Editorial Comment. 253 
comes soft sometimes to a deptb of several feet. In two 
spots the pitch is so nearly liquid that to venture upon it is 
not safe. Photographs show these effects. In one a man i- 
being dragged out by main force, the pitch streaming off him 
in long clammy lines. In another a workman is shown over 
shoes in the lake. About forty per cent, of the contents is 
bitumen, the rest being water and dirt. In the wet season 
water lies on its surface, and shrubs grow to a bight of six or 
eight feet. Their roots may be seen in the pitch. 
Near this exhibit is an enamel floor-map of the United 
States, showing the coal-fields. It is, of course, on a small 
scale and makes no pretense to close accuracy, but it is in- 
structive, especially as on the surrounding shelves are sam- 
ples of all the coals from the various fields. 
France is well represented by the maps and other publica- 
tions of her geological survey in the Manufactures building, 
and with Great Britain has, perhaps, one of the finest displays 
of the kind which the Exposition contains. 
Messrs. Howell and Ward have in the gallery of the Mining 
Building a large exhibit of their well-known models of interest- 
ing and instructive parts of the world. Among these are the 
Yosemite valley, the Colorado canon, the Eureka district of 
Nevada, the high plateau of Utah, the Henry mountains, the 
Leadville region, the Yellowstone park, the Uinta and AVah- 
satch mountains. In the exhibit of the latter are also to be 
seen models of the classic region of Auvergne, in France, of 
Vesuvius, and of Palma (von Buch), of P^tna ( E. de Beaumont), 
and of Mt. Blanc, the last of which is worthy of careful 
study by all who have visited, and all who intend to visit, the 
Alps, not less than by the orographical geologist. 
Among the articles exhibited by the French colonies is a 
model of New Caledonia, on a scale of one-five-hundred- 
thousandth, constructed of successive layers of Bristol board 
and intended to illustrate the mines and mining. As it is not 
geologically colored, no information regarding the strata can 
be obtained from it. 
In another building (Anthropology) is an actual section of 
the famous pipestone quarry of southwest Minnesota, contain- 
ing a layer of the catlinite itself showing a glaciated edge. 
It well illustrates the position of the mineral as a thin band 
