April 1, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



315^ 



two years ago, and the first visit to the fossil re- 

 gion was made last year by Professor Heilprin and 

 Mr. Wilcox of Philadelphia. About half of this 

 immense deposit is of an almost extinct class, and 

 the remainder is of gimilar material to tljat found 

 farther south, notably in the West Indies. Mr. 

 Dall considers this fossil deposit the finest yet 

 found in the United States. On Little Saratoga 

 Bay a rock was found in which there vvere frag- 

 ments of Indian pottery of rude workmanship, 

 showing that the occupation of Florida dates back 

 into the earlier ages. 



— The U. S. coast survey is about to begin 

 operations in the field, after a suspension of six 

 months. The following work has thus far been 

 mapped out by the superintendent. The geodetic 

 levelling party, consisting of Assistants J. B. 

 Weir, J. E. McGrath, and W. B, Fairfield, have 

 suspended work in Mississippi and Alabama, the 

 appropriation for its continuance being exhausted, 

 and have returned to Washington. This party 

 will take the field again in New York, and will 

 run a line of precise spirit levels around the main 

 harbor of New York, connecting all the bench- 

 marks and tidal stations with this line of levels, 

 and with the New York end of the transconti- 

 nental line. This line will also be connected with 

 the line of levels which extends up the Hudson 

 River from New York to Albany. A detailed 

 hydrographic survey of a portion of Baltimore 

 harbor will be commenced on the 1st of April by 

 Assistants W. J. Vinal and E. L. Taney, under 

 the immediate supervision of the engineer, N. H. 

 Hutton, of the Baltimore harbor board. All the 

 parties on the Pacific coast have received instruc- 

 tions to take the field, the appropriations being in 

 such condition that the work will probably be 

 carried on continuously from May 1 to Dec. 1 . The 

 telegraphic longitude parties in charge of Assist- 

 ants Edwin Smith and C. H. Sinclair are instruct- 

 ed to take the field between April 1 and 20. 

 Their first work will be the connection of David- 

 son's observatory, San Francisco, with Salt Lake 

 City. This promises an important link in the 

 longitude determinations of the Transit of Venus 

 station near Fort Selden in New Mexico. The 

 topographical and triangulation parties wUl take 

 the field on the coast of Maine about the first of 

 May, or earlier if the season permits. Three or 

 four topographical parties on the north side of 

 Long Island Sound are expected to fill in the few 

 gaps in the topography that now exist between 

 the shore-line and the New York, New Haven, 

 and Hartford railroad. Assistant J. F. Pratt and 

 Sub-assistant Fremont Morse have been instructed 

 to make a preliminary topographical reconnais- 

 sance of Washington Territory on the Pacific 



coast. A survey of this uninhabited, unapproach- 

 able, and almost unknown portion of the Pacific 

 coast is greatly needed. 



— There are sixty candidates for the fellowship 

 of the Royal society this year, about the average 

 number for the last four or five years. The coun- 

 cil will in April select fifteen of these for recom- 

 mendation to the society, and the election will 

 take place on the 9th of June. 



— The next session of the National academy of 

 sciences will be held in Washington, D.C., be- 

 ginning Tuesday, April 19, 1887, at 11 A.M. 



— Dr. R. N. Cust, well known for his valuable 

 linguistic and ethnological treatises, and particu- 

 larly for his works on the ' Modern languages of 

 the East Indies ' and the ' Modern languages of 

 Africa,' is preparing a similar work on the 'Mod- 

 ern languages of Oceania.' 



— A reproduction of part of the map in the first 

 bulletin issued by the New England meteorological 

 society was given in Science for Jan. 2, 1885. 

 Thirty-six observers then contributed to the soci- 

 ety's records. The number is now a hundred and 

 fifty. 



— For five years the Brookville, Ind., society of 

 natural history have given a course of free popu- 

 lar lectures. The course this year has thus far 

 been the most popular of the series. The follow- 

 ing lectures have been given this winter : Oct. 15, 

 ' The study of man,' by D. G. Brinton ; Nov. 26, 

 ' The intelligence of instinct,' by J. P. D. John ; 

 Dec. 17, ' World-building,' by George M. Maxwell ; 

 Jan. 14, 'The study of mythology,' by L. H. 

 Thomas; Feb. 4, 'Three weeks without watfr,' 

 by H. W. Wiley. The following lectures are yet 

 to be given : March 11, 'Life among the Japan- 

 ese,' by T. C. Mendenhall ; April 1, ' Our national 

 park,' by J. M. Coulter ; April 29, ' Agassiz,' by 

 D. S. Jordan. 



— Dr. Peale has brought together in his paper 

 on the mineral springs of the United States, 

 (Bull. U. S. geol. surv.. No. 32, Washington) an 

 immense amount of information about the min- 

 eral springs of this country. The list was formed 

 primarily to aid in the statement of the commer- 

 cial value of mineral waters as part of the miner- 

 al resources of the United States ; but it will have 

 a much wider usefulness than that would imply. 

 It is small praise to say that this list is the most 

 comprehensive that has yet been issued. The 

 most complete before this, that of the American 

 medical association, mentions about five hundred 

 localities ; while Dr. Peale has collected data as to 

 2,822 localities, including more than 8,000 springs. 

 Even this is necessarily an imperfect enumeration, 

 and must be regarded as ' preliminary to more de- 



