490 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 18. 



ence of mineralogy is added to the list, the 

 eminence which yon have attained is quite 

 exceptional. 



It is gratifying to know that your services 

 to the cause of science have obtained full 

 recognition from teachers and students of 

 science and from learned bodies in all civil- 

 ized countries. IS'one will question that the 

 honors which have thus been so abundantly 

 bestowed and so modestly received are well 

 deserved. The consciousness that the mo- 

 tive of your researches has been an unal- 

 loyed love of truth and an unselfish desire 

 to enlarge the bounds of human knowledge 

 must give to these testimonials all the value 

 that such marks of honor can ever possess. 

 We congratulate you that yoiir academic 

 relations both with fellow-professors and 

 with pupils have been so uniformly pleasant. 

 The classes which, in long succession, have 

 listened to your instructions, could their 

 voices be heard, would unite in expressions 

 of sincere respect both for the qualities of 

 character and for the talents and learning 

 of their revered instructor. But it is no 

 part of our purpose to enter into a detailed 

 statement of the reasons which render it 

 peculiarly agreeable for us, your old friends 

 and neighbors, to offer to you to-day our 

 heartfelt congratulations. Had it been 

 thought worth while to extend the list of 

 subscribers to this letter, no doubt all the 

 members of the teaching body in the Uni- 

 versity would gladly have added their 

 names. 



But our communication is simply in- 

 tended as an expression, from a few of your 

 older associates, of interest in this anni- 

 versary and of our earnest hope that the 

 blessing of a kind Providence may continue 

 to be with you and with the members of 

 your family. 



Very sincerely yours, 



Timothy Dwight, George E. Day, 

 George P. Fisher, George J. Brush, 

 "William H. Brewer, O. C. Marsh, Frank- 



lin B. Dexter, Edward E. Salisbury^ 

 William D. Whitney, Hubert A. New- 

 ton, Samuel W. Johnson, Daniel C. 

 Eaton, A. E. Verrill, Addison Van- 

 Name, Sidney I. Smith. 



COBBESPONDENCE. 

 THE distribution OF SLEDGES, ETC. 



Did anybody ever read or hear of sledges, 

 snowshoes or goggles for the eyes in aborig- 

 inal South America? I have traced the 

 skee entirely across Asia, the netted snow 

 shoe from the Amur around to Klamath 

 river, Cal., with extension throughout Can- 

 ada, New England and our northern tier of 

 States. The ice creeper for the foot covers 

 the region of my migration track from 

 sou^thern Kamchatka around to the Yukon. 

 The built-up sledge is everywhere in the 

 Hyperborean area of two hemispheres, the 

 form depending on the exigencies of timber 

 growth. The great broad skee or snow shoe 

 of the Amur is the flat toboggan of the 

 Dominion of Canada. 



Otis T. Mason. 



U. S. National Museum, April 20. 



SCIENTIFIC LITEBATVRE. 

 Memoir of Sir Andrew Cronibie Ramsay. By 



Sir Archibald Geikie, Director of the 



Geol. Surv. of Great Britain and Ireland. 



London and New York, Macmillan & Co. 



1895. Pp. X + 397. 



This is really a charming book and ought 

 to be read not only by every geologist, but 

 by every one interested in the story of a 

 noble life. Indeed, the memoir of such a 

 man as Kamsay by such a writer as Geikie 

 could hardly be otherwise than deeply in- 

 teresting. 



Kamsay's career overlaps on the one hand 

 with the old heroic days of the founders of 

 English Geology — Lyell, Buckland, Sedg- 

 wick, Murchison, De la Beche, etc., and on 

 the other with modern times and modei-ii 

 methods. He shared with the former tlie 



