- 
posit which is supposed to belong to the Per- 
mian age, and he says there can be no doubt but 
that it is an indurated boulder-clay. Its age 
may possibly be somewhat later than heretofore 
supposed, but not so much later as to detract 
from the importance of its bearing on the sub- 
ject of geological climate. In the semi-desert, 
where Dr. Holst spent most of his time, the 
wind did not appear to him to be of any great 
importanee as a geologicalagent, although dust 
storms are sometimes reported from the new 
towns on the border of the desert. One of the 
Australian geologists has lately made some in- 
teresting observations on what resembles a tidal 
action of the ground water in the sandy region 
in the interior. The water rises and falls at 
regular daily intervals, and the oscillations ap- 
pear to be too great to be explained as resulting 
from the daily variations in atmospheric pres- 
sure. 
A CORRESPONDENT writes to the London 
Times that the site of the prehistoric Celtic lake 
village near Glastonbury has been further ex- 
cavated since July last, under the superintend- 
ence of the discoverer, Mr. Arthur Bulleid. The 
sites of the dwelling are marked by mounds. 
One of these contained the greatest depth of 
clay yet found, no less than 9 feet; the accumu- 
lation of successive hearths which were found 
necessary as the weight of the clay gradually 
compressed the peat beneath. This mound con- 
tained 300 tons of clay, all of which must have 
been brought in their boats by the inhabitants 
from the neighboring hills. Under the mound 
was found the framework of a loom with brush- 
wood and wattlework to form the foundation. 
That the inhabitants were much engaged in 
spinning is clear from the fact that, in addition 
to other things connected with the craft, no 
fewer than forty horn and bone carding combs 
