64 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 2? 



vestigation, to be made by D. F. V. Hayden. This was adopted 

 after a warm debate, and from this small beginning the present ex- 

 tensive and efficient organization known as the United States 

 Geological Survey took its origin, and its growth upwards was due 

 almost wholly during 1868 to 1872 to Stevenson's careful man- 

 agement. In 1867 and 1868 he again went with the annual expe- 

 ditions, the work during these two summers being chiefly in 

 Nebraska. In 1869 he took a trip along the eastern slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains in Colorado and New Mexico. In 1870 the 

 party went out on the Platte and into the Green River basin. 



In 1 87 1 Professor Hayden's party made the first geological sur- 

 veying trip into the Yellowstone Park; and Stevenson, as usual, 

 went along, acting as executive officer and general manager as well 

 as collector in his own field. They took a pack train at Bozeman 

 and an escort of cavalry from Fort Ellis. In 1872 the Hayden sur- 

 vey again went into the park, in two parties this time. They ren- 

 dezvoused at Ogden and divided ; the main party, under Professor 

 Hayden, going m from the north by Bozeman, as before. 



Stevenson went to Fort Hall and organized the Snake River ex- 

 pedition, which entered the park from the south by way of the 

 Teton Mountains. On this expedition he ascended the great Teton, 

 and nearly lost his life through slipping and falling several hundred 

 feet on the snow, but miraculously escaped, and persisted in an 

 effort to reach the summit, which he accomplished. It is not 

 known that any other white man ever set foot upon the peak. He 

 verified an Indian tradition by finding on the mountain-top an 

 ancient stone altar. 



He joined Professor Hayden's party at Yellowstone Lake, after 

 which they again separated, each going out in the direction by 

 which he had entered. 



The season of 1873 again found Stevenson in the field, collecting 

 and acting as executive officer for Hayden's surveying party in Colo- 

 rado ; and for the three following years his work was a repetition 

 of this experience, and in the same field. In 1877 they went to 

 Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, and in 1878 to Yellowstone Park once 

 more. On this trip Mr. Stevenson made a most complete collec- 

 tion of those specimens of the phenomena of the Geysers, which 

 may be seen at the Smithsonian and National Museum in Wash- 

 ington. 



In this connection it is worthy of mention that the first hydro- 

 graphic survey of the Yellowstone Lake, which was made in 1 871 

 and published by Henry W. Elliott, assisted by Campbell Carring- 

 ton, United States Geological Survey, names the largest island in 

 that remarkable body of water ' Stevenson Island,' and the loftiest 

 peak that overlooks it ' Mount Stevenson.' This was done by Elliott 

 in spite of Stevenson's strong disinclination to have it so recorded. 

 He was always modest and retiring in so far as his own individuality 

 was concerned. Thus his name is perpetuated by the largest 

 island in that beautiful lake and one of the highest peaks on the 

 east side of that famous park. 



In 1879 the Hayden Survey was disbanded, and the Bureau of 

 Ethnology was organized. Major Powell, the director, at once ap- 

 pointed Stevenson as a specialist in ethnological work, and he be- 

 gan an investigation, which has made him noteworthy, among the 

 Pueblos of the Rio Grande and at Zufii. During this year and the 

 next, and again in 1S81, he made an exhaustive collection of pottery, 

 costumes, and ceremonial objects. Among the rest, he secured 

 from the Zunis a complete collection of their animal fetiches held 

 sacred by them, and never before allowed to go out of their posses- 

 sion. During 1881 he also visited the Moqui Pueblo, making vast 

 collections of objects illustrating both the ancient and modern life 

 of the race. 



The annual report of the bureau for 1881 contains an exhaustive 

 descriptive catalogue of his collections among these Pueblos. 



In 1883 he was off again, this time to explore the remains of the 

 cliff and cave dwellers in New Mexico and Arizona at Canon de 

 Chelly and Cochiti, bringing back, among other things, two perfect 

 ancient skeletons found in the largest of the cave-dwellings of the 

 prehistoric inhabitants. From 1883 to 1885 he continued in this 

 work, and in 1886 he paid a visit to the Mission Indians of Cali- 

 fornia. By his familiarity with the inner life of these races he was 

 enabled to discover, that, although these Indians had been ostensibly 

 CathoHcs for two centuries, still at heart they were yet Pagans, 



and worshipped and sacrificed to the gods of their forefathers in 

 secret. 



During the trip of 1885 he contracted the worst type of that 

 peculiar ' mountain fever ' which is so well known and dreaded in 

 the high mesas of Arizona and New Mexico. He fought it off, 

 however, after a severe siege of illness. It was the first real sick- 

 ness that he ever had in his life, for he possessed a fine physique, 

 and was remarkably temperate and regular in his diet and living. 



Last year he returned to the New Mexico region, exploring and 

 collecting, and renewed that wretched fever which finally destroyed 

 the tissues of his heart, so that when he returned last December 

 he was literally prostrated. He made, however, an heroic struggle 

 for his life, and, growing worse as time passed on, he was advised 

 to go to Gloucester, Mass., to spend the summer, and was on his 

 way back from there, accompanied by his wife, when overtaken by 

 death in New York. 



His remains were taken to Washington, and after appropriate 

 ceremonies were interred at Rock Creek Cemetery, just outside of 

 the Soldiers' Home. 



It is to be regretted that he did not write more ; but the fact is, he 

 had little time for that purpose. But as an original investigator,, 

 whose results some other hand must record, he was and is justly 

 famous . 



He left some manuscripts, however, which will have a lasting 

 interest, one of which is upon ' The Mythologic Painting of the Na- 

 vajos,' which, with the rest, will no doubt appear in due time in the 

 publications of the bureau. 



Mr. Stevenson was a man of singular firmness and rare amiabil- 

 ity. He had an intuitive appreciation of men and what they really 

 amounted to. This faculty made him one of the most efficient and 

 prompt managers of the varied men of the survey, as they were de- 

 spatched into the field with their outfits every spring, and recalled 

 from it every fall. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS IN WASHINGTON. 

 A New Way of using Oil to calm the Troubled Sea. — How a Mound 

 was made ; Interesting Discoveries in Ohio by Mr. Gerard Fowke 

 of the National Bureau of Ethnology. — How the Monthly Pilo 

 Chart is made, and What it shows. 



Oil-Exploding Rockets. 



The pamphlet describing and explaining the exhibit sent to Cin- 

 cinnati by the Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department, which 

 is now ready for the printer, contains a description of an oil-explod- 

 ing rocket invented by Mr. W. Missel of the German steamer 

 ' Werra,' and forwarded by Lieutenant Cottman, U.S.N., in charge 

 of the branch hydrographic office, New York. The following ex- 

 tracts are made : — 



" It is stated that experiments have been made with this rocket 

 at sea and on shore which have proved very successful, particularly 

 those by the German life-saving stations. Trials were made during 

 a fresh wind and moderate sea off the mouth of the Elbe, and the 

 rockets were exploded outside the breakers, in the breakers, and 

 inside of the same. Outside the breakers, oiled areas of about three 

 hundred feet long and nearly one hundred feet wide formed and 

 calmed the sea very much, and remained a long time on the surface 

 of the water. Those which exploded among the breakers exercised 

 a remarkable quieting effect, and gave evidence of their value in 

 facilitating the handling of lifeboats in case of shipwreck, as the re- 

 sulting oil areas will enable the boat to get through the breakers 

 without shipping water. 



" A trial was made at sea on board the ' Werra ' by firing a 

 - rocket from the bridge directly against the wind. It flew directly 

 ahead against a wind whose force was 9, and the oil cylinder ex- 

 ploded in the water. The oil at once smoothed the sea, the heavy- 

 waves facilitating its rapid spread, and no seas were seen to break 

 within the oiled area. 



" Above the rocket composition the shell is prolonged 1+ inches 

 to receive the oil cylinder, which contains within it an exploding 

 chamber filled with powder. Some loose powder is poured on top 

 of the fuze composition, and the cylinder then shipped on the rocket. 

 The stick is weighted with lead to balance exactly, so as to prevent 

 trembling. All being ready, the rocket is set off from a tube, and 



