390 Personal and Scientiiic News. 
Turner, Yankton, Hutchinson, Hanson, McCook, Minnehaha, 
Moody and Lake counties, Avould probably prevent this plan 
in that part of the state. The first artesian well was obtained 
in 1884. Since then more than 100 successful wells, scattered 
through thirty or more counties, have been sunk, showing the 
wide extent over which the favorable conditions are known to 
exist. These wells give pressures varying from 5 to 170 pounds 
to the square inch, and flow from 4 to 4,000 or 5,000 gallons 
per minute. Making a careful calculation of the needs of the 
country, and balancing loss and gain from different unknown 
or uncertain causes of variation, Prof. Culver reaches the con- 
clusion that three wells per township, each flowing an average 
of 3,150 gallons per minute, and costing each from $1,000 to 
$1,500, would supply water sufficient for all agricultural pur- 
poses. He also thinks the geological and topographical con- 
ditions are favorable for such a plan. The second plan is 
nothing less than a proposition to divert a part of the Mis- 
souri river, via Fort Stevenson, on the southern border of 
Stevens county, through the narrowest part of the coteau, 
across North Dakota, east by north, carrying it south of 
Devil's lake, thence eastward and southward, skirting the west 
flank of the Coteau de Prairie, emptying partly into the Souris 
vallev, partly into the Red river of the North and partly into 
the James river, and by numerous irrigating canals to so 
disseminate it as to make it water all the country into Avhich it 
can be carried. This is a feasible and comprehensive plan 
the chief obstacle to which is its costliness. It might interfere 
with the navigability of the Missouri at some lower points, but 
it is evident that the rights of irrigation are anterior and 
superior to those of navigation. Commerce can subsist only 
in countries that are habitable and productive. 
Report of the committee on the international congress 
OP geologists. Since the last meeting of the A.A.A.S. the 
London Congress has been held, at which a fair representation 
of American geologists was present. The reports of the 
American Committee having been approved by the unanimous 
vote of Section E at the New York meeting of the A.A.A.S. 
were, with a few additions (not obtainable for that meeting 
but unanimously approved by the committee) presented to 
the Congress and distributed among its members. 
Mr. Topley, the general secretary, ordered a large edition of 
the American volume, with pagination altered to suit the 
needs of the volume of the Congress which he was editing. 
It has been decided to issue the geological map of Europe 
in installments of one or more of the sheets at a time, instead 
of waiting until the whole map is complete, and this has ren- 
dered it necessary to make special arrangements for the deliv- 
ery of these sheets to the American subscribers who now num- 
ber the one hundred required to make up the sum paid by the 
