SCIENCE. 



63 



tributed in its effects with an approach to uniformity over 

 a wide extent of country, and was unaccompanied by 

 those sharp flexings or the protrusions of abrupt granitic 

 cores which are encountered in some portions of the Ap- 

 palachians and other mountain regions. The individual 

 masses and ranges in the Cumberland region are the 

 work of erosion acting upon a broad platform, excavating 

 wide valleys and narrow gorges, leaving the peaks and 

 ridges as cameos and mere remnants of the general 

 degradation of the entire region. Professor Powell ex- 

 emplified the process by citing the Uinta Mountains as a 

 broad platform similarly carved by an enormous erosion. 



Mr. Lester F. Ward then read a communication enti- 

 tled, " Field and Closet Notes on the Flora of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia." Mr. Ward's paper was more com- 

 prehensive than its title indicated. He read extracts from 

 a local monograph which he has been preparing on the 

 Flora of the District of Columbia. The work has been 

 done by Mr. Ward in his usual energetic, thorough, and 

 philosophical manner, and presents many points of inter- 

 est. It will be published in full by the Society. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASH- 

 INGTON. 



The Society met in the lecture room of the National 

 Medical College on Tuesday evening, February i, Major 

 J. W. Powell in the chair. By the provisions of the Con- 

 stitution the retiring President is required to deliver his 

 annual address at the meeting succeeding that held for the 

 election of officers, and to review therein the work of the 

 Society during the past year. As before mentioned, the 

 reasons for the publication of elaborate proceedings, ex- 

 isting in the case of other societies, do not obtain here. 

 The President, therefore, in connection with his address, 

 had prepared a. pamphlet of 100 pages, in which were em- 

 bodied abstracts of every paper read during the two years 

 of the Society's existence, together with a brief history of 

 its formation, the two annual addresses, the constitution, 

 and the list of officers and members. The whol e consti- 

 tutes a very important contribution to knowledge. 



Major Powell thus presented a classification of the 

 papers and discussed the several subjects treated in their 

 order, namely : Archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, bio- 

 logy, philosophy, technology, sociology-, and mythology. 

 As the address will appear in' full as a part of the pam- 

 phlet, it is not necessary to present an abstract. 



Determination of Gold and Silver in Alloys, afier 

 Quartation with Cadmium. — Two portions of the alloy, 

 each of 0.25 grms., are weighed off and placed with the 

 cadmium in small porcelain vessels. A piece of potassium 

 cyanide is melted in a porcelain capsule over the flame, and 

 the metal thrown in. The melting together takes place 

 readily, and is complete in a few minutes. By changing 

 with two or three porcela ; n capsules, and having a vessel 

 with warm water at hand, in which the melted portion is dis- 

 solved when sufficiently cool, twenty to thirty meltings can 

 be executed in an hour. The two metallic granules are now 

 thrown together into a small long-necked flask, in which is 

 nitric acid of sp. gr. 1.30 ; a piece of wood charcoal is in- 

 troduced to prevent bumping — which would rupture the 

 globules — and heat is gently applied. The first solution 

 lasts rather long, according to the proportion of gold ; e.g., 

 an hour in case of fine gold. The solution is poured off, 

 the boiling repeated with nitric acid of sp. gr. 1.3 for ten 

 minutes, the liquid again poured off, the globules rinsed 

 with hot water, boiled for five minutes with water, which is 

 poured off, and the flask filled with water is inverted into a 

 porous earthern crucible, dried, ignited strongly, proceed- 

 ing as in cupellation. In most cases the globules can be 

 weighed separately. Silver is determined in the solution of 

 titration with ammonium sulphocyanide according to Vol- 

 hard's msthod. — Fr. Kraus. 



A SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF HUDSON 



COUNTY, N. J* 



By Israel C. Russell. 



An outline of the geology of Hudson County, N. J., is 

 delineated in the accompanying generalized section. 



Fig. 1 — Generalized Section of the Rocks of Hudson County, N. J. 

 Human Period 



Shell Heaps. 

 Sand Dunes, 

 fgy';'-' •■Vv , ?y>\V{'.- Peat and Mud. 



Quartern ary 



sm±m Drift. 



Tkiassic 



Arch-can 



Slates with Trap 



Gneiss. 



At the base of the series is crystalline gne'ss of 

 Archaean age, which is exposed in a few reefs along the 

 shore of the Hudson in Jersey City. These rocks are 

 composed mainly of quartz, feldspar and mica, and form 

 highly crystalline gneiss, mica schist, hornblende schist, 

 etc., and are not to be distinguished from the rocks ot 



* Taken from a paper published in the Annals of the N. J. Academy of 

 Sciences, Vol. II., No. 2, pp. 27-80. 



