Fbbruaky 4, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



10^ 



when once begun, the thawing and breaking-up 

 of the ice on a large river proceed more rapidly 

 than on a smaller one. This retardation is 

 greater on the Volga than on any other river in 

 Russia. On the major part of its middle and 

 lower course it remains unfrozen for more than 

 thirty days after the temperature has fallen 

 below 0*, and it does not open in the spring 

 until at least fifteen days after the temperature 

 rises to that point. 



To-day, at the yearly meeting of the Academy 

 of sciences, a commemorative gold medal was 

 presented to Gen. N. M. Prjevalsky. O. E. 



St. Petersburg, Jan. 10. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At the last meeting of the board of regents, two 

 assistant secretaries were appointed to aid the sec- 

 retary in the work of the Smithsonian institution. 

 Prof. S. P. Langley of Alleghany City, Penn., was 

 appointed as assistant secretary in charge of ex- 

 changes, publications, and the library ; and Prof. 

 G. Brown Goode. as assistant secretary in charge 

 of the national museum. 



— The Cincinnati society of natural history pre- 

 sents an unusually attractive course of free popu- 

 lar scientific lectures the present season. This is 

 the sixth course, and the subjects are as follows : 

 ' Climate, plant-Hfe, and consumption,' Dr. W. A. 

 Dun ; ' Deep-sea explorations,' Joseph F. James ; 

 ' The moon,' J. G. Porter ; ' The retreat of the 

 ice and the evolution of Lake Erie,' E. W. 

 Claypole ; ' The U. S. fish commission,' Her- 

 bert Jenney ; ' Forestry,' R. H. Warder ; ' Sun- 

 spots,' Amos R. Wells ; ' Gas as a fuel,' N. 

 W. Lord ; ' Glaciers and earthquakes,' J. W. 

 Hall; 'Primeval man,' E. D. Cope; ' Bird- 

 life,' F. W. Langdon. The firstlecture was given 

 on Jan. 14, and the others follow at intervals of 

 one week. The society is unusually active this 

 year, and is in a prosperous condition. A lyceum 

 for young people has been inaugurated , and ninety 

 names are now enrolled. The object is to interest 

 children in the study of natural history, and there 

 is every reason to believe the plan will succeed. 

 In addition to these, a course of lectures on physi- 

 ology, by Dr. C. E. Caldwell, to the school-teach- 

 ers, is being given. Sixty have been enrolled, and 

 each lecture has been well attended. 



— The recent election in the California academy 

 of sciences held in San Francisco resulted in the 

 election of the following officers : president, H. 

 W. Harkness ; first vice-president, H. H. Behr ; 

 second vice-president, G. Hewston ; corresponding 

 secretary, H. Ferrer ; recording secretary, Charles 



G. Yale ; treasurer, John Dalber ; librarian, Carlos 

 Troyer ; director of the museum, J. C. Cooper ; 

 trustees, Charles S. Crocker, T. P. Madden, J. M. 

 McDonald, E. L. G. Steele, S. W. HoUaday, Dr. 

 Hayes, and E. J. Molera. Prof. George Davidson, 

 who had been president of the academy for fifteen 

 years, was not re-elected. By the will of the late 

 James Lick, the academy will receive two hundred 

 thousand dollars, a portion of which wiU be de- 

 voted to the erection of a new building. 



— Consul Bissinger, at Beirut, in a recent re- 

 port to the department of state, says that the pre- 

 liminary and experimental borings in the extensive 

 oil regions on the littoral of the Red Sea are being^ 

 pushed forward with unabated vigor by the Egyp- 

 tian government. An efficient staff of geologists, 

 mining engineers, and other experts from the 

 United States, Great Britain, and Belgium, are 

 busily at work, ably seconded by experienced 

 assistants from the American and Russian oil- 

 fields. Improved machinery and mechanical ap- 

 pliances of every description have recently been 

 landed at the newly constructed harbor situated 

 about two miles north-north-east of the petroleum 

 wells. These wells are pools of a black-looking,., 

 bitumen-like substance, which emit an unmistak- 

 able odor, and scent the desert air for miles 

 around. The whole district, from Gemsah in the 

 south to over twenty miles north of Djebel Teyt, 

 presents every indication of the presence of oil ; 

 and when it is remembered that oil was ' struck ' 

 at a moderate depth at the first boring, and a 

 * flowing well ' was produced at a greater depth at 

 a subsequent boring, there is every reason, it is 

 claimed by those having devoted much time and 

 thought to the subject, to beKeve that the fields 

 contain petroleum deposits in such abundance as 

 to fully justify the immense expenditures ven- 

 tured in the elaborate preliminary operations by 

 the Egyptian government. A more recent report 

 announces that well No. 1, at Gemsah, is now 

 spouting pure, heavy petroleum at a depth of 125 

 feet. 



— The house library committee has made a 

 favorable report on the resolution providing for a 

 joint committee of five senators and eight mem- 

 bers to consider the expediency of holding, in 

 1892, an international exhibition of the industries 

 and products of all nations, to be held at Wash- 

 ington in 1892, to commemorate the four hun- 

 dredth anniversary of the discovery of America. 



— An amendment will be added to the sun- 

 dry civil biU in the senate, constituting the secre- 

 tary of state, the secretary of the Smithsonian 

 institution, and the librarian of congress, a com- 



