852 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 361. 



price of ore for the American steel manufac- 

 turers ; and this fact alone, regardless of any 

 superiority in methods, would give them the 

 advantage in foreign markets. In Europe at 

 the present time the situation as to the iron ore 

 supply, as to the demand for same, and as to 

 prices, is not greatly dissimilar to what it might 

 have been in the United States had no Mesabi 

 range been discovered to ease the demand for 

 old range ores and to lower prices. A great 

 basal factor, then, in the superiority of the 

 United States in the iron and steel trade is the 

 Mesabi iron range. The United States Steel 

 Corporation controls from 70 to 80 per cent, of 

 this raw material, and hence its future influ- 

 ence on the iron and steel trade of the world 

 may be conjectured. 



Professor Van Hise followed with a brief gen- 

 eral discussion of the world's past, present, and 

 future supplies of ores. He called attention to 

 the tremendous revolution in mining ores of all 

 kinds which has occurred in the past century, 

 and ventured the opinion that in the past fifty 

 years more ore has been mined in the world than 

 in all its previous history. 



The above papers were discussed by Professor 

 J. Morgan Clements. Professor Clements also 

 summarized the relation of the work which the 

 U. S. Geol. Survey has been doing in the Lake 

 Superior region, as well as in other mining dis- 

 tricts of the United States, to an intelligent ex- 

 ploration for ore deposits and the scientific 

 development of the same when they are found. 



A resolution of sympathy in memory of the 

 late Professor Nelson O. Whitney, of the En- 

 gineering Faculty of the University of Wis- 

 consin, presented by Professors J. B. Johnson, 

 F. E. Turneaure, and Louis Kahlenberg, was 

 adopted by the Club. L. S. Smith. 



THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION OF THE UNIVER- 

 SITY OP MISSOURI. 



The Association has elected the following oHi- 

 cers for the ensuing year : President, Professor 

 W. G. Brown ; Vice President, Professor C. F. 

 Marbut ; Secretary, Dr. Charles Thom ; Treas- 

 urer, Professor C. A. EUwood ; Chairman of 

 Executive Committee, Dr. C. M. Jackson. At 

 a meeting October 14, Professor H. B. Shaw dis- 

 played a series of lantern slides illustrating the 



important features of the largest and most 

 successful electrical plants in the United States. 

 At its regular meeting on the last Monday night 

 of each month a paper is presented embodying 

 some original work done by the author. At its 

 supplementary meeting held usually on the 

 second Monday night, a popular presentation 

 of some scientific subject offers each depart- 

 ment an opportunity to present matters of 

 general interest from any source. 



Chas. Thom, 



Secretary. 

 University op Missouri. 



the academy of science of st. louis. 



At the meeting of the Academy of Science of 

 St. Louis on the evening of November 18, 

 twenty-four persons present, the following sub- 

 jects were presented : 



Mr. F. C. Baker, some interesting molluscan 

 monstrosities. 



Dr. Stuart Weller, Kinderhook faunal studies. 

 III. The faunas of beds No. 3 to No. 7 at Bur- 

 lington, la. 



Professor William Trelease read an untech- 

 nical address on the progress made in botany 

 during the nineteenth century. 



One person was elected to membership in the 

 academy. 



William Trelease, 

 Recording Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 THE PYTHON IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



To THE Editor of Science : On August 9, 

 a python, probably Python natalensis, was found 

 in the grass on Presque Isle, Pa. , by three young 

 men from Erie who, as they supposed, killed it 

 and took it to the city. However, it revived 

 and was exhibited in the window of the Ti'ibune 

 bicycle store. On August 29 I measured and 

 weighed it. The length was about seven feet 

 four inches, greatest girth eleven and one-half 

 inches ; weight, seventeen pounds. That even- 

 ing it pushed away the wire netting from one 

 corner of its cage and escaped. It probably 

 took up its residence under a building in the 

 rear of the store, but had not been seen when 

 last I heard, October 14. Reports of the 

 liberation of large snakes in the vicinity of 



