SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 71 
2. Astronomy. 
The April meeting of the Section was held on the 17th at the Normal 
School building. In the absence of the Chairman the Secretary pre- 
sided, and introduced the topic of discussion. The subject before the 
Section was the consideration of the Calendar, its history and the prin- 
ciples of its construction. 
In early times the month was a much more common unit of time 
measure than the year, and all matters relating to dates and seasons 
were in the hands of the priesthood, and much confusion resulted from 
the inaccuracy of their methods and the consequent necessity of inter- 
ealary days, introduced for the purpose of keeping the calendar correct. 
The Mohammedans still use a purely lunar calendar, having a year of 
twelve lunar months, containing alternately 354 and 355 days. 
On this account the same season does not recur at the same time of 
the year in successive years, and the calendar gains about one year in 
thirty-three, 
The Metonie cycle, named in honor of Meton, the Grecian discoverer, 
consists of 235 synodic months, or almost exactly 19 years. The ‘‘Golden 
Number’’ of a year is the place of the year in this cycle, and is found 
by adding 1 to the date number of the year, and dividing by 19. 
At the time of Julius Cesar the Roman calendar had become very 
inaccurate, and, by the aid of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, he 
formulated and decreed the use of the Julian Calendar, changing "the 
beginning of the year from March to January, lengthening it to 36514 
days, and naming what was formerly the fifth month in honor of him- 
self, ‘‘July.’? Augustus Cesar, not to be outdone by his illustrious uncle 
and predecessor, changed the name of the sixth month to August, and 
added one day to it at the expense of February. 
The system of adding one day in four years to supply the time lost 
by dropping the one-fourth of a day each year, resulted in an error of 
about three days every four hundred years; and at the time of Pope 
Gregory the error had grown to ten days. This condition of things was 
remedied by the dropping of ten days from the calendar in October, 1582 
and providing that, of the century years, only every fourth one should 
be counted a leap year. 
This method will keep the calendar practically correct for several 
thousand years. The Gregorian year has been adopted by all Christian 
countries except Russia, whose calendar is now twelve days behind that 
ot other countries. Russian dates are usually written double, as 7-19, 
to denote both the Julian and the Gregorian date. 
The discussion led to the consideration of kindred topics, and the 
Section felt that a profitable hour had been spent. 
MELVILLE DOZIER, Secretary. 
3. Geology. 
Los Angeles, Cal., April 24th, 1905, 
The Geological Section met at the State Normal School Building at 
8 p.m. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Geo. W. Parsons. 
Tenants ID Douglas Sovereign being indisposed was not present, but 
the chairman read his paper on “Gems and Curiosities of Southern 
California.’’ 
In the paper he stated that ‘‘hidden deep in the heart of the heat 
distorted Colorado Desert in San Diego County, guarded by the great 
naked buttes that frown down upon the intrepid prospector, is prob: ibly 
one of the richest of Nature’s unrifled coffers of erystaline wealth, and 
few fields in the world offer the gem hunter greater possibilities. ’ 
‘‘The finding of the richest and most productive known deposits of 
tourmaline erystals, the uncovering of the only known deposits of lilae- 
