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SCIEJSCE. 



[Vol. VIII. , No. 183 



club of the association to Point Abino in company 

 of the Botanical club of Buffalo ; and excursion 

 of the Entomological club of the association to 

 Ebenezer in company of the home club ; evening, 

 receptions at different places. As another large 

 convention is held in Buffalo during the same 

 week, it will add greatly to the comfort of the 

 members to have the necessary rooms engaged 

 prior to their arrival, and notices to that effect 

 should be sent as soon as possible to the local 

 secretary. 



— The Pilot chart for August, jvist issued by the 

 Hydrographic office, contains information appro- 

 priate to the season : The tracks of tropical huri- 

 canes on their curved course into the temperate 

 zone drawn for eleven examples recorded in pre- 

 vious years. It is also announced that the charts 

 for the months of August, September, and Octo- 

 ber will contain brief accounts of the form and 

 motions of the troiaical cyclones that characterize 

 this season, and the signs of their approach ; of the 

 principles on which the rules for their avoidance 

 are based; and of points that need additional infor- 

 mation. Tlie first of these papers is printed on the 

 current chart. The slow progress made by a wreck 

 east of the Gulf Stream off Charleston is of interest ; 

 as is also the curious direct and retx-ogTade course 

 of the bark Rowland Hill in mid-ocean. The fol- 

 lowing tells a sad story : " Captain Maddox of the 

 British steamer Norseman reports passing close to 

 a raft and a heavy stick of timber, on July 13, in 

 latitude 42° 49' north, longitude 66° 0' west. The 

 raft, about twenty feet square, was strongly built 

 of heavy square timbers, stoutly lashed and 

 wedged, and had evidently been used by a ship- 

 wrecked crew." 



— The U. S. coast survey has recently issued 

 a chart of the approaches to New York showing 

 remarkable features of much interest to naviga- 

 tors. Among them is a mud gorge which ap- 

 pears to have been formerly an extension or con- 

 tinuation of the bed of the Hudson. It extends 

 from Sandy Hook out to the ocean basin, through 

 a sea-bed of sand. The earlier surveys showed a 

 number of mud holes off the entrance to New York 

 harbor, and these, from their depth and the 

 peculiar characteristics of the bottom, have long 

 served in some degree as guides to the mariner. 

 The recent re-survey of this locality with improved 

 facilities has developed the fact that instead of 

 detached holes there is a continuous gully. En- 

 signs Henry E. Parmenter and Walter O. Hulme 

 have been ordered to the Palinurus at Stamford, 

 Conn. Ensigns I. K. Seymour, C. M. Fahs, and 

 H. P. Jones have all been ordered to the Endeavor 

 to work on the re-survey of New York harbor. 



Naval Cadet R. Welles and Ensign A. W. Dodd, 

 the latter having been detached from the Gedney, 

 have been ordered to the Arago at her new station 

 on the Long Island coast. Ensign C. S. Williams 

 has been assigned to the Eagre for duty in Long- 

 Island sound. Lieut. Commander Brownson, 

 chief hydrographic inspector, will inspect next 

 week the work and vessels engaged in the survey 

 of Long Island Sound. Lieut. F. H. Crosley, 

 commanding the steamer Gedney, has been 

 granted two wrecks' leave of absence ; Ensign 

 J. S. Watters will be in charge of the work. 

 Lieut. J. E. Pillsbury, in command of the coast 

 survey steamer Blake, has been conducting an 

 interesting series of experiments in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, measuring by the aid of an instrument of 

 his own invention, the depth and velocity of sub- 

 ocean currents. Lieut. E. D. Taussig of the coast 

 survey, who has been conducting work off Cape 

 Mendocino, California, has been detached and 

 ordered home to await orders. The coast survey 

 operations of the steamer Hassler in that vicinity 

 have been attended with considerable difficulty 

 not to say danger, on account of the high seas in 

 that locality. Lieut. Commander W. N. Browmson, 

 U. S. N., hydrographic inspector, of the U. S. 

 coast survey, leaves Washington this week to in- 

 spect the work of the survey on Long Island 

 Soimd. 



— The Senate has passed the bill for the relief 

 of the party composing the Greely Arctic ex- 

 pedition. It appropriates $703.75 in lieu of com- 

 mutations for fuel and quarters and extra duty 

 pay to each of the nineteen persons composing 

 the party. It also provides that if any of the 

 nineteen persons shall have died prior to July 1, 

 1884, the allowance is to be computed to date of 

 death and the money paid to their families. 



— The history of the past two years seems about 

 to be re-enacted in Italy. Cholera has appeared at 

 Latiano. Francavilla, Venice, and Ferrara. Fiume 

 in Austria is also infected. 



— In the suit brought by the Society for the 

 prevention of cruelty to animals in Jersey City 

 against Dr. Beriah A. Watson to recover penalties 

 for cruelty to dogs in experimental surgery, 

 Justice Lane gave judgment against the doctor. 

 The case will be appealed. 



— Prof. William A. Rogers of the Harvard col- 

 lege observatory has been chosen to fill the chair 

 of physics at Colby university, Waterville, Me. 



— The U. S. S. Dispatch was ordered to sea 

 recently to find and sink four wrecks that have 

 been derelict for a long time and now reported 



