February 2, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



191 



illustrated the anatomy of the 'true ear' in jelly- 

 fishes, mollusks, birds, fishes, snakes and 

 vertebrates. An interesting discussion fol- 

 lowed this paper in which Messrs. Kingston, 

 Evans, R. B. Whjte, besides the lecturer, took 

 part. 



Mr. Andrew Halkett of the Marine and Fish- 

 eries Department, then read his paper ' On 

 Gannets and Cormorants, with special refer- 

 ence to Canadian forms.' His paper was full 

 of interesting notes of observations in the field 

 and on the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific 

 in British North America. 



(1) ' Note on the Occurrence of Remopleuri- 

 des in the Upper Trenton (Ordovician) of Ot- 

 tawa, Canada ; (2) ' On a new species of Tur- 

 rilepas from the Trenton limestone of Governor's 

 Bay, Ottawa, Canada,' are the titles of two 

 brief papers presented by Dr. H. M. Ami. 

 Brief descriptions of each were given and the 

 salient points of dftference between them and 

 their nearest allies indicated. The Remopleu- 

 rides is new and nearer B. Canadensis, Bilhngs 

 of the Chazy, whilst the Tarrilepas (opercular 

 valve) is distinct from the only form known 

 from the Ordovician of the Ottawa Valley, viz.: 

 Tarrilepas Canadensis Woodward, described in 

 1880, from the Utica formation. 



Dr. Ami then drew the attention of the mem- 

 bers present to Professor W. H. Hobb's paper 

 'On the Diamond Field of the Great Lakes,' 

 a subject of considerable importance, and gave 

 an abstract of the results reached from a care- 

 ful scientific enquiry into the facts relating to 

 the eight specimens of diamonds discovered in 

 glacial and other gravels of Wisconsin, Ohio and 

 Michigan — in material which came over dur- 

 ing the glacial period from Canada. This paper 

 was illustrated with lantern slides as was also 

 the next ' On the Principal Places of Geologic 

 Interest about Ottawa,' in which several inter- 

 esting sections were given and the attention 

 drawn to work still remaining to be done. 

 Mr. A. E. Barlow's paper ' On the Bridge- 

 water Conglomerates,' was taken as read 

 owing to the absence of the author from town. 

 Interesting discussions took place on the 

 specimens exhibited at the meeting and other 

 points of interest in connection with the papers 

 read. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



BUCKLEY ON THE BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL 



STONES OF WISCONSIN.* 



Professor Merrill's review of this book I 

 have read, f and in some respects it seems to 

 me to do an injustice to Dr. Buckley. 



A State Geological report may be reviewed 

 from the point of view of the citizens of a state, 

 or as a report primarily designed for scientists. 

 It is the latter view which Mr. Merrill, who is 

 connected with a national institution, has nat- 

 urally taken. The book is objected to upon 

 account of its size. This criticism is perfectly 

 justified from the point of view of general 

 science. However, the citizens of the State of 

 Wisconsin interested in the stone industry de- 

 sire detailed descriptions and tests of the stones 

 furnished by each of the important quarry cen- 

 ters of the State. Therefore the publication of 

 this material is fully justified in a State report. 

 Of course, the reader who is interested only in 

 science may omit this part of the subject. 



In respect to crushing strength tests, of 

 which Mr. Merrill speaks so lightly, whether 

 he is right or not in reference to their useless- 

 ness, they must be made in order to promote 

 the building stone industry in a state, for the 

 strength of a stone is one of the questions which 

 an architect invariably asks, and therefore one 

 which the owner of the quarry must be able to 

 answer provided he wishes to put his stone on 

 the market. 



Moreover, beside being justified on account 

 of the local value. Dr. Buckley's strength tests 

 do contain material which is of general scien- 

 tific interest. For instance, Dr. Buckley finds 

 that a number of the limestones of Wisconsin 

 have the enormous crushing strength of 30,000 

 to 40,000 pounds per square inch (p. 392). 

 Also a number of granites in Wisconsin have 

 crushing strengths which run between 40,000 

 and 50,000 pounds per square inch (p. 390). 

 The strengths of these rocks are unparalleled 

 by any previous rocks tested. They therefore 

 have an important bearing upon the general 

 scientific question of the depth of the zone of 

 fracture. 



* Bull. No. IV. Economic Series No. 2. Wiscon- 

 sin Geological and Natural History Sur%'ey. 1898. 



t Science, N. S., Vol. XI., No. 262, pp. 24-25. 



