416 



SCIEXCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 170 



between Hell Gate and Blackwell's Island, work- 

 ing by degrees through the sound until meeting 

 with the Palinurus coming west. 



— Some estimate of the signal service as a pro- 

 moter of original research may be gathered from 

 the fact that two of the three gold medals awarded 

 by the Royal geographical society were secured 

 by Lieutenant Greely and Sergeant Brainard, for 

 geographical discoveries. Professor Langley was 

 awarded the Draper medal by the National acad- 

 emy, for discoveries at Mount Whitney ; and the 

 Royal society of science, letters, and arts, has 

 made Lieutenant Finley a member with its high- 

 est honors, for his original work on the subject of 

 tornadoes, all of which was under the direction of 

 the signal service in its legitimate duties. 



— The secretary of state has forwarded to the 

 house of representatives a letter from the Ameri- 

 can minister at Paris, enclosing an invitation to 

 the United States to be represented at the conven- 

 tion of the Philomathical society of Bordeaux, 

 France, to be held Sept. 1. The purpose of the 

 convention is to consider all questions relating to 

 commercial and industrial education. A letter 

 from commissioner of labor, Wright, suggests the 

 following gentlemen as delegates : Prof. C. M. 

 Woodward of the St. Louis manual training 

 school, Prof. W. P. Atkinson of the Massachu- 

 setts institute of technology, and professors from 

 the Columbia school of mines and Stevens insti- 

 tute. 



— Alfred Rabaud, founder and president of the 

 Geographical society of Marseilles, died on April 

 12, aged fifty-eight. 



— Reymond communicates some interesting- 

 notes as to the geology of the region of the great 

 African lakes, especially of the south-east part of 

 the Tanganyika and Nyassa basins, from speci- 

 mens collected by Giraud. The region appears 

 almost exclusively composed of primitive rocks. 

 The only sedimentary rocks collected were from 

 south of Tanganyika, at Yendive station, and from 

 Bfpasa, two or three days' march from the northern 

 end of Lake Nyassa to the north-west, on the 

 route between the two lakes. These rocks are of 

 ;i EH histose character, contain Cyrena and remains 

 of Lepidosteus, and are referred by Reymond to 

 the upper cretaceous or lowest tertiary age. This 

 agrees with what is known of the geology of 

 Africa in general, where the cenomanian and 

 nummulitic strata alone are found resting on a 

 vast denuded plateau. The beds of brown iron 

 ore, which cover a very large extent of country, 

 and are worked by the natives, are supposed to 

 have been leached out, as it were, from the crys- 

 talline rocks, by the action of the water and car- 



bonic acid held in the vast bogs and spongy 

 marshes of the region. One of the chief charac- 

 teristics of central Africa is the absence of calca- 

 reous formations. The metallic wealth of the 

 country, except for iron, is little known ; but 

 Giraud reports copper rather abundant between 

 Bangweols and Luapula. In South Africa the 

 sedimentary beds are of greater extent, and con- 

 tain a considerable amount of coal of inferior 

 quality. The collection of fresh-water and land 

 shells made by Giraud comprises, according to 

 Bourguignat, ninety-three species and several new 

 forms. 



— What appears to be a justifiable complaint 

 against the delay in printing scientific reports is 

 made by Commissioner Colman to the senators 

 and representatives. Of the forty-five thousand 

 copies of the first annual report of the bureau of 

 animal industry, ordered nearly two years ago, 

 scarcely a twentieth part have been so far de- 

 livered by the printer. Another work, Riley's 

 report on the cotton and boll worm, long since 

 ordered, and in the printer's hands, has not yet 

 been delivered, though stereotyped for nearly a 

 year. 



— In a recent letter to Professor Riley, U. S. 

 entomologist, Mr. J. Birkbeck Nevins of Liver- 

 pool gives an analysis of dried locusts from ob- 

 servations made by Edward Davis, president of 

 the Liverpool literary and philosophical society, 

 as follows : — 





Without 

 wings. 



Wings 

 developed. 





1.92* 



1.89* 



Tribasic phosphate of lime 



4.21* 



4.13* 





10.14* 



10.6-i* 





12.31* 



12.92* 



This shows that these dried locusts are as rich 

 in nitrogen as meat, guano, or dry blood, and 

 contain enough phosphoric acid to greatly in- 

 crease their value as a manure which English au- 

 thorities estimate at about twenty-five dollars per 

 ton. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*% Correspondents are requested to be as brief as jiossible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Science at Cornell. 



Will you allow space to one who has known Cor- 

 nell from the beginning, who has watched her prog- 

 ress with the greatest interest, and who knew per- 

 sonally Mr. Cornell and President White, for a few 

 comments upon recent letters in Science in regard to 

 1 Science at Cornell ' ? 



