390 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



men were eithei* common slaves, hired freemen, soldiers, or convicts and prison- 

 ers. During the age of persecution, Christians were sent in thousands to the 

 copper mines of Palestine, and to the various mineral or stone mines of Cilicia,. 

 the Thebaid, and Cyprus; as after the taking of Jerusalem, the captive Jews were 

 in part condemned to work in the mines and quarries of Egypt. These poor 

 prisoners were all, like ordinary criminals on being condemned to the mines, 

 first beaten with rods. While at work, their feet were kept in irons; they had to 

 sleep on the bare ground, they were pinched in food, deprived of the use of the 

 bath, and were almost naked. In the subterraneous mines each workman bore 

 a little lamp, fixed to his forehead, to guide his footsteps and serve as a signal to- 

 others, while the air and stench of these ill-ventilated caverns were so great 

 that the ill-treated laborers often swooned away. Pliny tells how in his day 

 these poor creatures were kept hard at work day and night, many of them spend- 

 ing whole months underground without ever seeing the daylight; for the burdens 

 they carried on their backs they handed over to others, so that the last of the file 

 came near the mouth of the pit. 



The lecturer concluded with an eloquent passage from one of the letters 

 written by St. Cyprian, the great African bishop of the third century, in which 

 many of these particulars were set forth. It was, he said, inscribed to Nemesi- 

 anus, Felix and other seven, his fellow-bishops, likewise to his fellow-presbyters 

 and deasons, and the rest of the brethren in the mines. — Engineering and Mining 

 Journal. 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE GEOLOGICAL 



BUREAU. 



Major J. W. Powell, Director of the United States Geological Survey, has 

 transmitted to the secretary his annual report of the operations of that bureau for 

 the fiscal year ended June 30, 1884. 



The director says that altogether the topographic field work has been mater- 

 ially increased. The districts in which the work has been most expended are 

 the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic. It has been contracted in the South 

 Pacific and great basin districts. 



In the North Atlantic district the work of preparing a topographic map of 

 New England has been initiated, and a single party has taken the field. The 

 work in Massachusetts will be pushed with vigor. 



In the South Atlantic district triangulation has been continued in the south- 

 ern part of the Appalachian region^ and five parties have been kept in the field. 

 The areas arranged were comprised in the western part of Maryland, the north- 

 ern and southern parts of West Virginia, southwest Virginia, western North Car- 

 olina, and eastern Tennessee, and the entire area surveyed was about 19,750. 

 square miles. A large scale map of the District of Columbia and adjacent por- 

 tions of Virginia and Maryland has been commenced. In the Rocky Mountain 



