Febeuaey 26, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



363 



Mr. Trelease exhibited two hair balls removed 

 from the stomach of a bull in Mexico, and 

 showed that they were composed of the pointed 

 barbed hairs of some species of prickly pear 

 upon which the animal had unquestionably 

 fed. Attention was called to similar balls from 

 the stomachs of horses, which had been de- 

 scribed in 1896 by Mr. Coville, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 



Wm. Teelease, 

 Recording Secretary. 



THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



At the regular meeting of the Texas Academy 

 of Science, held in the chemical lecture room 

 of the University of Texas, at Austin, on Fri- 

 day, February 5, 1897, Lieutenant W. V. Jud- 

 son, U. S. A., presented a paper on 'The Im- 

 provement of Galveston Harbor. ' 



This important communication, by one of the 

 engineers in charge, dealt with the following 

 topics : (1) Introduction, The Problem in the 

 Case. (2) Physical Characteristics, etc. (3) 

 Early Operations. (4) Projectof 1880 and Work 

 there under. (5) Project of 1886. (6) Opera- 

 tions 1886-1891. (7) Continuous Contract Sys- 

 tem. (8) Contract with O' Conner, Laing and 

 Smoot. (9) Dredging. (10) Physical Results. 



In stating the problem, the speaker, after de- 

 fining natural harbors, briefly discussed ' bars,' 

 which he grouped into the following classes : 



(1) Drift Bars on- seaward side of passes into 

 areas embayed by sandy islands and peninsulas. 



(2) Drift Bars at the mouths of rivers emptying 

 into non-tidal seas. (3) Drift Bars emptying 

 into tidal seas. (4) Sediment Bars at the 

 mouths of delta-building rivers. The Galves- 

 ton Bars were assigned to class 1. The prin- 

 ciples governing harbor improvements were 

 next stated. Under Physical Characteristics, 

 Galveston Bay was described as an area of 

 water, consisting of 490 square miles, bounded 

 by the main land of Texas, Bolivar Peninsula 

 and Galveston Island. Two passes connect it 

 with the Gulf of Mexico : (1) San Louis, with a 

 cross-section of 20,000 square feet; (2) The 

 Principal Pass between Galveston Island and 

 Bolivar Point. Width of the gorge, 8,200 feet ; 

 depth, 0-50 feet. For purposes of deep draught 



navigation the first is unimportant, consequently 

 the improvements have been confined to the 

 latter. To give an adequate idea of this work, 

 it may be here stated that in 1867 there were 

 9 J feet of water on the inner bar of this pass and 

 11 feet on the outer. On January 1st, of the 

 present year, there were 25 feet of water at low 

 tide on both bars. 



The first attempt to improve Galveston har- 

 bor began with the congressional appropriation 

 of 1870. For ten or fifteen years thereafter 

 work was intermittently carried on as Congress 

 made appropriations. The present jetty system, 

 which has opened Galveston as a deep-water 

 port, was based on the ' Project of the Board of 

 1886,' which consisted of Generals J. C. Duane, 

 Henry L. Abbot and Cyrus B. Comstock. 



The following paragraph taken from Lieu- 

 tenant Judson's paper will give the reader some 

 conception of the magnitude of this, now vir- 

 tually completed, undertaking : "To build the 

 Galveston jetties there has been spent between 

 July, 1887, and January 1, 1897, 16,029,283.84. 

 There has been incorporated in the jetties 88,355 

 cars of clay and rock aggregating 17,544.31 

 cubic yards of clay and 1,800,672.90 tons of 

 granite and sandstone. To use a popular form 

 of illustration, if loaded on cars, the material 

 placed in the jetties since 1886 would form a 

 train reaching from New York City to Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, and if this material were piled uni- 

 formly over an acre of ground it would be 1,050 

 feet above its base. I can recall no other sin- 

 gle instance of work constructed by the hand of 

 man that embodies within itself such a mass of 

 material transported such a distance." The 

 haul for the sandstone was 130-206 miles ; for 

 the granite 294 miles. 



Mr. T. U. Taylor, professor of engineering 

 in the University ; Mr. Charles Corner, Engineer 

 of the Texas Railroad Commission ; President 

 Winston and others took part in the interesting 

 discussion that followed. 



Frederic W. Simonds. 



the geological club of the university of 

 minnesota. 



At the regular meeting on January 23d two 

 topics were presented by Mr. Charles P. Berkey. 



The first was an announcement of the oc 



