562 
Scientific Notes 
[October, 
of Mr. Gassiot, F.R.S. He alluded to the interesting communications of 
experiments made by Mr. Gassiot in Sedtion A at Brighton, and to the enor- 
mous harvest of results that had come into it as the result of his munificence. 
It was through Mr. Gassiot’s foundation of £500 a year that the maintenance 
of the Kew Observatory was ensured. That was a foundation in perpetuity, 
and the results already derived from it were of such obvious importance in 
connection with that Sedtion that it was right they should consider them now 
the founder was no more. Mr. Gassiot’s life had been one of usefulness — 
usefulness in business— among his friends; and, above all, in the wider scien- 
tific sphere in which the later years of his life had been employed. That he 
should have lived so long — over 80 years — and won so much good feeling, 
respedt, and admiration, was enough to make him, whether in life or in death, 
to be equally envied. 
A Special Meeting of the California Academy of Sciences was held on 
August 30th, for the purpose of extending a formal welcome to Sir Joseph 
Hooker, C.B., Dr. Asa Gray, and Prof. F. V. Hayden. The chair was taken 
by Prof. Davidson, the President of the Society. In returning thanks for the 
cordial welcome given, Sir Joseph Hooker said : — “ The President has asked 
me to say a few words with respedt to the Academy. In England we know 
well enough what it is to wait for results ; but the destinies of Science on this 
toas'; are great, and a time will come that will show great results, and that 
will come with immense force, and for these two reasons : — There is here a 
most intelligent and a most adtive and progressive population, and, in the 
second place, there is here one of the most remarkable assemblages of natural 
objedts and physical phenomena that any part of the world possesses. In 
speaking thus I include the whole coast north and south of California. There 
is no sedtion of the earth in which so many singular phenomena can be ob- 
served as in this. Without seeking to give advice I may point out what has 
been the element of success in the greatest Academy of England, the Royal 
Society. It began with very few men, and for the best part of two centuries 
it was supported by what he might, without disrespedt to his ancestors in 
science, call elderly people. It was by the elderly men who loved Science, 
holding together congenially year after year, and almost century after century, 
that the young men of the Society were drawn to it, and it is but lately that 
young men in any numbers have come into the Society. For success there 
are three principal elements — the holding together of the elderly members, of 
those who have had experience of this life in other matters than Science, and 
who bring that experience together, with methodised common sense, of which 
Science consists, to bear upon the objedts of the Society itself. In the second 
place, there is the important work of the Secretary, together with that of the 
Publication Committee, which should carefully pass judgment upon the com- 
munications to be given to the world. The supervision of the papers of a 
Society by several members is perhaps the most important scientific work that 
any Society can perform. Thirdly, there is the necessity of looking well after 
the funds, and managing them with economy and prudence.” Prof. Hayden, 
in responding to the welcome, indicated the features of the geological survey 
in progress under his diredtion, and said he has long desired to make some 
comparison between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. 
It had always been his belief, although the belief had been corredted by his 
studies of the Eastern Slope, that there is a general geographical as well as 
geological unity in all the different ranges of mountains that compose our 
country. Other geologists have endeavoured to give to the Sierra the name 
of the Cordilleras, as a generic term, extending it to the Andes and to the 
Eastern Range, the Rocky Mountains. Other geologists have sought to make 
the Rocky Mountains the generic name, including in that range all the rest, 
and making the Sierra Nevada a branch. He was now inclined to think there 
. is difference enough in the two ranges to regard them as separate, and perhaps 
almost independent ranges. One objedt of his visit was to examine the 
Yosemite Valley, and study the phenomena of its formation, and this he had 
been enabled to do. At some other time he hoped to be in a position to study 
the geology of the coast carefully. 
