February 24, 1005.] 



SCIENCE. 



It is a matter of measurement that but one 

 fourth of the water in the Niagara Kiver 

 passes over the American Falls. The sill of 

 the falls is ten feet higher on the American 

 side than on the Canadian. How easily the 

 water is driven entirely out of the American 

 channel is seen by the ice dams of the past 

 few years, which, gorging the stream from the 

 upper end of Goat Island to the American 

 side, have turned the water from that channel 

 so that one can cross the bed of the river 

 dry-shod. Let then, from one fourth to one 

 third of the water be permanently abstracted 

 from the river, and the American Falls will 

 be permanently dry. The production of power 

 actual and immediately contemplated by the 

 five companies within their charters will con- 

 sume 48,400/224,000 of the water, or 1/5 — 

 With the estimated abstraction of water by 

 the sixth (American) company this fraction 

 becomes 58,400/224,000 or 1/4—. Should the 

 proposed additional Canadian plans be eifected 

 the proportion will become 88,396/224,000 or 

 1/3 — . In any one of these cases the danger 

 limit is reached and the perpetuity of the 

 American Falls now hangs by the slender 

 thread of improbability that these companies 

 shall produce to their statutory limitations 

 or find a market for their product. 



It is authentically stated that 800,000 tour- 

 ists visit Niagara annually, bringing an 

 enormous revenue to the place. As soon as 

 the world learns that New York and Canada 

 have shorn this famous place of its beauties, 

 this source of industrial prosperity will be 

 gone. While these magnificent schemes of 

 power development are putting to shame a 

 sentiment of proper pride which should be 

 national rather than local, unlimited horse- 

 power lies idle in the region where these 

 companies hope to find their market and in 

 the development of this none of the finer 

 manifestations of natural power and none of 

 the finer sentiments of mankind would be as- 

 sailed. 



The address was a strong presentation of 

 the subject and the press of the city joined in 

 the protest against the destruction of the falls. 



J. E. KiRKWOOD, 



Corresponding Secretary. 



Dl8Cr8tiI0X AXD CORHESPONDEXCE. 



CONSULTING EXl'EKTS IN LIBHARIES. 



To THE EuiToii OP Science: Dr. Francis B. 

 Sumner's letter, published in Science, Jan- 

 uary 13, seems to offer an appropriate oppor- 

 tunity for calling attention to certain note- 

 worthy developments at the Library of Con- 

 gress during the administration of Dr. Her- 

 bert Putnam. Dr. Sumner urges the desira- 

 bility of employing, in connection with one 

 of our great libraries, ' a staff of consulting 

 experts, men of the rank of college professors, 

 whose duty it should be to furnish definite bits 

 of information in response to legitimate ques- 

 tions, or, at least, to guide the seeker on his 

 way * * * the establishment of a sort of hu- 

 man encyclopedia as an adjunct to the library.' 



While thig ideal has not yet been attained 

 at the Library of Congress, a remarkable de- 

 velopment in this direction has taken place 

 during the last few years. It is the function 

 of the Division of Bibliography, established 

 in 1900, not only to prepare and publish lists 

 of references on special topics, principally 

 those of current political interest, but also 

 to supply bibliographical information in reply 

 to inquiries received by mail. The reference 

 work of this character has been mainly in the 

 fields of social and political science and his- 

 tory. 



As, however, the collection of scientific lit- 

 erature has recently been reclassified and is 

 now in process of being recatalogued, it has 

 become possible to undertake similar work in 

 science. There are on the staff of the library 

 at the present time several specialists repre- 

 senting different sciences, and it is always 

 possible to consult others associated with va- 

 rious branches of the government service. 

 Furthermore, it being part of the policy of 

 the Librarian of Congress to make the collec- 

 tion of bibliographies, indexes, library cata- 

 logues, etc., as complete as possible, unusual 

 resources in the way of bibliographical tools 

 are available at the library. A Science Sec- 

 tion of the library, in charge of the under- 

 signed, has accordingly been organized re- 

 cently and one of its functions is to carry on 

 the reference work in this field, both for in- 

 vestigators at the scientific bureaus in Wash- 



