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sand pump used in connection with a heavy drill (S) in boring an arte- 

 sian well at Nampa, Idaho, from a depth of 320 feet and beneath a 

 heavy lava sheet. Now, it is a fact that one of the best-known geolo- 

 gists (T) of the world chanced to visit Nampa while the boring was in prog- 



judgment respecting the undisturbed condition of the strata, and as there 

 was so little opportunity for Dr. Cresson to verify his conclusion, we may 

 well wait for the cumulative support of other discoveries before building a 

 theory upon it " ? 



(Note S) Mr. McGee introduces the phrase "in connection with a heavy 

 drill" in such manner as to lead the reader to think that Professor 

 Wright makes such a statement. Professor Wright says on page 297 

 (Man and Glacial Period) "the strata passed through included, near 

 the surface, fifteen feet of lava. Underneath this, alternating beds of 

 clay and quicksand occurred to a depth of 320 feet, where there ap- 

 peared indications of a former surface soil lying just above the bed 

 rock from which the clay image was brought up in the sand pump." A 

 heavy drill was used in the lava but not below. Does Mr. McGee think 

 that the heavy drill in the lava would destroy the image 250 feet below, 

 or does he actually suppose that a heavy drill is used in pumping quick- 

 sand? In the article in the Literary Northwest, p. 275, Mr. McGee, 

 with still greater disregard for facts, says, ' ' alleged to have been pounded 

 out of volcanic tuff by a heavy drill. ' ' 



The great antiquity given by McGee to the relics beneath the lava is 

 not Wright's mistake, but McGee 's in making the lava flow too old. 



(Note T) Was this "best known geologist of the world" Mr. McGee 

 himself, and did he fail to give the name through modesty? Impossible. 

 Mr. Kurtz, a gentleman of high reputation and well known by leading and 

 prominent men in Idaho and elsewhere, indignantly denies such state- 

 ment to anyone. The Nampa image was prominently introduced before 

 the world by Mr. Charles Francis Adams in 1889, and made the subject 

 of a careful meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, January 1, 

 1890, Professor Putnam presiding, and participated in by Professors Morse, 

 Scudder and Haynes with a long letter from Mr. Emmons, of the United 

 States Geological Survey (Proceedings Boston Society of Natural His- 

 tory, vol. xxiv, 1889, pp. 424, 450). It was prominently presented, with 

 illustration, in the New York Independent and the Scientific American, in 

 November, 1889. The Associated Press carried it throughout the country. 



