Miscellaneous Intelligence. 397 



in Natural History. The exercises will be concluded in the even- 

 ing with simultaneous exercises at the Museum of the Brooklyn 

 Institute, Eastern Parkway, and at the New York Aquarium in 

 Battery Park. 



3. Director United States Geological Survey. — On May first 

 Dr. George Otis Smith assumes the Directorship of the United 

 States Geological Survey, made vacant by the appointment of Dr. 

 Charles D. Walcott as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Dr. Smith was born in Hodgdon, Maine, Feb. 22, 1871, graduated 

 at Colby College and Johns Hopkins University, entered the 

 government service as assistant geologist in 1896, was appointed 

 geologist in 1901 and later made chief of the, section of 

 petrology. The publications of Dr. Smith relate chiefly to the 

 areal geology and petrography of Washington, Utah and Maine. 



4. JRicerche Lagunari : in charge of G. P. Mageini, L. de 

 Maechi, and T. Gnesotto, under the auspices of the Reale 

 Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. — The commission 

 appointed by the Venetian Institute to make a study of the 

 waters of the northern Adriatic (this Journal, xxi, 407) has 

 issued three bulletins : 1. Kelazione Preliminare, 12 pp., 2. 

 Mareometro Normale Lagunare, 17 pp., 2 pis., and 3. Mareografo 

 Normale Lagunare, 22 pp., 5 figs. Bulletin No. 1 explains the 

 commercial importance of a systematic study of the waters of 

 the Venetian coast, and gives an historical sketch of work previ- 

 ously carried out for the improvement of the local water ways. 

 The present plan is to make a study of the tides, waves, and 

 currents of the upper Adriatic, with especial reference to the 

 Gulf of Venice. Bulletins Numbers 2 and 3 describe the type 

 of instruments installed as tide gauges and give accounts of tests 

 made. The investigation has been carried far enough to indi- 

 cate satisfactory methods of collecting and interpreting data, but 

 no detailed results are as yet available. 



5. The River Pilcomayo ; by Gt-jtstnab Lange. Pp. 123, 

 with 22 illustrations and portfolio of detailed map in 7 sheets. 

 Buenos Aires, 1906 (Argentine Meteorological Office). — The 

 exploration of the Pilcomayo River from parallel 22° S. to the 

 Paraguay River was undertaken for the purpose of finding a 

 feasible commercial route from Asuncion to the Argentine col- 

 ony of Buena Ventura in the Gran Chaco. Observations in 

 latitude, variations in compass and, especially, hydrographic 

 measurements, were made in detail. Notes of types of forest 

 trees were also made. The river Avas found to be aggraded 

 throughout the entire extent and no bed-rock was seen. At the 

 rapids, and- elsewhere in the bed of the river, there is seen a 

 " somewhat undulating surface of a layer of impermeable hard 

 ' tosca,' which probably in remote times formed the bed of a 

 great lake of little depth which gradually was filled up by the 

 slime brought down by the upper rivers." At the Arroyo 

 Dorado the tributary streams are cutting back rapidly, perhaps 

 indicating a recent elevation at this point, and rafts ("raigones") 



