360 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 426. 



bottom lands, tte possibility of diverting water 

 to them, and the probable expense of their 

 reclamation. The average rainfall at Camp 

 Mohave is only 5.99 inches per annum, and at 

 Tuma it is 3.06 inches per annum, while the 

 temperatures are such as to provide twelve 

 growing months in the year. The Colorado 

 Eiver derives its principal source of water 

 supply from the melting snow on the high 

 mountains of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. 

 It reaches the stage of maximum flow — ap- 

 proximately 50,000 cubic feet per second — in 

 the months of May and June, when the de- 

 mand for irrigation is normally the highest; 

 its minimum flow — about 4,000 cubic feet per 

 second — occurs in the months of January and 

 February, at the time of least demand. The 

 opportunities for storage on this stream are 

 very great. The silts of the river are difficult 

 to handle in canals, but the fertilizing prop- 

 erties which they have are such that lands 

 irrigated with these muddy waters will never 

 require further fertilization. Mr. E. H. 

 Forbes, of the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion at Tucson, Ariz., who has made a study 

 of the silt in the Colorado Eiver, has pointed 

 out that this stream resembles the Nile in 

 many particulars. Like the great river of 

 Egypt, the Colorado is subject to an annual 

 summer rise sufficient to overflow the exten- 

 sive areas of its borders and delta lands. 

 These high waters are rich in fertilizing sedi- 

 ments, are exceptionally free from alkaline 

 salts, and come at an opportune time for 

 irrigation. Mr. Forbes maintains that when 

 the Colorado is understood and utilized as 

 successfully as the greater and better-knovsm 

 Egyptian stream, it will be recognized as the 

 American Nile — the creator of a new country 

 for the irrigator, the mother of an occidental 

 Egypt. 



UNIVERSITY AWD EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

 By the will of the late Professor Sylvester 

 Waterhouse, of St. Louis, Washington Uni- 

 versity received $25,000, and Harvard Uni- 

 versity and Dartmouth College each $5,000. 

 The bequest to Washington University is to 

 accumulate until the year 2000. 



Sir William Macdonald, of Montreal, has 

 donated a further sum of $4,500 to the Mac- 

 donald Institute at the Ontario Agricultural 

 College, Guelph, to complete the furnishing. 

 This makes a total of $175,000 given by Sir 

 William to this institute. 



S. M. Inman, of Atlanta, Ga., has given 

 $25,000 toward the proposed presbyterian uni- 

 versity to be erected in that city. 



The new library building given to Trinity 

 College at Durham, N. C, by Mr. James E. 

 Duke, was formally opened on February 23. 

 The dedicatory address was given by Mr. 

 Walter H. Page of New Tork. 



The Association of the Colleges and Pre- 

 paratory Schools of the Middle States and 

 Maryland will hold its next annual meeting 

 at Columbia University, November 27 and 28. 



At the mid-winter commencement of the 

 University of Nebraska, on February 16, 1903, 

 degrees were conferred as follows : Bachelors 

 of Arts, 17; Bachelors of Science, 7; Doctor 

 of Medicine, 1; Master of Arts, 1; Doctor of 

 Philosophy, 1. Eleven graduates were given 

 University Teachers' certificates. The thesis 

 presented by the candidate for the degree of 

 Doctor of Philosophy, Haven Metcalf, was 

 in botany, and consisted of a discussion of the 

 cause and nature of a disease of sugar-beets, 

 to which the name of ' sour rot ' has been 

 applied. 



The chair of physiology at the Harvard 

 Medical School, occupied by Professor H. P. 

 Bowditch, will hereafter be known as the 

 George Higginson Professorship. 



Dr. George B. Halsted, late of the Uni- 

 versity of Texas, has been elected to the chair 

 of mathematics of St. John's College, An- 

 napolis, Md., to succeed Professor John L. 

 Chew. 



Dr. Alexander Johnson, dean of the faculty 

 of arts and professor of pure mathematics, 

 and the Eev. Dr. J. Clark Murray, professor 

 of mental and moral philosophy, have resigned 

 their appointments at McGill University, to 

 take efiect September 1, 1903. They retire 

 in accordance with the pension scheme formu- 

 lated last year by the board of governors. 



