462 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 351. 



met at Clermont by MM. Glangeaud and 

 Giraud, and after visiting the department of 

 Puy de D6me explored Le Cantal under the 

 guidance of M. Boule. 



Dr. a. W. Nieuwenhuis has returned from 

 a two years' expedition across the unexplored 

 regions of Borneo, made under the auspices of 

 the Dutch government. Dr. Nieuwenhuis's pre- 

 vious expeditions to Borneo have yielded re- 

 sults of much zoological, geographical and eth- 

 nographic interest. 



Dr. H. F. Knowlton, of the U. S. Geolog- 

 ical Survey, has just returned from a trip, made 

 in company with Dr. John C. Merriam, of the 

 University of California, through the John Day 

 Basin, Oregon. The special object of the in- 

 vestigation was to secure collections of fossil 

 plants from the rich beds of the region, and also 

 of the vertebrate fauna of the recently differ- 

 entiated rattlesnake beds. Much valuable ma- 

 terial was secured. 



Dr. George A. Dorset, curator of the de- 

 partment of anthropology at the Field Colum- 

 bian Museum, Chicago, has returned from a 

 trip among the Hopi Indians of Arizona. 



Professor F. W. Putnam, professor of 

 Ameriqan archeology and ethnology in Harvard 

 University, is at present in California, where, 

 as last summer, he is looking into the case of 

 the Cavalaras skull. 



Dr. E. W. Allen, of the Office of Ex- 

 periment Stations, Department of Agriculture, 

 has recently returned from an extended tour 

 of the agi'icultural experiment stations in the 

 Northwest and Alaska. He finds that the 

 Alaska stations are meeting with encouraging 

 success in demonstrating the entire feasibility 

 of growing the vegetables necessary to supply 

 the needs of the local population, and in matur- 

 ing the cereal grains. He will recommend the 

 taking up of experiments in raising and feeding 

 farm animals to determine the extent to which 

 this is practicable with Alaska-grown products. 



Reports received from Professor C, C. 

 Georgeson, the officer in charge of the Alaska 

 experiment stations, who has just returned from 

 a trip to the interior and down the Yukon, are 

 exceedingl encouraging. New potatoes, cab- 



bage, cauliflower and other vegetables were 

 ready for the table early in August, and gar- 

 dens planted with a variety of annual flowers 

 were in full bloom. Rye and barley were 

 ripened this year at the station at Rampart on 

 the Yukon, with a fair prospect for oats and 

 wheat. Extensive tracts of land were found 

 on the lower Yukon which were covered with 

 a luxuriant growth of grasses, often six feet in 

 height, and apparently well suited to agricul- 

 ture. 



Professor John B. Smith, of Rutgers College, 

 is devoting a good portion of the present season 

 to the study of the mosquito question in New 

 Jersey. The occurrence of these insects in 

 great swarms along the coast, lessens the value 

 of shore property by many millions of dollars, 

 and some localities farther inland are rendered 

 almost uninhabitable. The object of the pres- 

 ent inquiry is chiefly to establish the distri- 

 bution of the various species that occur in the 

 state, their relative abundance and the general 

 character of the breeding places. It is in- 

 tended to make the facts so ascertain.ed the 

 basis of the report to go to the Legislature, 

 which will i)i'obably be asked to make a sub- 

 stantial appropriation to carry on the work in 

 a more thorough and comprehensive manner. 

 It seems probable that by cooperation of the 

 state and municipal authorities, aided by indi- 

 vidual effort in some cases, the pest can be 

 very materially reduced. It will require, how- 

 ever, a very careful study of the problem 

 before a comprehensive plan of campaign can 

 be formulated. 



Mr. William Campbell, B.Sc, F.G.S., a 

 graduate of and former instructor in metal- 

 lurgy and geology in Durham College of Sci- 

 ence, England, has been honored for the third 

 time by the award of an 1851 Exhibition Re- 

 search Scholarship. For the past two years 

 Mr. Campbell has been engaged in researches 

 upon the constitution of alloys, working in tl»e 

 laboratories of Sir William Roberts- Austen, at 

 the Royal School of Mines (London Univer- 

 sity), and at the Royal Mint. Mr. Campbell, 

 at the request of the commissioners by whom 

 the award is made, proposes to continue his re- 

 searches at Columbia University in Professor 

 Henry M. Howe's laboratory. 



