1 6 The West American Scientist. 



flume, at a cost ot nearly a million dollars, by which the pure, 

 mountain water is brought to our doors, is an event worthy of 

 record, and one which was fittingly celebrated on Washington's 

 birthday. — The building from San Diego of the Cuyamaca 

 Railroad through the interior of our county, traversing the 

 fertile valleys of El Cajon, Santa Maria, Ballena and others, 

 and rendering our great mineral belts easily accessible, is an- 

 other enterprise of which we may well feel proud, and by 

 which hundreds of miles of travel can be saved in our over- 

 land communications. — The new management of the Interna- 

 tional Company of Mexico is actively pushing forward the pre- 

 liminary work of the peninsula railroad in a way that inspires 

 confidence, notwithstanding the frequent disturbing rumors that 

 gain circulation. — The discovery of remarkably rich placer gold 

 mines about 50 miles from Todos Santos Bay, Lower California, 

 in the latter part of February, has created as great an excitement 

 as we have known since the collapse of wild real estate 

 speculations. The actual development of valuable quartz mines 

 below the line is still more encouraging. — A new land and water 

 company has been formed to develop the eastern half of San 

 Diego County by providing irrigation for the 5,000,000 acres em- 

 braced in the plains known as the Colorado Desert. The cause 

 of humanity is not being neglected among these great enter- 

 prises. The Hospital of the Good Samaritan will soon be open 

 to all creeds, all nationalities, all physicians, and all ministers," 

 in the support of which San Diego will bring credit upon her- 

 self. — Nearly a million of dollars has been provided by the will of 

 the late James M. Pierce and by Bryant Howard and E. W. 

 Morse for the establishment of a series of benevolent and educa- 

 tional institutions in our city, which will be open to all classes 

 and will provide for a boy's and girl's home, kindergartens, a 

 school of technology, and other equally worthy departments. — 

 The San Diego College, at Pacific Beach, the College of Fine 

 Arts of the University of Southern California, the Southwest In- 

 stitute, and other schools, are all active in providing for the 

 present and future educational needs of the country. In view of all 

 the above, in connection with the natural and commercial advan- 

 tages of San Diego one maybe pardoned for predicting concerning 

 the future, but we will resist the temptation. — P. E. Truman, of 

 Dakota, his spent his winter vacation from his law practice in 

 collecting the lepidoptera of Southern California. He has 

 promised to contribute to these pages the results of his labors. — 

 The California Ornithological Association was to be organized at 

 the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, on February 

 9th. We hope to report some good work for them. — We are 

 advised that a scientific association has been formed in Washing- 

 ton Territory, but we have been able to gather no details. — 

 Prof. D. S. Jordan, of Indiana, writes concerning the fish 

 discovered on the Colorado Desert, and described in these pages 



