Persotial and Scientific News. 63 
■eral weeks near Cumberland, Maryland, in the heart of the 
Appalachian mountains. Work was suspended in Baltimore 
during the period of the camp, special courses being given at 
Cumberland, both by the regular corps of instructors and by 
lecturers secured from the scientific bureaus in Washington. 
Complete instrumental outfits employed in geological, topo- 
graphical, climatological, hydrographical ancl agricultural in- 
vestigations were installed at the camp, special lectures being 
given upon their uses. In addition to practical work along 
.geological and topographical lines, meteorological observa- 
tions were taken twice daily by the students, under the direc- 
tion of an observer detailed by the United States Weather Bu- 
reau, the streams were gauged and the velocity and volume of 
their outflow determined, and the conditions of the soils in 
their temperature and moisture contents were examined daily 
under competent supervision. Among those who were pres- 
ent at the camp and who aided Prof. Clark and his associates 
in the work of instruction Vv'ere Messrs. Bailey Willis, H. M. 
Wilson, O. L. Fassig, E. G. Paul, and C. W. Dorsey, of the 
Washington bureaus. It is planned to continue practical field 
work in this manner in subsequent years. {Science.) 
The International Mining Congress will assemble 
in Salt Lake City, Utah, at 10 a. m., Wednesday, July 6th, 
and continvie at the pleasure of the Congress during the 7th, 
8th and 9th. The Congress is a permanent organization, and 
is a direct outcome of the International Gold Mining Con- 
vention which was held in Denver last July. In the official 
call issued for the Denver meeting the following explanation 
of the objects of the Congress were given. "The objects of 
the Convention are to secure such national legislation as mav 
be calculated to promote the business interests and develop- 
ment of the resources of the mining industry in North and 
South America; to bring together mining men and investors; 
to increase reciprocal trade among them ; to discuss such ques- 
tions as are naturally suggested by its objects; to cultivate 
acquaintance, fraternal feeling and hearty co-operation among 
various mining, commercial and labor bodies represented ; and 
especially to take under advisement the importance of the 
creation, by Congress, of a department to be known as the 
Department of Mines and Mining, thus securing a cabinet 
officer that represents an interest which affects more than one- 
third of the peo])le of the United States." 
Important Vertebrate Fossils for the National 
Museum. Prof. O. C. Marsh has recently transmitted from 
New Haven to the director of the United States Geological 
Survey the fourth large installment of vertebrate fossils se- 
cured in the west, in 1882-92, under his direction as palcontol- 
