'258 Scientific Intelligence. 



being delimited by a 2500 contour line and lying within a much 

 larger basin also bounded b} T a 2500 line. This region, however, 

 lies outside of the present survey. 



Plates 15 to 91 are most excellent reproductions, by the Helio- 

 type Printing Company, from photographs of Sola y Gomez and 

 Easter Islands, the Gambier Islands and Chatham Island. These 

 give a good scenic idea of these little known lands and will be 

 valuable for futui-e reference. Numerous photographs of the 

 stone effigies of Easter Island are also given. It must be said, 

 however, that but little use has been made of many of the views 

 in this report, some being of minor scientific value and repeti- 

 tions being embodied of the same general landscape from slightly 

 different points of view. It is realized that the time spent at 

 these islands in coaling was brief and that land geology was not 

 an object of the expedition. Nevertheless this part of the report 

 would have been much improved by a fuller interpretation of the 

 physiography of the lands represented, with possibly sketches to 

 aid in interpreting certain of the photographs. 



It is noticeable that the topography of Easter Island is very 

 much softened, except in the case of a few of the craters, notably 

 liana Kao, 1327 feet high. The Gambier Islands, on the contrary, 

 as noted by Agassiz, show a greater degree of dissection and 

 especially many precipitous slopes, cliffs of 800 to 1300 feet rising 

 within a horizontal distance of an eighth to a quarter of a mile. 

 One of the most striking features however, as seen in the photo- 

 graphs, is a horizontal bench on the sides of Mount Duff at an 

 elevation of from 300 to 325 feet above the sea (see plates 57 and 

 64). This has all the appearance of an old sea beach facing a 

 cliff a thousand feet in height, but no mention is made of it in 

 the report. J. b. 



2. Carnegie Institution of Washington. Year Book, JVb. J/., 

 1905. Pp. vnr, 303, with 7 plates and 4 figures. Washington : 

 1906. — The Fourth Year Book of the Carnegie Institution con- 

 tains the usual statement in regard to the work that has been 

 carried forward through the year, and gives also brief reports 

 and abstracts of investigations that are now under way. Dur- 

 ing the year 1904-5 upward of $300,000 were devoted in large 

 grants to important investigations in eleven different subjects, 

 and §130,000 to about forty investigations of a minor grade. 

 The Executive Committee has reached the conclusion that the 

 policy of awarding numerous small grants is likely to break 

 down in consequence of the importunities of those seeking them 

 and the difficulty of the work of administration ; further such 

 awards are regarded as, in general, not for the real benefit of 

 the educational institutions concerned. On the contrary, the 

 larger grants are not thus open to criticism and they seem to be 

 those for which the available income can be most advantageously 

 devoted. Of new projects under consideration are mentioned : 

 an Astronomical Observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, and a 

 Laboratory for Geophysical research at Washington. There 

 can be no question but that the decision of the management is 



