SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, APRIL 6, li 



If the authors and publishers could remain in Washing- 

 ton for a month or two, and stir up the members of Congress about 

 once a week by way of remembrance, we believe that the inter- 

 national copyright bill might be passed during the present session. 

 During the week they were there, they found friends on every side, 

 some of them unexpected ones. The fact that all interests have 

 been harmonized ; that even the representatives of labor, whom the 

 politicians are more afraid of than any other class of people who go 

 to Washington with 'demands,' are satisfied, — has made a very 

 marked impression upon Congress. We hear from Washington 

 that the bill is very likely to pass the Senate before the adjourn- 

 ment, and to be reported favorably from the judiciary committee of 

 the House. It is doubtful if the latter body, already pretty deep in 

 the mazes of political legislation, and in less than two weeks to be 

 ■wrestling with the tariff bill, and annual appropriations, and a hun- 

 dred and one other topics, will have any time to devote to this 

 measure of simple justice. The principal trouble with the inter- 

 national copyright bill is that there is no politics in it. 



Mr. G. E. Goodfellow's report upon the epicentral region 

 of the Sonora earthquake, published elsewhere in this issue of 

 Scie7ice, is the first connected or at all complete description of it 

 that has yet been received in the United States. Some fragmentary 

 and disconnected accounts by the Mexican scientific commissioners 

 had been forwarded to the government through the State Depart- 

 ment, but these were so meagre and disjointed as to be of very lit- 

 tle value, except as supplementary to Mr. Goodfellow's report. The 

 latter, prepared as it was by a gentleman who makes no preten- 

 sions to scientific expertness, is considered at the United States 

 Geological Survey Office as a very remarkable and creditable per- 

 formance. It is rare that a report is received at that office from 

 any source, which gives evidence of so systematic, conscientious, 

 and thorough investigation, of such perfect freedom from precon- 

 ceived ideas or theories, and in which the results of an inquiry are 

 given with so much succinctness and intelligence. Mr. Goodfellow 

 has received many compliments at the Geological Survey Office for 

 his excellent piece of scientific work. 



The committees in charge of the memorial to Audubon have 

 selected a design, and are now actively engaged in endeavoring to 

 raise the necessary funds. The committee of the New York Acad- 

 emy of Sciences are associated with committees of the Torrey 

 Botanical Club, the Natural History Association of Staten Island, 

 the Audubon Society, the American Ornithological Union, the 

 Linnasan Society of New York, and the Manhattan Chapter of the 

 Agassiz Association. They have so far received only a small 

 amount of contributions, and are anxious to have the matter com- 

 pleted, so as to have the unveihng of the monument take place in 

 the early fall, if possible. The design for the monument is shown 

 in the annexed cut. It consists of a runic cross of North River 

 bluestone, which will be eighteen feet high above the base, mounted 

 on a pedestal which will be six feet in height. The cross will be 

 covered on both sides with designs of the birds and animals which 

 Audubon described, the selections being made by a special com- 

 mittee of the joint committees appointed for the purpose. The 

 base will have upon one side a bas-relief of Audubon, surrounded 

 iby the Florida water-lily, which he discovered and described. On 



one side will be his rifle and game-bag, he being one of the most 

 expert shots of his time. The other face will be filled by a suitable 

 inscription to his memory. The monument is to be placed in Trin- 

 ity Cemetery, at the foot of Audubon Avenue, and will be one of 

 the most beautiful monuments in any cemetery in New York. The 

 effect of the relief and carving upon the North River bluestone is 



such as to bring out the design, and at the same time give exactly 

 the same effect as the ornamentation of the old runic crosses. The 

 monument itself will cost ten thousand dollars. This does not in- 

 clude the erection of the vault, and the exchange of the new plot 

 for the old one, which has been kindly undertaken by the corpora- 

 tion of Trinity Church. Subscriptions may be sent to Dr. Britton, 

 Columbia College. 



