258 
The American Geologist. 
April, 1896 
will be celebrated on June 15th and 16th by the city of Glas¬ 
gow and by the students of the University. 
The Hon. Walter B. D. Mantell, son of the geologist, Dr. 
Gideon Algernon Mantell, and himself well known in the same 
field of science, died at Wellington, New Zealand, Sept. 7th, 
1895, aged 75. He settled in New Zealand in 1840 and fur¬ 
nished much material to his father from the then almost un¬ 
touched fossil remains of the great wingless birds of those 
islands. 
The Idaho Mining News is a new mining journal whose 
first number appeared in March. It contains: “The Boise 
gold belt” by James Gunn; “Geology and vein structure of 
the Boise gold belt” by J. B. Hastings; “The coal fields of the 
Payette river” by Robert Forrester. This paper is published 
monthly by • the Idaho Mining Exchange, Boise, Idaho; the 
price is $1.00 per year. 
The Northwest Mining Association held a meeting of its 
officials, at which about 100 were present, in Spokane, Wash., 
Feb. 22d. A number of papers on practical mining matters 
were presented and the secretary, Mr. L. K. Armstrong, 
addressed the Association on “ The importance of geological 
surveys.” The next meeting will occur on Oct. 3d, and will 
be of three or four day’s duration. 
The American Institute of Mining Engineers held its 
seventieth meeting at Pittsburg, beginning on Feb. 18th. The 
following papers relating to geological subjects were presented : 
The ore deposits of the Australian Broken Hill Consols mine, Broken 
Hill, New South Wales. Geo. Smith. 
Vein walls. T. A. Rickard. 
Copper ores in the Permian formation of Texas. E. J. Schwartz. 
Dr. C. S. Du Riche Preller, in the March number of the 
Geological Magazine , describes the emptying of the Merjelen 
lake through its barrier, the Aletsch glacier, during the night 
of the 23d of last September. The lake had risen within 
about one and a half feet of reaching the artificial tunnel re¬ 
cently cut for its overflow to the Viesch valley, 23 feet below 
the natural watershed. An instructive engraving of the lake 
and glacier, from a photograph, accompanies this article. 
Another paper by Dr. Preller, in the same magazine, 
gives an account of the ice-avalanche which occurred on the 
Gemmi pass, 6,400 feet above the sea, early in the morning of 
September 11th. The volume of the detached glacier and 
rock debris was about four million cubic meters, weighing 
somewhat more than the same number of tons; it fell from a 
higbt of about 3,500 to 4,500 feet on the steep mountain slope 
above the pass; a part of the mass was carried forward by its 
impetus up a bight of 1,300 feet to the summit of the precip- 
itous ridge on the opposite side of the valley; and all this 
