192 Trie American Geologist. March, 189$ 
Prof. I. C. White, of Morgan town, W. Vn., was absent from 
home during the month of February on a cruise through the 
West [ndies, going as far south as Caracas, Venezuela. 
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JoSEF V. SzABO, the noted 
Hungarian geologist, who died April 10th, 1891, is given by 
Dr. A. Koch in Foldtani Kozlony( Journal of the Hungarian 
Geological Society), vol. 25, Sept.-Oct., 1895. A portrait and 
bibliography accompany the sketch. Prof. Szabo's flame tests 
for the determination of the feldspars are well known. 
The Kansas University department of physical geology 
and mineralogy has now passing through the press volume I 
of the reports of the University Geological Survey of Kansas, 
and hopes that it will be ready for distribution about theflrst 
of April. It will contain about 100 pages of text with many 
figures and plates, and is devoted almost exclusively to the 
stratigraphy of the Carboniferous area of Kansas. 
Mr. Hugh Miller, F. R. S. E., F. G. S., son of Hugh Miller, 
author of "The Old Red Sandstone , " died on Jan. 8th, 1896. 
He joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain in 1891 and 
was first employed in Northumberland and was later trans- 
ferred to Scotland where he surveyed some of the ground in 
Cromarty made classic by his father's researches. He was a 
member and one of the vice-presidents of the Edinburgh Geo- 
logical Society. 
Prof. Sollas, F. R. S., w T ill leave in March for Sydney, to 
take charge of an expedition that is being despatched to make 
deep borings in a coral atoll. The scheme, which is supported 
by a strong scientific committee, has been financed by the 
Royal Society to the extent of £800; and the Government are 
placing a gunboat at the disposal of the party, to convey them 
from Sydney to Funifuti, in the Central Pacific, which has 
been selected as the scene of operations. {Nature.) 
Mr. Robert Hay, one of the original fellows of the Geolog- 
ical Society of America and formerly one of the editors of the 
American Geologist, died at his home in Junction City, Kan- 
sas, Dec. 14, 1895. For some time before his death he had 
been connected with the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
Mr. Hay was the author of a number of papers on the geology 
of Kansas and of late years has been intimately connected 
with the investigation of the artesian wells in the southwest. 
Alfred L. Kennedy, a metallurgist and geologist, was 
burned to death during a fire which occurred in his rooms, in 
Philadelphia, Pa., on January 30th. He was nearly 80 years 
old. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, 
and in 1853 established the Polytechnic College of Philadel- 
phia and was its president until the college went out of exis- 
tence a year ago. Dr. Kennedy was also the founder, vice- 
