260 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



same authors recently published (this Journal, xxxvii, 414), giv- 

 ing the data therein contained inconvenient tabular form. The 

 active investigations of the authors have served to fill out and 

 complete to a remarkable extent our knowledge of the optical 

 constants of many important species. 



14. Index der Krystallformen der Miner alien, von Dr. Victor 

 Goldschmidt, vol. ii, pp. 335-546, Berlin, 1890 (Julius Springer). 

 — The Nos. 6 and 7 now published, of Goldschmidt's great work, 

 include the species from Magnesite to Pyroxene, completing the 

 second volume. The completion of the third volume and thus 

 of the entire work is promised before the close of 1890. 



15. Report of the Royal Commission on the mineral resources 

 of Ontario, and measures for their development. 566 pp. 8vo. 

 Toronto, 1890 (Warwick & Sons). — This volume contains the 

 report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into and report 

 upon the mineral resources of the Province of Ontario and upon 

 measures for their development. The Commissioners are J. 

 Charlton, Chairman, Robert Bell, Wm. Coe, Win. H. Merrill, 

 Archibald Blue, Secretary. The report gives a sketch of the 

 geology of the Province with special reference to economic min- 

 erals, with notes on mines, locations and works visited ; also a 

 statement of the influence of commercial conditions upon mining 

 industry, mining laws and regulations, on the smelting of ores in 

 Ontario, etc. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Report of the 77. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for 1887. 

 514 pp. 8vo, with 42 maps and sections. — This Report contains 

 among its appendices, the following reports : H. Mitchell, on the 

 movements of the sands at the eastern entrance of Vineyard 

 Sound ; C. A. Schott, Fluctuations in the level of Lake Cham- 

 plain ; Lieut. J. E. Pillsbury, Gulf Stream Currents along the 

 Florida Straits; C. A. Schott, Magnetic work of the Greeley 

 Arctic Expedition ; H. Mitchell, on the results of the Physical 

 Survey of New York Harbor ; also a General Index to the pro- 

 gress sketches, illustrations, maps and charts, in the Annual Re- 

 ports of the Survey from 1844 to 1885, and a Bibliography of 

 Geodesy. The following facts are here cited : 



lake Champlain. — The greatest depth of Lake Champlain 

 is 402 feet, "and consequently parts of the bottom of this lake 

 descend 300 feet below the level of the Atlantic Ocean." The 

 lake is highest in May when it is 2*18 feet above the mean, and 

 lowest in September when it is 0'96 feet below it; it is above the 

 mean also in the months of March, April and June. 



The G-idf Stream. — On a transverse section of the Stream 

 between Cuba and Yucatan (" section DD") where the depth of 

 water at middle is over 1100 fathoms, the line of maximum veloc- 

 ity is situated about 5 miles east of the 100-fathom curve on the 

 Yucatan Bank, and the zero velocity is at or near the bottom ; 



