294 Scientific Intelligence. 



the scoriaceous appearance of the old lava-streams, and the tradi- 

 tion in the neighborhood that it was once in a state of eruption," 

 this mountain is classed by Mr. Milne in the group of still active 

 volcanoes (p. 113). 



Indications of approaching activity occurred on the 13th, when 

 there were the rumblings of light earthquakes. On the 15th, at 

 about 7 a. m., there was a more arousing disturbance, which was 

 followed by three earthquake shocks at intervals of ten minutes ; 

 then occurred a loud explosion the noise of which the people com- 

 pared to the report of thousands of cannon discharged simultane- 

 ously, accompanied by another terrible earthquake shock. A 

 " thick, black smoke" rose from the peak, and the region for eight 

 or ten miles around became enveloped in midnight darkness from 

 a shower of fine black ashes and suffocating sulphurous dust with 

 stones. At 10 o'clock a. m. the eruption was at its height, and at 

 4 p. m. it was finished. The number of people who lost their 

 lives, according to the official statement, was 518, besides 41 in 

 the hospital ; but this was partly by drowning owing to the sud- 

 den rise of the river Okawa. The flowing stream at the eruption 

 was a stream of mud. The mud and fine ashes covered the east- 

 ern and the northern side of the mountain, running down in 

 streams each half a mile wide to a distance of four or five miles. 

 Places one to two miles from the foot of the mountain suffered 

 little from the ashes or mud-streams. There was no flow of lava. 

 The eruption in all its features was of the explosive kind, much 

 like those of Krakatoa and Tarawera. j. d. d. 



2. American Geological Society. — During the recent meeting, 

 of the American Association at Cleveland, the question of estab- 

 lishing an American Geological Society, with reference to which 

 a committee had been appointed some years before, was favorably 

 discussed, and a provisional constitution and by-laws were ac- 

 cepted. Professor Alexander Winchell was chairman of the 

 meeting, and was continued as chairman of the committee of 

 organization. It was agreed that the Society should meet for 

 organization as soon as one hundred names were pledged. A 

 society for the free discussion of the many questions which inves- 

 tigations in various parts of the land are constantly bringing for- 

 ward, for the sake of mutual increase in knowledge, and for the 

 comparison and correction of views, is more needed in geology 

 than in any other branch of science. It cannot fail to be of great 

 service to the science and the members of the society. 



Further information may be obtained of Professor J. J. Steven- 

 son, University of the City of New York, Washington Square, 

 New York City, Secretary of the Committee. It is proposed to 

 hold the first meeting within the week before the first of January. 



3. Cambrian Trilobites from JOIglesiente in Sardinia ; by 

 Prof. Giuseppe Meneghini (from vol. iii, of the Memoirs of 

 the R. Comitato Geologico dTtalia. Firenze, 1888.) — Prof. Mene- 

 ghini describes in this paper, from the lower beds 2 sj:)ecies of 

 Olenus, 3 of Paradoxides, 5 of Conocephalites, besides mentioning 



