362 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 384 



metres; and deep pits, some 2 centimetres across, are observed in 

 spots where grains of olivine have probably dropped out. The 

 meteorite was largely made up of fine yellow transparent olivine, 

 resembling that of the famous Pallas iron, with a specific gravity 

 of 4.73. 



Taking the specific gravity of the iron at 7.6, and that of the 

 olivine at 3.3, we find that the Turner mound meteorite consists 

 of about three parts of olivine to one of iron. Several of the Kiowa 

 masses have about the same constitution. For comparison, see 

 the analyses of the olivine and iron from the Turner mound, ' here 

 given, and of the Kiowa meteorite, given above. 



Olfvine. 



Per Cent. 



SiO 40.02 



FeO 14.06 



MnO 0.10 



MgO 45.60 



99.78 



Iron. 



Per Cent. 



Fe 89.00 



Ni 10.65 



Co 0.45 



Ou tr 



10010 



When the Carroll County iron was described by the author in 

 the American Journal of Science (vol. xxxiii., March, 1887), it 

 was suggested that the pieces of the meteorite found by Professor 

 Putnam in the Miami movinds had probably been taken from that 



FIG. 4. —TURNER MOUND METEORITE. 



mass, since no other olivine meteorite had up to that time been 

 found in North America; while that of Carroll County contained 

 a large percentage of olivine, even greater than the Little Miami 

 specimen. Very little cutting had then been done on the Carroll 

 County mass; and it proved, on being cut, not to be a pallasite, 

 but a brahinite variety of meteorite. In the Little Miami valley 

 meteorite are embedded circular grains or crystals of olivine; 

 whereas that of Carroll County consists of a mass of olivine in 

 which the iron serves as a tilling between the ci'vstals. When a 

 section was cut from the Kiowa County material, however, there 

 appeared no doubt as to the identity of this fall with that of the 

 mass from which the ear-rings were made which were found in 

 the mound. In both the Kiowa County and the mound specimens 

 the body of the meteorite is iron, in which are embedded circular 

 masses or crystals of olivine. The fact that in connection with 

 the large Kiowa County masses a number of small portions, 

 weighing from half a pound to six pounds each, were found, 

 makes it very probable that a small mass, weighing perhaps three 

 or four pounds, had been conveyed by the Indians to the Ohio 

 valley. Probably the two ear-rings in the collection of Mr. War- 

 ren K. Moorehead, which were I'ecently found by him at Fort An- 

 cient, O., may have been made from a part of the mass weighing 

 767.5 grams, which is now in the Harvard University collection. 



I must here express my indebtedness to Professor F. H. Snow 

 for information, and particularly to Professor Robert Hay for aid- 

 ing me in procuring many of the meteorites and assisting espe- 

 cially to obtain exact data by visiting the place of finds, and to 

 secure the illustration ; as also to Mr. L. G. Eakins for making, 

 and to Professor F. W. Clarke of the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey for his courtesy in having made in the Survey Laboratory, 

 the analyses of the iron and olivine of the Kiowa County meteor- 

 ite. George F. Kunz. 



1 Kennicutt, 16th and 17th Reports of the Peabody Museum of ArchsDology, 

 p. 882. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer^ s name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith, 



Tlie editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



On request^ twenty copies of the number containing his communication will 

 be furnished free to any correspondent. 



The International Congress of Geologists. 



Will you kindly permit me to publish my correction of an er- 

 roneous statement on p. 461 of the last (May) number of the 

 American Naturalist? I fear that it will be quoted by other pe- 

 riodicals, to the injury of those who are quite innocent. The 

 statement is to the effect (1) th.t the director of the United States 

 Geological Survey, Major Powell, moved that the meeting of the 

 International Congress of Geologists appointed for Philadelphia 

 should be held in Washington ; and (2) that the motion was car- 

 ried in committee by the votes of members of the United States 

 Geological Survey, who were present in such numbers as to con- 

 stitute a working majority of the committee. 



The statement is particularly unfortunate, and unjust to Major 

 Powell, seeing that he was not the mover of the resolution, and 

 that he voted against it, after speaking against it, giving his rea- 

 sons why he was strenuously opposed to the congress meeting in 

 Washington. As a member of the American committee of ar- 

 rangements for the congress, I was present at the meeting in 

 Washington at which the voting took place, and can therefore 

 testify to Major Powell's opposition, both then, and afterwards in 

 conversation. Furthermore, I take upon myself the responsibility 

 of the change of the meeting-place of the congress from Philadel- 

 phia to Washington, if such a change occurs: for I made the first 

 motion; namely, that the local Philadelphia sub-committee (of 

 which I had been made, against my protest, chairman) be dis- 

 charged; which motion was carried. After some discussion, the 

 next motion was then made (not by Major Powell), not that the 

 congress should meet in Washington instead of in Philadelphia, 

 but that the secretary of the committee should be instructed to 

 express the sentiment of the committee (that the congress should 

 meet in Washington, and not in Philadelphia) to the secretary of 

 the executive bureau of the congress in London, in which alone 

 power was vested ad interim to discuss and decide such points. 

 It was understood, that, if a majority of the American committee 

 should express such a sentiment, the bureau abroad would be 

 pretty sure to order the change of place of meeting. Major Pow- 

 ell opposed such an expression of sentiment, and urged that noth- 

 ing should be done by the American committee to cause such an 

 action abroad. I myself urged that there were reasons for my 

 belief that a meeting in Philadelphia would be a failure, and 

 gave the reasons ; and I stand ready to repeat them, in Science 

 or elsewhere, if called upon to do so. What I wish to say here, 

 however, is that Major Powell, instead of advocating the motion 

 and getting it passed by the assistant United States geologists 

 present, opposed it, and would have defeated it if he could. In 

 fact, it was only passed by a vote of seven to three (if I recollect 

 aright), all the other members of the committee abstaining from 

 voting either for or against it. By rule of the committee the secre- 

 tary was then instructed to obtain by correspondence the votes 

 pro or con of all absent members, as, until this be done, the 

 chairman of the committee. Dr. Newberry, cannot declare the 

 motion either carried or lost. What the bureau abroad will then 

 do about it, no one knows. My own hope is that the bureau will 

 revoke the order for an American meeting of the congress, and 

 ■ appoint some European capital instead of either Philadelphia or 

 Washington. But, if there must be. a meeting next year in 

 America, I trust that the bureau will see the propriety of holding 

 it as usual in the capital of the country, which is also, in our 

 case as in Europe, the chief centre of physical science. 



, J. P. Lesley. 



Philadelphia, June 7. 



Counting Bacteria. 



I SHALL feel much obliged if observers who have had experience 

 with the different methods of counting bacteria in water will give 

 their views as to the most reliable method. 



Chicago, June 8. M. D. EWELL, M.D. 



