Miscellaneous Intelligence. 255 



vary greatly in interval, from a few hours to weeks and months, 

 there was rarely success, but sometimes twice in a day. The 

 Giantess, which is only 400 feet from the Bee Hive, has a large 

 basin without a cone or mound, and varies from 12 to 20 days in 

 its very copious and long-continued discharges, never was found 

 to yield to artificial methods of hastening action. With some 

 other geysers there was frequent success. 



Mr. Hague concludes that the acceleration of action takes 

 place when the waters are in a super-heated condition. He re- 

 marks that the experiments of Dr. William Hallock have shown 

 that this is a common condition in some geysers. " If in one of 

 these super-heated basins a handful of sinter pebbles be thrown, 

 or if the surface of the water be agitated by the rapid motion of 

 a stick or cane, or even by lashing with a rope, a liberation of 

 steam takes place, which is liable to be followed by a long boil- 

 ing of the water, and the boiling may lead to geyser-action. The 

 laundryman's spring is only a hot spring, and never acts as a gey- 

 ser without treatment with soap, — with one exception, in which, 

 stirring it vigorously with a pine bow for nearly 10 minutes, pro- 

 duced a play to a height of 20 feet. 



When soap is used the viscosity produced appears to be the 

 principal cause that hastens geyser-action. The waters are too 

 dilute and not of a nature to be chemically changed by the lye. 



Mr. Hague observes, in closing his paper that the desire of tour- 

 ists to soap a geyser during their trip through the Park grows annu- 

 ally with the increase of travel, so much so that there is a steady 

 demand for the toilet-soap of the hotels. If visitors could have 

 their way, the beautiful blue springs and basins of the geysers 

 would be in the suds constantly throughout the season. Throw- 

 ing anything into the hot springs is now prohibited by the gov- 

 ernment authorities. It is certainly detrimental to the preservation 

 of the geysers, and the practice cannot be too strongly condemned 

 by all interested in the National Reservation. 



2. Proceedings of the Colorado Society, vol. iii, Part I, 1888. 

 186 pp. 8vo. — This number of the Proceedings of the Colorado 

 Society contains among its articles, Mineralogical papers by W. 

 F. Hillebrand, H. S. Washington, F. F. Chisholm and S. G. 

 Eakins ; papers on the Denver Tertiary formation by W. Cross 

 and G. H. Eldridge; on the Tertiary Dinosauria in Denver beds, 

 by G. L. Cannon, Jr. ; on the Tertiary of the Huerfano River 

 Tertiary, by R. C. Hills; on the Quaternary of the Denver 

 basin, by G. L. Cannon, Jr. 



3. The Chemistry of Photography • by Raphael Meldola, 

 F.R.S. 382 pp. London and New York, 1889, (Macmillan & Co. 

 — Nature Series). — The perfection of modern methods in photog- 

 raphy has made the processes largely mechanical and reduced to 

 a minimum the necessity of a knowledge of its scientific princi- 

 ples. It still remains true, however, that the worker who will 

 attain the best success must have a thorough knowledge of the 

 chemistry of the various processes, such, for example, as can be 



