May 15, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



1%1 



amoimt of ground, with the result that most 

 subjects are treated very superficially. There 

 are 'also a great many inaccuracies. The 

 chapters on weather maps and on weather fore- 

 casting are on the whole the best. In no way 

 does ' The Weather ' rank with the meteorol- 

 ogies of Hann, Davis, Angot, van Bebber, 

 Mohn, Waldo and others. 



NOTES. 



There has recently been published a ' Cata- 

 log der in Norwegen bis Juni 1878 beobach- 

 teten Nordlichter, zusammengestellt von 

 Sophus Tromholt ' (Christiania, 1902. 4to, pp. 

 422). This catalogue was prepared for publi- 

 cation by J. Fr. Schroeter, of the University 

 Observatory, Christiania, Tromholt having 

 died on April 17, 1896. 



The volume on Meteorology of the ' Inter- 

 national Catalogue of Scieiltific Literature,' 

 published for the International Council of the 

 Eoyal Society, is now on sale. It numbers 

 about 200 pages, and costs 15 shillings. 



E. DeO. Ward. 



GENERAL JAMES T. STRATTON. 

 After fifty years of professional activity in 

 California, General James T. Stratton, the 

 well-known surveyor, died at his home in 

 Oakland on March 15. General Stratton was 

 born in the state of E'ew York in 1830, and 

 came to California in 1850. After mining 

 for a few years he resumed his professional 

 work in 1853 and made the first official survey 

 of the Alameda Encinal, at that time an un- 

 inhabited region. In 1858 he was elected 

 county surveyor of Alameda County and was 

 subsequently identified with the surveys of the 

 large land grants made by the Spanish and 

 Mexican authorities; through the knowledge 

 acquired in this connection, he became a rec- 

 ognized expert on such land grants, their titles 

 and boundary lines. He subdivided more of 

 these, in many cases, immense areas, than any 

 other surveyor in California. He also made 

 the first survey for a railway out of Oakland 

 by the way of Niles and the Livermore Pass 

 to Stockton; these surveys extended to Fol- 

 som, Placerville being the objective point. 



This work was done for an English syndicate ; 

 the project was, however, abandoned because 

 of the civil war. Later the rails were laid on 

 these lines by Stanford and his associates, as 

 the Western Pacific Eailroad Company, later 

 merged into the Central Pacific Eailroad 

 Company. 



In 1873 he was appointed United States 

 Surveyor General for California by President 

 Grant, resigning in 1876 on account of ill 

 health. Prom 1880 to 1883 he was connected 

 with the State survey general's office, and from 

 the latter date was engaged as a land attorney 

 till 1899. To General Stratton belongs the 

 credit of being the first to make an artificial 

 forest west of the Eoeky Mountains, he hav- 

 ing in 1869 planted some forty-five acres with 

 Eucalpytus trees of the species E. globulus 

 and E. viminalis. He was a public-spirited 

 citizen and quiet, unassuming gentleman. 

 Eob't E. C. Stearns. 



Los Angeles, 

 April 24, 1903. 



SCIENTIFIO NOTES AND NEWS. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie has offered to give 

 $1,000,000 for a building for the engineering 

 societies. It is to be situated in New York 

 City, and will provide an auditorium, a library 

 and headquarters for five engineering societies, 

 namely, the American Society of Civil En- 

 gineers, the American Society of Mechanical 

 Engineers, the American Society of Electrical 

 Engineers, the American Institute of Mining 

 Engineers and the Engineers' Club. 



EiNAL contracts have been signed for the 

 purchase from the Schermerhorn estate of the 

 site in New York City for the Eockefeller In- 

 stitute. The property acquired extends from 

 Sixty-fourth street to a line 50 feet north of 

 Sixty-seventh street from Avenue A to the 

 East Eiver. The price was about $700,000. 

 The work of construction on the main build- 

 ing will begin about August 1. 



Bt vote of its council the Astronomical and 

 Astrophysical Society of America will hold its 

 next meeting in affiliation with the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 at St. Louis during convocation week, 1903- 

 1904. 



