May i6, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



3or 



half's further ascent brought them to the foot of the three 

 highest pinnacles, which they calmly and systematically 

 climbed one after another. Although the state of the atmos- 

 phere and the physical strain of exertion remained the same 

 as on the previous ascent, yet this time they felt far less 

 exhausted because their condition morally was so much more 

 favorable. The central pinnacle reached a height of about 

 19,700 feet, overtopping the others by 50 to 60 feet. Dr. 

 Meyer was the first to tread, at half-past ten in the morning, 

 the culminating peak. He planted a small German flag, which 

 he had brought with him in his knapsack, upon the rugged 

 lava summit, and christened that— the loftiest spot in Africa — 

 "Kaiser Wilhelm's Peak." After having completed the 

 necessary measurements, the travellers were free to devote their 

 attention to the crater of Kibo, of which an especially fine 

 view was obtainable from Kaiser Wilhelm's Peak. The 

 diameter of the crater measured about 6,500 feet, and it sank 

 down some 600 feet in depth. In the southern portion the 

 walls of lava were either of an ash-gray or reddish-brown 

 color, and were entirely free from ice, descending almost 

 perpendicularly to the base of the crater ; and in its northern 

 half, the ice sloped downwards from the upper brim of the 

 crater in terraces, forming blue and white galleries of varying 

 steepness. A rounded cone of eruption, composed of brown 

 ashes and lava, rose in the northern portion of the crater to a 

 height of about 500 feet, which was partly covered by the more 

 than usually thick sheet of ice extending from the northern 

 brim of the crater. The large crater opened westwards in a 

 wide cleft, through which the melting water ran off, and the 

 ice lying upon the western part of the crater and the inner 

 walls issued in the form of a glacier. "What a wonderful con- 

 trast between this icy stream and the former fiery incandescence 

 of its bed! And above all this there reigned the absolute 

 silence of inanimate nature, forming in its majestic simplicity 

 a scene of the most impressive grandeur. An indelible impres- 

 sion was created in the mind of the traveller to whom it had 

 once been granted to gaze upon a scene like that, and all the 

 more when no human eye had previously beheld it. And cer- 

 tainly, as they sat that evening in their little tent, which they 

 finally reached at nightfall, after a most arduous return march 

 through the driving mist, and carried their thoughts back to 

 the expeditions of 1887 and 1888, they would indeed have 

 changed places with no one. After giving further details of 

 the expedition, Dr. Meyer said that- on Oct. 30 they sorrow- 

 fully bade farewell to Kilima-Njaro, the most beautiful and 

 interesting, as well as the grandest, region in the Dark 

 Continent. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 There are said to be at least a hundred thousand acres of 

 phosphate rook scattered through the western part of the State of 

 Florida. The deposits average ten feet in depth, and are rich in 

 phosphate of lime. 



— The new government dry-dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 

 which has been in process of construction a little more than two 

 years, was formally opened on the 10th instant, the double-turret 

 monitor "Puritan" being the first vessel docked. The dock is 530 

 feet long, with an extreme width of 130 feet 4 inches, and a depth 

 of 32 feet 8 inches. The depth of water over the gate-sill at the 

 entrance is 25 feet 6 inches at high water. The pumps have a 

 capacity of 80,000 gallons per minute, and can empty the dock, 

 when no vessel is in it, in an hour and a half. 



— Summer courses for 1890 at Harvard University in the follow- 

 ing-named subjects will be given : four courses in chemistry (viz., 

 general eleaientary chemistry, qualitative analysis, quantitative 

 analysis, and organic chemistry), a course in botany, two courses 

 in. physics (viz., elementary physics and a higher course in experi- 

 mental physics), two courses in geology (viz., an elementary 

 course given in Cambridge, and an advanced course given in the 

 field in New Y^ork, Connecticut, and Massachusetts), three courses 

 in French, two courses in German, two courses in field engineer- 

 ing (viz., topographical and railroad surveying), a course in physi- 

 cal training, courses in the Medical School. These courses are 



chiefly clinical, and are designed for graduates and advanced 

 students. For information concerning aU courses, except those 

 in the Medical School, address the secretary of Harvard Univer- 

 sity, Cambridge, Mass. For information concerning the courses 

 in the Medical School, address the secretary of the Harvard Medi- 

 cal School, Boston, Mass. 



— The "Princess Louise," which arrived at Victoria, B.C., 

 from Skidegate and way ports, on the evening of April 24, brought 

 news that on Feb. 24 an earthquake shock was felt on all the 

 islands around Skidegate, especially on the west coast of Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, where a few old shanties were levelled to the 

 ground. The totem-poles of the Indians shook like leaves, and in 

 some places the earth was cracked. The shock lasted for about 

 thirty seconds, during which time the Indians were wild with 

 fright. A number of them ran to the church and crowded in. 

 Since that time there have been about twenty different shocks, the 

 last one being on the 12th of April, although none were near as 

 severe as the first. A very slight shock was felt in the Skeena. 



— State Geologist Winslow of Missouri made a report, May 6, to 

 Gov. Francis, of the operations of his bureau during the month of 

 April. During the month the work of the survey progressed 

 most favorably, not having been interrupted by the variable con- 

 ditions of weather which caused serious hinderance during the 

 month of March. Excellent progress has been made in the de- 

 tailed mapping of the coal fields, so that now an area of over two 

 hundred square miles has been covered, and is ready to be plotted 

 on the linal sheet. Field-work in connection with the investiga- 

 tion of the zinc and lead deposits was suspended early in April, 

 and since that time Mr. Jenny and his assistant have been busy 

 preparing a report of their operations and results, which will be 

 published in a forthcoming bulletin. Early in April the investi- 

 gation of the clay deposits in the vicinity of St Louis was begun, 

 and a reconnaissance of the area including these deposits is com- 

 pleted, and some samples are collected. Work in Iron and other 

 south-eastern counties was interrupted in the early part of the 

 month, but since then has been prosecuted continuously, and 

 much has been accomplished in the systematic mapping of this 

 section of the State. The examination of the mineral waters of 

 the State has also made considerable advance. Springs have been 

 visited in Henry, St. Clair, Benton, and Johnson Counties, and 

 samples of water for analysis have been collected from a dozen 

 different localities. During the month, Bulletin No. 1, the first 

 publication of the survey, has been prepared, published, and dis- 

 tributed, nearly fifteen hundred copies having been sent out to 

 people in the State and elsewhere. Cases for the State cabinet 

 have been put up in one of the i-ooms of the survey, and are now 

 nearly in a condition to receive specimens. The collections of the 

 survey already include over eight hundred specimens. Some of 

 these have been prepared, and will be labelled for exhibit in 

 these cases. 



— Mrs. Isabel Mallon has been added to the editorial staff of 

 The Ladies' Home Journal of Philadelphia. Her new position 

 makes her the best-paid fashion- writer in the country. 



— Three cash prizes, of fifty, thirty, and twenty dollars respec- 

 tively, are offered by Public Opinion, the eclectic weekly maga- 

 zine of Washington, D.C., for the three best essays, not exceeding 

 two thousand words, on the subject "The Study of Current 

 Topics as a Feature of School, Academic, and College Education.' 

 The papers must reach Public Opinion prior to June 15, and the 

 award will be made by a committee of three well-known educa- 

 tors, to be selected and announced before the close of the compe- 

 tition. The prize essays will be published over the signatures o 

 the writers July 5. Particulars of the contest may be had by 

 addressing the editor of Public Opinion. 



— Bulletin No. 1 of the Missom-i Geological Survey, just issued, 

 contains a report of the State geologist, Arthur Winslow. and 

 an article by him on "The Coal-Beds of Lafayette County;" "The 

 Building Stones and Clays of Iron, St. Francois, and Madison 

 Counties," by G. E. Ladd; "The Mineral Waters of Saline 

 County," by A. E. Woodward; and "A Preliminary Catalogue of 

 the Fossils occurring in Missouri," by G. Hambach. This bulle- 

 tin is the first of a series to be issued at intervals. 



