184 General Notes. [ March, 
its natural history and commercial resources will receive all possible at- 
tention. To archeologists this must be an intensely interesting field, as 
the Beni region was the treasure-land of the Incas; while to zodlogists 
it is a paradise of new forms. Said Dr. Sclater in his address before the 
British Association, “There is no part of South America which I would 
Sooner suggest as a promising locality for the zoblogical collector.” 
Tae ALEUTIAN IsLANDS. — We have received copies of a Report 
of Geographical and Hydrographical Explorations on the Coast of 
a, by W. H. Dall, assistant in the Coast Survey. It is accom- 
panied by a map of these islands on an extended scale, and contains 
many corrections of previous maps. 
Mounr Sr. Ex1as.—In an elaborate account of Mount St. Elias 
printed in the forthcoming report of the Coast Survey, Mr. Dall publishes 
a map of the neighboring Alaskan coast, with sketches of Mount St. Elias 
and Mount Fairweather. The former he estimates to be 19,500 feet in 
height, while Mount Cook, which is sometimes mistaken for it, is 16,000 
feet high. Mr. Dall thinks that Mount St. Elias is not an extinct volcano, 
through the great amphitheatre on the southeast flank may possibly be 
the crater of an extinct volcano ; still this is doubtful. “ Preéminent in 
grandeur,” says Mr. Dall, “is the southern face of this mountain. With 
few and but insignificant foot-hills, it rises abruptly from the valley; 
and at about five thousand feet above its base, the entire side of the 
inference that it is precipitous on the invisible northern side.” There 
are no glaciers on the flanks of this mountain, but, owing to the topo- 
graphical features of the peak, great snowfields; while there are four 
glaciers on Mount Fairweather, and at the head of the Bay of Yakutat, 
which lies between the two mountains, “ glaciers come down to the sea, 
and send their floating fragments, laden with earth and stones, out into 
the sea.” These glaciers have apparently always been local, as “ the 
character of the topography is such that it is inconceivable that a contin- 
uous glacier, moving in any direction, could have ever covered the west- 
ern slope of these mountains.” The statement of a Russian sailor that 
Mount St. Elias sent forth flames and ashes is regarded as untrustworthy- 
MICROSCOPY.: 
MICROSCOPY AT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. — At the Detroit 
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
last August, the microscopists who were in attendance decided to organ- 
ize permanently a subsection or club, connected with the association. 
1 This department is conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 
