Apeil 23, 1897.] 



SGIENGE. 



659 



tropical surface currents setting southward are 

 largely turned away from the antarctic regions, 

 so only a scanty portion of the water from such 

 currents reach the frigid latitudes. And through 

 this cause the antarctic lands have become 

 heavily glaciated, and the glaciers are con- 

 stantly flowing into the sea. This process chills 

 the waters surrounding the antarctic shores and 

 causes them to sink and find their way to the 

 temperate and tropical latitudes in under cur- 

 rents. In this way all of the under-waters of 

 the oceans have acquired a low temperature, 

 and there is much to show that their coldness 

 is being slowly increased, and in consequence 

 a cold epoch is being brought about. There is 

 nothing hypothetical concerning the vast opera- 

 tions of nature which give support to this view 

 of the subject. For it is well known to the 

 navigators of the southern oceans that the belt 

 of strong westerly winds which sweeps the 

 southern seas causes a cold drift current to 

 move around the Antarctic Continent. And it 

 is also well known to science that the chilly 

 waters of the antarctic seas find their way to 

 the temperate and tropical latitudes in cold 

 under-currents. 



C. A. M. Taber. 



THE SMITHSONIAN TABLE AT THE NAPLES 

 STATION. 



In view of the necessary delay in connection 

 with several applications which have recently 

 been made for the use of the Smithsonian Table 

 at the Naples Station, it may be well to call the 

 attention of zoologists and botanists to the ' Re- 

 port on the Memorial presented to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution regarding an American 

 Table at the Naples Zoological Station,' printed 

 in Science, XXI., No. 641, June 16, 1893, pp. 

 328-329. 



Candidates will avoid delay in the considera- 

 tion of their applications if they will bear in 

 mind the following suggestions : 



1. Applications should be addressed to Professor S. 

 P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington, D. C, and not to the Secretary of the 

 Advisory Committee. 



3. The candidate should state his entire educa- 

 tional history, give a list of the papers he has pub- 



lished, and if possible send reprints of the same to 

 accompany his application. 



3. He should apply for a definite period of time, 

 not exceeding six months, and state the time of year 

 which will be most convenient for him to occupy the 

 table. 



4. He should give some definite statement as to the 

 general line of investigation he wishes to pursue 

 while at Naples. 



5. If a recent graduate and a person not thoroughly 

 known as an author, he should request his former in- 

 structors to write in bis behalf to the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



If the professors of zoology and botany in 

 the various universities will bear these sugges- 

 tions in mind they will greatly lessen the corre- 

 spondence and delay in connection with the 

 consideration of the applications from their stu- 

 dents and will at the same time forward the in- 

 terests of the applicants. 



Ch. Wardell Stiles, 

 Secretary Advisory Committee. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 An Introduction to Geology. By William B. 



Scott. The Macmillan Co. 1897. 



The author of this class-book has at- 

 tempted, and we think successfully, to provide 

 a brief but complete and sufficiently detailed 

 treatment of geology for the ordinary college 

 student. 



He has used as a basis the fuller standard 

 treatises on Geology, has taken as his model 

 Sir Archibald Geikie's ' Class-book ;' has written 

 it for American students, selecting examples 

 from American geology ; has illustrated the 

 work with reproduced scenes taken by Ameri- 

 can geologists, and has had help and sugges- 

 tions from other workers in special fields. The 

 result is, in general, a satisfactory book to put 

 in the hands of a class of students, and partic- 

 ularly well adapted, as it seems to the writer, 

 to supplement a course of lectures in a general 

 college curriculum. 



The arrangement of the chapters is not al- 

 together such as a teacher would naturally use, 

 and that some license is given to readjust the 

 chapters is suggested by the remark in the 

 preface : ' ' The order in which the different 

 sections of the book are taken up should de- 

 pend somewhat Upon the season of the year in 



