June 11, 1897.] 



SGIENGE. 



927 



mining plants will soon be in successful opera- 

 tion in the State. The recent reports of 

 the State Geological Survey have shown 

 that low-grade gold ores occur in large quan- 

 tity at several localities in Alabama, and, 

 since the success of the operations at Idaho 

 has been fully demonstrated, the attention of 

 capitalists has been directed to this inviting 

 field. 



Dr. Eugene A. Smith gave a short account of 

 his recent visit to northwestern Texas for the 

 purpose of inspecting again the sulphur deposits 

 of that region. He exhibited some photographs 

 taken by him which gave a good idea of the 

 character of the scenery there. 



Mr. Charles Geohegan gave to the Society 

 some statistics concerning the relative cost of 

 making mining engines and other mining 

 machinery in Birmingham and in cities farther 

 north. 



Mr. J. W. Sibley read an instructive paper on 

 the manufacture of vitrified brick, illustrating 

 his remarks with a number of specimens of the 

 crude material in various stages of its prepara- 

 tion and of the finished product. The material 

 used in this manufacture is a gray shale, occur- 

 ring in the Coal Measures of this State, in the 

 vicinity of Coaldale, in Jeff'erson county. 



Mr. Brewer then gave a report upon his suc- 

 cess in the collection of the statistics of mineral 

 production in Alabama, under the auspices of 

 the State Geological Survey and this Society. 

 He announced that for the past mouth he had 

 succeeded in collecting statistics of about 95;^ 

 of the total production, and said that he hoped 

 to be able to have complete returns in the 

 course of a few months. The statistics are col- 

 lected monthly and sent out to the technical 

 journals of the country and to the leading news- 

 papers of the State. 



Mr. Paschal Shook made the statement that 

 the Birmingham Steel Mill Company were 

 building two forty-ton basic open-hearth fur- 

 naces, which would probably be finished in the 

 course of two months. They expect to be able 

 to furnish steel billets to all the rolling mills of 

 this section. 



In his address the retiring President, Mr. F. 

 M. Jackson, urged upon the members of the 

 Society to exert themselves to increase the 



membership and with it the influence for good 

 of this Society. 



Oflicers for the ensuing \ ear were elected as 

 follows : President, Truman H. Aldrich, of 

 Birmingham ; Vice-Presidents, J. W. Minor, 

 of Thomas, and J. A. Montgomery, of Bir- 

 mingham. 



Eugene A. Smith, 

 Secretary. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHING- 

 TON. 



The 264th regular meetingof the Society was 

 held Tuesday, May 18, 1897. Professor Otis T. 

 Mason exhibited a peculiar shaped boat from 

 the Kootenay river, which in bow and stern 

 was not unlike the modern ram or monitor, 

 having a double point under water. The little 

 model had been in the Smithsonian for forty 

 years and was said to be an exact representa- 

 tion of the boats in use along certain parts of 

 the Columbia river. It is made of the whole 

 skin of the pine tree, and thus differs from the 

 birch-bark canoe, which is made of pieces. This 

 is reversed, so that the bast is outside and the 

 bark inside ; the ends are then drawn together 

 and cut obliquely or with a slight curve from 

 above downward, causing the bottom to pro- 

 ject at either extremity, forming a point. 



A line drawn across the Mercator map to 

 Asia will strike the Amoor river, where practi- 

 cally the same style of boat is found, and the 

 question was raised whether it showed contact 

 or independent origin, and from the great re- 

 semblance it was thought the former, showing 

 the migration of canoe forms from Asia to 

 America. 



Professor Mason premised these remarks by 

 an outline upon the evolution of the boat. In the 

 study of progress, water travel divides itself into 

 flotation and navigation, the former meaning 

 simply keeping above the surface, the latter 

 including the higher problem of movement in a 

 determined direction. Kavigation includes the 

 two elements of the hull and of the mechanism 

 of movement. Propulsion may thus be repre- 

 sented: 



[ C as in swimming, pol- 



Muscular, man or beast, < ing, paddling. row- 

 Propulsion \ I ing or cordeling. 

 ■Dv,„„!nni f wind . Sail, steam 



I ^''5'=^'=''' land electricity. 



