Personal and Scientific Ncxvs. 397 
The Academy of Sciences of St. Louis. Prof. Fred- 
crick .Starr, in Appletons' Popular Science Monthly for 
March, gives the history and a sketch of the work of this 
important, pioneer, western association. Several portraits 
of prominent members of the Academy are given and 
among these are the geologists B. F. Shumard and G. C. 
Swallow. 
Geological Society of Washington. At the meet- 
ing of March 9th the following papers were presented: 
The Mesozoic section Sierra Blanca, Texas. T. W. Stanton. 
The Belly River horizon on the upper Missouri river. F. H. 
Knowlton. 
Trachandesite flows of the Sierra Nevada. Y. L. Ransome. 
At the meeting of March 23rd the following papers were 
presented: 
Crystalline schists and rock flowage. C. R. V^in Hise. 
Igneous phenomena in the Tintic mountains, Utah. G. C. Smith. 
A "blow-out" near Mancos, Colorado. A. C. Sjiencer. 
At the meeting of April 13th the following papers were 
presented: 
Geology of the McAlester cjuHdrangle. J. A. Taff. 
The probable age of the McAlester coal group. David White. 
The Franklin and Xomini folios. N. H. Darton. 
On the succession of the igneous rocks of thi- Sierra Xe\-ada. >I. W, 
Turner. 
At the meeting of April 27th the following papers were 
presented: 
Methods of obtaining geothermal data. N. H. Darton. 
\'olcanic rocks of the Piedmont region. .A.rlhur Keith. 
Mining geology of the Tintic mountains, Utah. G. W. Tower, Jr. 
At the meeting of May iith the following papers were 
presented: 
Mountains of northern Montana. W. H. Weed. 
The La Plata mountains, Colo. Whitman Cross. 
M. Stanislas Meunier has begun a course of lectures in 
experimental geologv' at the Paris Museum of Natural His- 
tory. He discusses the various attempts that have been 
made to reproduce geological phenomena artificially. 
Mr. James P. Kimball, of New York Cit}-, will spend 
the summer in surveying a belt of countrx- in Montana be- 
tween Red Lodge and the Yellowstone. His address will 
be U. .S. Assa)' Office, Helena, Montana. 
Mr. Horace V. Winch ell. of Minneapolis, has accepted 
the position of geologist for the Anaconda Copper Mining 
company at Butte, Montana. 
Xkw York Academy of Sciences, Section of tieology 
;ind Mineralogy. April i8th, 1898. 
The first paper of the evening was by l^r. .X. .\. Julien, 
on "The Flements of Strength and Weakness in Building- 
Stones." T)r. julien called attention to the fact that in the 
