Apkil 17, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



639 



were 17.1 in Bournemouth, 18.2 in Hastings, 

 20.8 in Hornsey and in Bury, 21.3 in Halifax, 

 23.0 in Bradford, and 24.0 in Rochdale; the 

 highest rates were 36.4 in East Ham, 36.5 in 

 South Shields, 36.Y in Gateshead, 37.5 in St. 

 Helens, 37.9 in Wigan, 39.4 in Merthyr Tydfil, 

 and 41.5 in Rhondda. During the period 

 under notice 263,091 deaths were registered in 

 these seventy-six towns, corresponding to an 

 annual rate of 17.4 per 1,000 living. In Lon- 

 don the rate of mortality was 17.7 per 1,000, 

 while it averaged 17.6 in the seventy-five other 

 large towns, among which the rates ranged 

 from 8.6 in Hornsey, 10.9 in Hansworth, 11.5 

 in Walthamstow, 11.6 in King's Norton, 11.9 

 in East Ham and in Leyton, and 12.4 in 

 Bournemouth to 20.0 in Hanley, in St. Hel- 

 ens and in Manchester, 20.2 in Middlesbrough, 

 20.6 in Wigan, 22.5 in Liverpool, and 23.1 in 

 Merthyr Tydfil. The 263,091 deaths from aU 

 causes registered in these seventy-six towns 

 last year included 32,021 which were referred 

 to the principal infectious diseases; of these, 

 1,764 resulted from small-pox, 7,441 from 

 measles, 2,870 from scarlet fever, 3,924 from 

 diphtheria, 5,578 from whooping-cough, 2,336 

 from ' fever ' (principally enteric), and 8,108 

 from diarrhea. The death-rate from these 

 diseases averaged 2.12 per 1,000 in the seventy- 

 six large towns. 



The efforts of the hydrographic branch of 

 the United States Geological Survey are be- 

 ing directed to the discovery of sufficient water 

 to lead to the reclamation and habitation of 

 that area of the Great Plains lying west of 

 the prairies and east of the Eocky Mountains, 

 commonly knovsm as the High Plains. The 

 section is admirably suited to agriculture and 

 grazing except for its inadequate water sup- 

 ply, which is so uncertain that great areas of 

 fertile land lie quite uninhabited. This is 

 especially true of the regions lying between 

 the river valleys which cross it at wide inter- 

 vals. These broad intervalley plateaus are 

 practically waterless, but it has been discov- 

 ered that water may be had from underground 

 sources by wells and windmills, and it has 

 been demonstrated that, while the region may 

 not be largely reclaimable by irrigation, it 

 may be successfully used for grazing by cre- 



ating stock-watering points at comparatively 

 close intervals. It will, however, be difficult, 

 if not impossible, for the grazers to raise any- 

 thing besides fodder cane of the drought- 

 resisting varieties, such as KafSr corn. Vege- 

 tables and other products wiU, for the most 

 part, probably have to be grown elsewhere. 

 The river valleys, on the other hand, seem 

 destined to be extensively cultivated by ir- 

 rigation, the water for which will be pumped 

 from the gravels of the river beds, where an 

 underflow has been known to continue in the 

 summer season after the rivers themselves 

 have ceased to run. These areas will furnish 

 garden produce for the ranches on the plateau, 

 and in this manner make the region as a 

 whole habitable. The details of this investi- 

 gation, with exhaustive studies of the nature 

 of the underground waters of the High 

 Plains, appear in the Twenty-first and Twenty- 

 second Annual Reports of the United States 

 Geological Survey, the latter of which is now 

 in press and will soon be issued. 



VNIVEBSTTY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



On April 1 Governor Peabody signed a bill 

 giving to the University of Colorado two fifths 

 of a mill annually on the taxable property 

 of the state. This assures an income for the 

 present of $140,000 per annum, with an auto- 

 matic increase depending on the growth in 

 wealth of the state. The university has now 

 enrolled about 550 students. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie has offered to pay 

 the expenses of the students of Cornell Uni- 

 versity, who suffered from typhoid fever dur- 

 ing the recent epidemic at Ithaca. 



Mrs. Vail, wife of Professor Vail, has given 

 Hobart College $5,000 to establish a fund to 

 be knovsm as the Charles Delamater Vail 

 library fund. 



Three scholarships of $200, $150 and $125 

 are announced for the Harvard summer geo- 

 logical course in Colorado under Mr. C. H. 

 White. These scholarships are open to gen- 

 eral application frora teachers and students of 

 geology, whether now enrolled at Harvard 

 University or not. Applications should be 

 addressed to Mr. White, at the Eotch Build- 



