October 1, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



293 



each day one of the wmdows in his house rattled 

 in the most violent manner. On consulting the 

 local railway time-table, he could find no train 

 rimning at the hour specified ; but on examining 

 another table, which included a separate line, he 

 found, that a heavy train passed at the time at a 

 distance of several miles from his house. He then 

 referred to the geological formation of the ground 

 between the two points, and at once saw that 

 there was an outcropping ledge of rock which 

 formed a link of connection between the distant 

 railway line and his home. It was the vibration 

 carried by this rock from the passing train that 

 rattled the window. 



A REMARKABLE LAND-SLIDE. 



The U. S. geological survey has learned from 

 Mr. C. W. Cross, engaged in field-work at Denver, 

 Col., the particulars of a remarkable land-slide 

 near Cimarron, Gunnison county, which was de- 

 scribed in the local papers as an earthquake. 

 Professor Farnham, -of the Nebraska state normal 

 school, who chanced to be in the neighborhood, 

 had personally visited the scene of the supposed 

 earthquake ; and when he called upon Mr. Cross, 

 and described the appearance of the region, the 

 fissures formed, etc., the latter inferred that a 

 serious disturbance must have occurred along the 

 line of faulting on the west side of the Trident 

 mesa, indicated on the Hayden maps. As soon 

 as practicable, Mr. Cross went to Cimarron. He 

 found the locality about nine miles south of tbat 

 town, on the east side of the west fork of the 

 Cimarron River. Between the two forks of the 

 Cimarron is a mesa capped by eruptive rock, the 

 valleys on either side being eroded out of creta- 

 ceous rocks, apparently the clays of the Colorado 

 group. The area mvolved extends from the base 

 of the cliffs of eruptive rock forming the top of the 

 mesa, down the slopes toward the valley bottom, 

 nearly to the edge of the belt of timber. Such a 

 crumpling of the surface had taken place, — 

 throwing down forests in inextricable confusion, 

 pushing the ground up into ridges, and leaving 

 fissure-like depi-essions, — that the assumption by 

 untechnical persons of an earthquake as the cause 

 was not sui'prising ; but, after a two-days' ex- 

 amination, Mr. Cross satisfied himself that there 

 had been no earthquake, but a remarkable land- 

 slide, involving an area of nearly two square miles. 

 It was evident that the surface of the ground had 

 become loosened from the underlying clay beds, 

 probably in consequence of the sepage of water, 

 and that a movement of the area, starting at its 

 upper end, had been thereby instituted in the 



du-ection of the mesa. The lower portion having 

 moved less, or not at all, the ground there had been 

 most thoroughly ridged, fissured, compressed, and 

 overlapped, in such a manner that trees had been 

 overthrown, little ponds drained and new ones 

 formed, and the courses of small streams changed. 

 Ranchmen living near by had preceived no tremor 

 or other evidem^e of earthquake disturbance, nor 

 could they tell when the movement took place ; 

 but they agreed in saying that the rainfall had 

 been unusually heavy. Evidences were found of 

 similar land-slides of earlier date, at various places 

 along the valley, and it seems clear that such 

 slides must have played an important part in shap- 

 ing out the valley depression. 



THE 1886 PRINCETON SCIENTIFIC EXPE- 

 DITION. 



After a most successful working season of over 

 ten weeks, the Princeton scientific expedition has 

 returned from its explorations in the Bridger beds, 

 south-western Wyoming, and the White River 

 country, north-eastern Utah. It will be remem- 

 bered by those familiar with the history of bad 

 land explorations that this is the sixth expedition 

 that Princeton has sent out to the west. Since 

 1877, Prof. W. B. Scott and his coadjutors have 

 worked in the Bridger beds and Bitter Creek 

 country of Wyoming, in the Wliite River of Da- 

 kota cormtry, in the Yellowstone region, and now 

 in the White River basin in Utah. The result is 

 that the Princeton museum has now a splendid 

 collection of American fossils, less complete, it is 

 true, than Professor Marsh's collection at New 

 Haven, but in some important respects quite equal 

 to it. 



The expedition this year started in June last, 

 under Professor Scott's personal direction ; but, 

 after the first two weeks, he was obliged to return 

 east, and Ms place as leader and director of the 

 work was taken by Mr. Francis Speir, jun., of 

 Princeton (1877), who has had wide experience in 

 the western bad lands. Mr. Speir had under his 

 command seven men (mostly Princeton students), 

 a gaiide, and a cook. 



Fort Bridger was the original base of supplies, 

 and the first working camp was on Henry's Fork, 

 an important tributary of Green River, about 

 thirty-five miles south of the fort. Work was 

 begun near the spot where a fine skull of Uinta- 

 therium was found last year, and careful search re- 

 sulted in exhuming the remainder of the skeleton 

 nearly complete, and in excellent preservation. 

 Twin Buttes, a spot some thirty miles to the east, 

 was the second working camp, and in that vicin- 

 ity was found an extraordinarily perfect skeleton 

 of Mesonyx ; and it is believed that Princeton will 



