724 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 358. 



Grama (Bouteloua oligostachya) , gray. 



Beard grass (Aristida sp.) light gray. 



Tickle grass (^Panicum capillare) , silvery 

 gray. 



Low bunch grass (Andropogon scoparius')', 

 as indicated above, this may fade out to a 

 dull gray. 



Cottonwood twigs (Populus deltoidea), 

 grayish-white. 



I may close this paper with a couple of 

 sections observed between Oxford and Min- 

 den, Nebraska. 



In the one case (Figs. 1 and 2) a ravine, 

 with moderately abrupt but regularly slop- 

 ing sides, was observed to have a central band 



Fia. 1. Ground plan of ravine, a, yellow ; b, red ; 

 c, gray ; d, red. 



(a) of yellow (switch grass) which occupied 

 the entire floor. On each side was a belt 

 (6) of red (bunch grass) which occupied 

 the lower and more sloping part of the side 

 of the ravine. On the shoulder of the 

 ravine, running down to the more precip- 



FiG. 2. Section of ravine ; a, yelloyr ; i, red ; c, gray; 

 d, red. 



itous part and back to the edge of the level 

 ground was a broader belt (c) of gray (buf- 

 falo grass and grama), and back, of this 

 again came the red of the bunch grass (d) 

 which colored the general surface of the 

 plain. 



In another case (Fig. 3) a gentle slope 

 with somewhat terraced surface was ob- 



served with a peculiar distribution of color. 

 There were three steps on the slope, each 

 not more than twenty to thirty centimeters 



Fro. 3. Section of terraced slope ; a, a, a, red ; 5, 6, 6 

 gray. 



in height, and a couple of meters apart, the 

 surface sloping gently from step to step. 

 On each ten-ace the upper edge near the 

 step (a) was red with bunch grass, while 

 the lower portion (6) was gray with Buffalo 

 grass and grauia. ' This was repeated ex- 

 actly upon each terrace, giving the whole 

 view a very singular appearance. 



Charles E. Bessey. 

 The University of Nebraska. 



RUDOLPH KOENIG. 



On the second day of October, 1901, Ru- 

 dolph Koenig passed away at his home in 

 Paris in his sixty-ninth year. He had been 

 in failing health for several years. 



Rudolph Koenig was born in Koenigs- 

 berg, Prussia, on the 26th of November, 

 1832. At his home he received nothing be- 

 yond the usual high school training given 

 in the local gymnasium, in which his father 

 was the teacher of mathematics and physics. 

 He went to Paris at the age of nineteen 

 years, and in the French metropolis he 

 spent most of his manhood. Here he be- 

 gan life as an assistant in the manufactory 

 of a celebrated violin maker, Vuillaume, 

 where he manifested unusual aptitude both 

 as a mechanician and as the possessor of 

 an extraordinarily delicate and correct ear 

 for music. Such leisure as he could com- 

 mand was devoted to the study of me- 

 chanics and physics. 



Within a half-dozen years the young 

 acoustician was enabled to undertake busi- 

 ness on his own account, having already 

 attracted the notice of men of science by 

 his ingenuity, patience and accuracy. In 

 1859 he issued his first catalogue of acoustic 



