922 
throughout, if one does not object to the fact, 
evident on every page, that the author has 
something to sell. 
Patents on inventions: a quarterly patent-law review. 
H. Connett and A. C. Frazer, editors. Vol. 
i. New York, Burke, Frazer, & Connett, 1884. 
124+2144+12p. 12°. 
Tuts is a collection of short essays on points 
of interest to inventors. These essays are 
SCIENCE. 
[Vou. IIL, No. 64. 
principally written by the members of the firm 
of Burke, Frazer, & Connett, patent solicitors, 
in the intervals which their practice allowed. 
The articles are generally well written ; but to 
some extent the smack of the advertisement 
clings to them, although none close with the 
advice to call on Messrs. Burke, Frazer, & 
Co., for a solution of the difficulties discussed. 
Throughout, the beauties of patents are upheld, 
and the ignis fatuus of a valuable patent is 
made as alluring as possible. 
INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey. 
Field-work in the division of the Pacific. —In 
addition to the office-work of this division, carried on 
during the winter at San Francisco, field-work has 
also been prosecuted, especially since the 1st of 
January. During February, Mr. George F. Becker, 
geologist in charge, studied the surface-geology of 
the area lying between Mount St. Helena and Knox- 
ville, in Napa and Lake counties, Cal.,—a region 
that had previously been mapped by Mr. Hoffmann, 
topographer, and in which Mr. Turner spent some 
time, especially in January of this year. The mines 
of this district have been made the especial subject 
of study by Mr. Becker; and they prove to be of 
very considerable interest, lying, as they do, between 
a highly metamorphic area and one of unaltered 
sedimentary rocks, which is also marked by limited 
basaltic eruptions. The structure of Mount St. 
Helena has also been partially examined. During 
January, also, Mr. Hoffmann’s field-work for the map 
of the New Idria district was completed for the illus- 
tration of Mr. Becker’s monograph on the quicksilver 
deposits. 
Map of Mount Shasta. —Mr. Gilbert Thompson 
has just completed a sketch-map, on a large scale, of 
Mount Shasta. It includes about seventeen square 
miles, and shows beautifully the glaciers and moraines 
of the mountain. As already noted in Science, Mr. 
Thompson has recognized some seven glaciers on the 
upper slopes of Shasta. On this map five of them 
are named as follows: the ‘ Whitney’ glacier is on 
the north-west side, lying to the eastward of the 
volcanic crater (Shastina) that forms so prominent 
a feature of the north-west spur as seen from the 
valley below. It extends two or three miles from 
the summit toward the north-west, with a width in 
most places of less than a quarter of a mile. This 
is the glacier seen and explored in 1870 by Mr. 
Clarence King. The next glacier, as one proceeds 
eastward, is the ‘Bulam’ (or great) glacier, which 
extends to the northward or north-westward about 
a mile anda half. It is nearly a half-mile in width, 
and at its head appears to be connected with the 
‘Hotlum’ (or steep rock) glacier, which lies next to 
it on the north-east slope of the mountain. The 
latter is broad, being almost a mile across, and 
reaching only about a mile and a half from the sum- 
mit. On the eastern side of the peak is the Win-tun 
glacier (so named from the tribal designation of the 
Indians of the vicinity). It is nearly two miles long, 
with an average width of about half a mile. On the 
south-east slope is the Kon-wa-ki-ton (or Mud Creek) 
glacier, which, until Mr. Thompson described it, was 
unknown, although many of those who have climbed 
the peak since 1854 must have passed close by it. It 
is smaller than the others, having a length of only 
a half-mile. Its width is about a quarter of a mile. 
Mr. Thompson has furnished very full notes of these 
glaciers to Mr. I. C. Russell, by whom they will be 
published in the reports of the survey. 
On another map being prepared by Mr. Thompson, 
Mount Shasta and the surrounding country are 
shown on a smaller scale than in the above-men- 
tioned map; and the isolation of Mount Shasta is well 
shown. It forms no part of any mountain range; 
and the highest land within a radius of forty-five miles 
from its summit is Mount Eddy, which is fifteen 
miles distant, and is at least six thousand feet lower. 
Ice-banners. —In Tyndall’s ‘ Forms of water’ is an 
illustration representing what he terms ‘ cloud-ban- 
ners,’ which are formed by a current of warm air, 
charged with moisture, passing a high and sharp 
mountain point, when, meeting with a colder atmos- 
phere, it is condensed, and forms a visible cloud, the 
appearance of which has some resemblance to a 
banner. On Oct. 18, 1882, Mr. Gilbert Thompson 
ascended Lassen’s ‘Butte’ (or Peak), in California, 
which has an altitude of 10,500 feet above sea-level; 
and on Oct. 12, 1883, he made the ascent of Mount 
Shasta, which rises to the altitude of 14,511 feet, some 
seventy miles farther to the north-west. On the 
summits of these peaks, and on both occasions just 
after a storm, Mr. Thompson observed what he 
terms ‘ice-banners.’ ‘The iron signal-post on Mount 
Shasta, which rises sixteen feet above the summit, 
had the appearance often seen in trees, posts, etc., 
after severe snow-storms, when the flying snowis im- 
pacted against them by the wind, except that in this — 
case the projection was just reversed, aiid lay from 
the wind. On the signal-post the ‘ banner’ projected 
