158 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. IV., No. 82. 



to membership in other quarters. The meeting 

 bids fair to be every thing its promoters could 

 desire. 



The recent earthquake suggests two lines 

 of unsatisfactoiy reflection. The number of 

 appreciative observations of the shock, dis- 

 coverable by careful search through many 

 newspapers, is extremely small, although the 

 movement of furniture, the swaying of sus- 

 pended objects, and the overturning of chim- 

 neys, gave ample opportunity for critical 

 examination. Records of time are also inac- 

 curate in the highest degree. Seconds are 

 rarely given, and there is no statement as to 

 the error of the timepiece. In place of this, 

 the temperature of the air, the direction of 

 the wind, and the ' strange appearance of the 

 sky,' are frequently mentioned, as if these ir- 

 relevant phenomena were of the highest im- 

 portance. In a country where earthquakes 

 are, happily, as rare as here, it would not be 

 fair to expect that very many persons should 

 take full advantage of their unlooked-for op- 

 portunity of earthquake study ; but after mak- 

 ing all due allowance for the infrequence of 

 shocks, and for the small share of school in- 

 struction bearing on seismology, the general 

 absence of critical observations is disappoint- 

 ing. 



More remarkable than the earthquake, more 

 surprising than the lack of observations, is the 

 readiness with which some of those who ought 

 to know better have committed themselves to 

 explanations of the origin or cause of the 

 shock, on the demand of the all-absorbing 

 newspaper reporter. From one professor we 

 learn that the shock "originated somewhere 

 about the Rocky Mountains, and travelled east- 

 ward ; " another was inclined to refer the dis- 

 turbance to the ' ' sliding of granite and trap 

 strata, caused by contraction and expansion ; " 

 others still, hold to the gratuitous generaliza- 

 tion that " eveiy earthquake-shock is an un- 

 completed effort of nature to create a volcano." 

 Such a variet}' of opinion fully justifies a re- 

 porter's rather sarcastic conclusion: "Thus 



the three professors differed from each other in 

 their views. " This difference is the more to be 

 regretted, as there was excellent ground for 

 agreement in answering the reporters. It would 

 have been very safe to reply, " When we know 

 what has really happened, we maybe able to 

 say something more about it." 



The necessity of irrigating extensive tracts 

 of the west has taught us that irrigation has 

 its advantages. The crops raised under it are 

 not only larger, but more reliable, than those 

 of districts where irrigation is not considered 

 necessary. It is somewhat as though the 

 farmer could control the amount and frequency 

 of rainfall and it ; shows, that, in countries 

 where the rainfall is abundant, it is distrib- 

 uted in a manner that comes far short of the 

 best. In some parts of the west there is water 

 enough for irrigating purposes, but it flows in 

 large rivers which it would require great ex- 

 pense to turn upon the land. The Upper Mis- 

 souri and Yellowstone rivers belong to this 

 class. They flow through arid but otherwise 

 fertile districts. They are large and perma- 

 nent streams, and it seems a calamity that 

 they should be allowed to run forever to waste. 



The suggestion of a contributor in another 

 column, that the government take time by the 

 forelock, forestall monopoly, and lead popula- 

 lation into this section \>y establishing gigantic 

 irrigating-works for the utilization of this val- 

 uable water, is not so wild as many of the 

 schemes that actually have been put through 

 Congress ; as, for example, the Pacific railroad 

 schemes. Is agriculture an}^ less important 

 than commerce? Yet it seems as though, in 

 this chiefly agricultural country, it is the only 

 interest that is unable to obtain a hearing. It 

 has not even a cabinet officer to represent it. 

 To judge from the space assigned to it at the 

 Centennial exhibition, as compared with that 

 devoted to war, for example, one would have 

 supposed that war was the leading occupation 

 of Americans, rather than agriculture. The 

 question of irrigating the arid but irrigable 

 portion of our public domain is destined to 



