686 _ Scientific News. [July a 
—Professor J. C. Branner, of Indiana University, has been ap- _ 
pointed director of the geological survey of Arkansas, with head- — 
quarters at Little Rock. The university has granted him a two 
years’ leave of absence. 
—The trustees of the Elizabeth Thompson fund have awarded 
the following sums for the advancement of science: The Natural 
History Society of Montreal, two hundred dollars, for the investi- 
gation of underground temperatures under the direction of a` 
committee of the society; Drs. T. Elsler and H. Geitel, of the 
Gymnasium of Wolfenbüttel, Germany, two hundred and ten 
dollars, for researches on the electrization of gases by glowing 
bodies; Professor E. D. Cope, of Philadelphia, five hundred dol- 
_ lars, for the employment of a preparateur in connection with his 
researches on fossil vertebrates; E. E. Prince, of St. Andrews, 
Scotland, one hundred and twenty-five dollars, for studies on the 4 
morphology and development of the limbs of teleosts. 
St. Andrew’s, Scotland, December, 1886; Dr. John M. Wheaton, 
professor of anatomy and ornithologist, in Columbus, Ohio, Janu- 
ary 28, 1887; Robert Gray, ornithologist and vice-president of the _ 
Royal Society of Edinburgh, in that city, February 18, 1887; Dr 
® Nathaniel Lieberkuhn, professor of anatomy and student of it 
vertebrates, at Marburg, April 14, 1887, in his sixty-fifth year. 
—DeatH oF Proressor WILLIAM AsHBURNER.—Professof 
Ashburner, mining engineer and geologist, died in San Frat 
‘cisco, April 20, at the age of fifty-six. He studied for his pro: 
fession at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, _ 
and afterwards at the Ecole des Mines, Paris, Returning to this 3 
country in 1854, he visited the mineral region of Lake Superior 
with the late Professor Rivot, for the purpose of investigating — 
the geology and mineral veins of said country, and subsequent! 
explored a part of the island of Newfoundland, and in 1860 went 
to California as one of the staff of the geological survey of which 
Professor J. D. Whitney was director. In pursuance of his pro 
fession he travelled extensively through the mining districts © 
the United States, British Columbia, Mexico, and portions ° 
Asia. He was one of the State commissioners of the Yoset 
Valley and the Mariposa Big-Tree Grove from 1864 till 18° 
and professor of mining in the University of California, having 
been appointed in 1874. In 1880 he was made a regent of the 
university, and was named by the late James Lick as one of the 
trustees of the California School of Mechanical Arts (one of. 
Lick’s bequests), and was also selected by Mr. Stanford as í 
