322 Scientific Intelligence. 



important. The richest soils of the country are in general the 

 driest ones, and while private enterprise has done and is doing 

 much to develop water resources and has reduced to cultivation 

 much of this dry land, a more comprehensive study of the matter 

 is needed. Waters are still running to waste that are needed for 

 power and irrigation ; tunnelling has developed considerable 

 water and might develop much more with the help of better geo- 

 logical information ; the conservation of storm waters is still in 

 its infancy. While the Survey Department is not equipped for 

 the study of this matter, it is in a position to cooperate with and 

 assist any survey, Federal or Territorial, that might be intrusted 

 with this important work." 



3. The Bureau of Science, Manila. — The Fifth Annual Report 

 by Dr. Paul C. Freer of the Philippine Bureau of Science for 

 the year ending August 1, 1906, has recently been issued. It 

 will be remembered (see xxi, 336) that the Bureau in its pres- 

 ent form has resulted from the merging of the Bureau of Mines 

 with that of Government Laboratories, which took place at the 

 close of 1905. This arrangement gives a wide scope to the work 

 done by the Department, and a summary of this is given in the 

 present paper. In its systematic woi'k the Bureau aims to inves- 

 tigate the distribution and nature of the fauna and flora, and also 

 the geologic and petrographic resources of the islands. There 

 are, further, divisions of biology, of chemistry, and of serums and 

 prophylactics, in all of which much useful work has been done. 

 The division of Mines is immediately engaged in the investi- 

 gation of the coal areas, which promise in the future to satisfy 

 the local needs of the islands and. make them independent of the 

 present Japanese supply. The occurrence of asbestus deposits 

 of considerable magnitude is also alluded to. The Philippine 

 Journal of Science has now completed its first year, more than 

 fulfilling the promises made at its start. In consequence of 

 the widely diverse character of the papers included, the advisa- 

 bility is suggested of publishing in three independent sections, one 

 for biological work connected with tropical diseases, a second for 

 general scientific papers, and a third for systematic botany and 

 botanical subjects. 



4. Bulletin of the Imperial Earthquake Investigation Com- 

 mittee. Volume I, No. 1. Pp. 51, with 15 plates. Tokyo, 1907. 

 — The Japanese Earthquake Investigation Committee has re- 

 cently inaugurated the publication of a Bulletin which is to serve 

 as a quick method of presenting short notes and preliminary re- 

 ports on subjects which should be given to the public without 

 delay. The present number, the first of the series, contains six 

 papers by Dr. F. Omori. One of these deals with the time of 

 the occurrence at the origin of a distant earthquake, another with 

 the methods of calculating the velocity of propagation of earth- 

 quakes, and two others are given to the San Francisco earthquake 

 of Api'il, 1906 ; the first discussing its cause, and the second the 

 seismographic observations. 



