4 



SCIEJSTCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 153 



lus in a service where no positions of responsibility 

 and direction are open to civil experts, however 

 great their attainments and devotion to the public 

 service.'' 



Some months subsequently, in a letter to the 

 committee of the National academy of sciences, the 

 superintendent added the important considerations 

 that the naval officers detailed by their department 

 for coast-survey duty are almost without exception 

 well pleased with their service in this capacity, 

 although, in reality, more arduous than the regular 

 routine of the naval service in time of peace. They 

 are at all times, however, perfectly under the con- 

 trol of the navy department, and subject to being 

 detached and ordered upon other duty. No officer 

 of the navy above the rank of commander is at- 

 tached to the survey, and most of the officers are 

 of the grades between ensign and lieutenant. In 

 this survey work they obtain a most valuable ex- 

 perience, which stands them in great stead on 

 foreign stations. 



The alleged duplication of work by the coast 

 survey and the hydrographic office of the navy 

 department is often urged as a reason for the 

 transfer of the survey to the navy ; but in reality 

 there is no clashing. The special work of the 

 hydrographic office consists in publisliing charts 

 of foreign coasts for the use of the navy and our 

 commercial marine, as also of directing surveys on 

 foreign coasts by our naval vessels when their op- 

 portunities permit. The functions of the two offices 

 are thus entirely different. 



The hydrograpliic work conducted by the coast 

 survey along our own shores is not a nautical sur- 

 vey, but, properly speaking, a trigonometrical sur- 

 vey, in which the positions of the depths observed, 

 and of rocks and shoals, are determined by the 

 observation of angles upon objects on shore, which 

 are known by the triangulation and topography. 

 The hydrography is closely co-ordinated with 

 these, and cannot be separated from them without 

 losing much of its present excellence. 



David P. Todd. 



kkckst a lawks lx Cornell unl- 



VKRSITY. 



The growth and prosperity of Cornell university 

 are shown in the measures which its trustees are 

 taking to enlarge and strengthen its faculty. 

 The value of a university lies in its teaching 

 force. Cornell university has been put by its 

 benefactors on a firm financial basis, and the trus- 

 tee- are wisely preparing to employ its increased 

 revenue in adding to its facilities for instruction. 

 Tin- most important of these new measures is the 

 re-<>rganizatio:i of the Sibley college of mechanical 

 engineering, with Dr. K. II. Thurston as its direc- 



tor. Following tins are the measures just consum- 

 mated and announced, providing for other changes 

 in the faculty. Dr. Wilson, the distinguished 

 and venerable professor of moral and intellectual 

 philosophy, and Professor Schackford, the professor 

 of rhetoric and general literature, are retired at the 

 end of the present year with liberal allowances. A 

 professorship of pedagogy has been established ; 

 and Prof. S. G. Williams, now occupying the chair 

 of geology, is appointed to the new professorship. 

 As this is a new feature in our New York colleges, 

 the results of the experiment are looked to with 

 great interest. Professor Williams has had an 

 unusual training for such a professorship. As a 

 teacher in preparatory schools, as a superintend- 

 ent of schools, and a professor in Cornell university, 

 he has enjoyed an experience which will enable 

 him to put himself in sympathy with those who 

 are preparing themselves for teaching, and to give 

 them whatever aid is possible. 



The retirement of Professor Williams from the 

 chair of geology enables the trustees to consolidate 

 the now separate departments of geology and 

 paleontology in one, and to promote Prof. H. S. 

 Williams, who has occupied the latter chair, to the 

 professorship of geology and paleontology. Other 

 changes are either made or contemplated which 

 will still further re-enforce the board of instruction. 

 Not the least important of these changes is the in- 

 crease in the salaries paid to all the principal por- 

 fessors. The inadequate compensation heretofore 

 allowed has cost the university in several instances 

 the loss of men whom it would have been glad to 

 retain. Two of the professors are to receive 

 $3,200 each; eleven others, $3,000 each: and in 

 other cases the stipends have been proportionately 

 increased. S. 



THE ABBOTT COLLECTLON AT THE PEA- 

 BODY MUSEUM. 



The collection of stone implements made at 

 Trenton, N.J., by Dr. C. C. Abbott, now on exhi- 

 bition in one of the recently opened rooms of the 

 Peabody museum of archeology at Cambridge, is 

 one of the most important series of the kind ever 

 brought together, and one which archeologists will 

 consult for all time to come. It contains more 

 than twenty thousand stone implements and sev- 

 eral hundred associated objects, made of bone, 

 clay, and copper, with several pipes and numerous 

 ornaments and carved stones. 



There are several considerations which give the 

 collection exceptional importance. First, it was 

 brought together from a very limited area by a 

 single archeologist ; all the specimens having been 

 found by Dr. Abbott upon his own farm and its 



