728 Scientific News. [ November, 
in the field of its proposed operations. It was the intention of Mr. 
King to devote the summer mainly to practical economic work, 
making as thorough an examination as possible of western min- 
eral lands, and determining as far as practicable the nature, origin, 
California. He is assisted by Arnold Hague, late imperial minister 
expert for China; Mr. J. K. Gilbert, and Prof. F. V. Hayden. The 
specialists of the expedition in mining geology are Prof. Raphael 
umpelly, late of Harvard College, Prof. George F. Becker, pro- 
fessor of mining geology in the University of California, and 
Arthur Foot. The fields especially worked are, first, the metallic 
region of Colorado, centering at Leadville, in charge of S. F. 
Emmons, geologist, with A. D. Wilson as topographer ; second, 
the lead-silver region centering at Eureka, Nevada, in charge of 
Prof. Becker, with F. A. Clark as topographer, and third, the 4 
Comstock lode and central gold fields of California, in charge of 
Mr. King, with the assistants previously mentioned. 
— Dr. John B. Trask, at one time State Geologist of Califor- 
nia, and who afterwards held a similar position in the State of — 
Nevada, died in San Francisco on the 3d of July, at the age of 
55. Dr. Trask was one of the founders of the California Acad- 
emy of Sciences, and contributed many papers to the earlier vol- 
umes of its publications. Of late years he has followed his pro- 
fession as a skillful medical practitioner, and will be remembered 
as a sympathetic and kind hearted man as well as a public spirited 
and useful citizen. 
— The Visitors’ Catalogue of the Museum of the Peabody 
Academy of Science, at Salem, Mass., is noteworthy not only 
from its neat appearance, but from its educational features, as the 
references to the specimens in the cases is preceded by a brief 
popular account of the different classes of animals, and with a 
sufficiently full list of articles and books contained in the libra- 
ries of Salem, referring to the animals, especially of Essex county. 
It is also provided with an index. 
— The Seventh Annual Report of the Zodlogical Society of 
Philadelphia indicates the prosperity of this very successful pro- 
ject. The total excess of visitors over the attendance of last 
year was 76,966. On the 4th of July, 1878, 6,389 visitors were 
admitted. The floating debt of the society was reduced to from 
$20,500 to $9,000. There were at the time the report was made 
826 vertebrates in the collection. 
— A popular résumé of Prof. Mcebius’ late work on Eozoon, 
a memoir in quarto with eighteen colored plates in the Palæonto- 
graphica, has been published in Die Natur for 1879, Nos. 7, 8, 10, 
under the title of, Is Eozodn a fossil Rhizopod? Itis illustrated 
