396 Tlic American Geologist. June, i89j* 
notch in the White mountains where the gravel terraces have been re- 
moved from the immediate canon on the one side, but characterize the 
other end of the notch. No one can associate this Tehuantepec canal 
with glacial dams. So long as such features in the lake and mountain 
regions are produced by other causes than the outflow of glacial dams 
it seems quite logical to question the verity of such evidence in their 
favor, especially when the elevated terraces on the southern side of 
the highlands throughout a region of hundreds of miles in length in- 
dicate open water where glacial dams should occur. Thus the great 
volume of evidence that can be obtained through observations of these 
classes of phenomena is very much more than a "refuge" in support 
of the objections against the claimed establishment of the doctrine of 
glacial dams, the location of which has proved, so far, indefinite. 
The advocates of glacial dams have taken it upon themselves to 
prove their late existence; — and when they have accurately located 
them, brought the high terraces upon the southern and eastern sides 
of the plateaus into harmony with their hypothesis, and established that 
the present channels over divides are evidence per se of glacial dams; — 
then we shall be ready to accept their hypothesis as the result of logical 
induction. But until then the pronunciamento that glacial dams "seem 
established facts and principles of geology" must be doubted by in- 
dependent investigators. 
Washington, D. C, March 24, i8gS. J. W. Spencer. 
PEPxSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
The University of New Mexico, at Albuquerque, is to 
have a practical summer school in geology and mining un- 
der the charge of the president, C. L, Herrick. Two months 
will be spent in topographical and geological work in the 
Magdalene mountains. Arrangements have been made 
whereby a limited number of students not members of the 
Universit}' can attend this summer school. 
The National Academy of Sciences held its annual 
stated session in Washington on April 19th to 22nd. The 
most interesting paper presented, from a geological stand- 
point, was by Prof. Alexander Agassiz on "The coral reefs 
of Fiji." Other papers of interest to geologists were: " Bio- 
graphical memoir of E. D. Cope" by Theodore Gill; "New 
classification of the Nautiloidea" by Alpheus Hyatt. No new 
members of the Academy were elected, but a number of for- 
eign associates were added, among whom are the geologists 
Prof. Edward Suess, of Vienna, and Prof. Karl Alfred von 
Zittel, of Munich. 
