FEBRUARY 29, 1884.] 
SCIENCE. 
265 
INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey. 
Mount Shasta. — In Science, No. 48, was mentioned 
Mr. Gilbert Thompson’s suggestion, that Mount Shas- 
ta, in northern California, would be a good point upon 
which to establish a permanent meteorological station 
like those on the summits of Mount Washington and 
Pike’s Peak. The following notes, obtained from Mr. 
Thompson, will perhaps make more apparent its suit- 
ability for that purpose. 
Mount Shasta is a volcanic peak having an altitude 
of 14,511 feet above sea-level, and situated in latitude 
41° 24’ 30”, and longitude 122° 1134”. So prominent is 
it, that it rivets the attention even at a distance of over 
a hundred miles; and at Berryvale, where it rises over 
11,000 feet in a distance of ten miles, its appearance 
is majestic. It is not part of a mountain range, and 
no mountains within a radius of forty miles from it 
attain the elevation of 9,000 feet. The greatest length 
of the north-west slope is sixteen miles to the edge 
of Little Shasta valley, which has an elevation of 
3,000 feet. The south-western slope to Elk Flat 
(where the elevation is 4,000 feet) has a length of 
eight miles. The highest divide, six miles to the 
north-west, has an altitude of 6,000 feet; while the 
divide of the Sacramento River, ten miles to the west- 
ward, has an altitude of only 3,500 feet. The dis- 
tance from the summit in any direction, tothe contour 
of 8,000 feet, will not exceed four miles. The promi- 
nence and isolation of this voleanic cone are therefore 
obvious, 
The point at which the growth of timber receives 
its greatest check is at an elevation of 8,200 feet. 
This limiting-line is a conspicuous feature in the 
view of the mountain as seen from a distance of 
forty or fifty miles, as it contrasts sharply with the 
snow. The last tree (so small that it was put in 
the vest-pocket) was found at 10,130 feet. 
The streams that have their origin in the melting 
of the snows of Mount Shasta make their appearance 
suddenly as rushing torrents, which subside during 
the night, leaving only pools of clear water, which 
also gradually disappear. On the east side they have 
eroded deep cafions, in two of which are waterfalls 400 
feet in height. After the first snow, the flow of water 
from the mountain ceases until the following spring. 
Only two streams can be considered as permanent. 
There are but few springs; as all this water sinks 
near the base of the peak, to re-appear at distant 
places in an unexpected manner as springs of im- 
mense size. The hot sulphur-springs, or solfataras 
as perhaps they should properly be termed, which are 
now in active operation at the summit of the peak, 
once extended considerably farther to the south-east. 
An additional spring was discovered last summer, 
under the summit to the eastward. The myth of the 
Win-ttin Indians, that Mount Shasta is the assembly- 
house of the gods, probably had its origin in the 
existence of these springs. The more prosaic imagi- 
nation of the topographer suggests that the steam 
from these vents might be utilized to heat a station 
built on the summit of the mountain. 
Topographic work in the southern Appalachians. — 
Party No. 2 of the southern Appalachian division, 
Morris Bien in charge, was engaged during the past 
season in the north-eastern part of Tennessee, the 
north-western part of North Carolina, south-western 
Virginia, and southern West Virginia,—an area of 
about six thousand square miles, lying between par- 
allels 36° and 37°30’, and meridians 81° and 83° 30’. 
The topography of this area is of the same charac- 
ter as that found by party No. 3 in the Tennessee 
valley; except, that, in the portion lying in North 
Carolina, the character of the former is combined 
with a system of spurs radiating from a sort of cen- 
tral knot, —a feature reminding one somewhat of the 
Rocky Mountains. This similarity to western topog- 
raphy increases as we go southward on the eastern 
side of the range, until, in the Black Mountains, it 
becomes very marked. Another striking difference 
is, that here there is no apparent underground drain- 
age of the sink-hole nature. In south-western Vir- 
ginia, however, the drainage is similar to that of the 
Tennessee valley, and quite as striking. 
A curious example of the sinking and re-appearing 
of streams is found in Scott county, Va. There is a 
completely enclosed basin in which a considerable 
creek gathers, and flows toward the Clinch River, from 
which it is separated by a continuous ridge about 
three hundred feet high. At the foot of this ridge the 
stream disappears, and, as has been proved by marked 
slabs, flows beneath the ridge and under the river, 
appearing as a spring about half a mile from the 
river, and on the opposite side of it. The under- 
ground course of the stream must be somewhat like 
an inverted siphon. The sink of the creek is about 
twenty feet higher than the river, and nearly the 
same height above its outlet at the spring. 
In the same county is the natural tunnel of Stock 
Creek. At about eight miles from its head, the ravine 
in which Stock Creek flows is closed in by a distinct 
cross-ridge about four hundred and fifty feet high. 
The creek, which is about fifteen feet wide and three 
feet deep, has made an S-shaped tunnel through the 
ridge about nine hundred feet long, and averaging fifty 
feet in width. It is nowhere less than ten feet high, 
rising at the entrance and outlet to over sixty feet. 
The entrance is an almost perfect archway in a 
perpendicular rock wall which is nearly four hundred 
feet high, while the outlet is in a remarkable perfect- 
ly dome-shaped rotunda of which about half is want- 
ing. The highest point of the dome is about four 
hundred and fifty feet above the creek-bed. Curious- 
ly enough, when visited last September, the creek 
sank entirely at the entrance, and re-appeared only at 
the outlet, not a drop of water being visible in the 
tunnel; whereas during high water a roaring torrent 
rushes through it. A preliminary line of the South 
Atlantic and Ohio railroad has been located in the 
