Personal and Scientific JTews. 3S9 
crossed by .another towards the east. The Quaternary glaciation 
of this district was from southwest to northeast. If the ancient 
glacial period was Permian, it was probably contemporaneous, or 
nearly so, with the Permian and Carboniferous glaciation of por- 
tions of Great Britian and Central Europe, and of South Africa, 
India, and Australia, as reviewed in the Geologist, May 1889. 
The last Legislature of the State of Washington, appro- 
priated fifty thousand dollars for a geological survey of the state. 
At the meeting in Washington, on April 21, 1891, of the 
committee on organization of the International Congress of Geolo- 
gists, the following communication was received : 
February 28, 1891. 
Prof. H. S. Williams, 
Se&y of Com. of Organ, Intern. Cong. Geologists. 
Dear Sir: — The undersigned, feeling that with their radically different 
views from the majority of their colleagues of your committee, on the 
most important questions concerning the coming session of the Inter- 
national Congress of Geologists, they cannot aid the said majority in any 
way in the work of preparation therefor, hereby offer their resignations 
from the committee of organization. Very truly. 
T. Sterry Hunt, 
Persifoe Frazer, 
E. D. Cope. 
Since that date Prof. Joseph Leidy and Prof. Angelo Heilprin, 
both formerly Philadelphia members of the committee on organiza- 
tion, have ceased to be such, the first through his lamented death 
and the second b}- resignation. 
Rate of Coral Growth. — Prof. Heilprin (Proc. Acad. Natl. 
Sci. Phila. , Jan. 27th, 1891) states that from observations re- 
cently made in the harbor of Vera Cruz, Mexico, the annual ac- 
cretion of Porites astceoides is somewhat less than one twentieth 
of an inch. Observations on other species of corals have yielded 
similar results. 
Aqueous origin of gold. — Some of the great gold quartz veins of 
Australia, are considered by very high authorities to have been 
formed from a deposition of quartz and silica, by condensation from 
an aqueous solution of an alkaline silicate of gold. The microscopic 
researches of both Sorby and Howitt, have shown that in the 
minute cavities of vein-silica, or in crystals of quartz, an aqueous 
fluid has been found, which upon analysis has been shown to con- 
sist of water, holding sulphates and chlorides of potash, so<l;i and 
lime in solution ; and these substances are all. earth alkalies! 
Also, in this fluid found in the minute cavities of vein-quartz, 
even free sulphuric and muriatic acids have been found, thus 
giving rise to the former possible combination of an aqueous solu- 
tion of an alkaline silicate of gold, with aqueous solutions of the 
hyposulphites and cholorides of gold, ami the free acids being 
formed as soon as the conversion of the srold in the metallic state 
