388 The American GeologLt. J""^- '^"^^'^■ 
Ernst Haeckel writes from Baden Baden, on April 14, 
1901, pleasantly to a member of the Geologist staff: 
Highly Honored Friend : I have just returned from an 
eight months' voyage to Java and Sumatra (of which you will 
find an account in the Berlin "Deittscher RundscJiau' ) . 
I return to Java on the 28th inst. and re-commence my lec- 
tures on the 30th. '•' =■' * With best wishes. 
Ernst Haeckel. 
The A\'ard-Cooley Collection of Meteorites, at Chica- 
go, has representatives of 541 falls or finds, being the largest in 
the world of number of kinds, the collection in the British 
museum being next, according to their last catalogue. Of 
these 201 are from North America, 23 from South America, 
189 from Europe, 58 from Asia, 17 from Africa and 23 from 
Australia. A new catalogue of' this collection has lately been 
prepared by Prof. H. A. \Vard. 
According to Prof. H. McCalley, in Mines and Minerals, 
the coke industry in Alabama has grown even faster than 
coal mining. It was not known until 1876 that the Alabama 
coals would make good coke, suitable for smelting, and now 
Alabama ranks third of the states of the Union as a coke-pro- 
ducing state, being surpassed only by Pennsylvania and \\'est 
Virginia. The coke output of the state for the calendar year 
1899 was given by the State ]\'Iine Inspectors at 1,798,612 tons. 
According to O. D. Wheeler's Wonderland for 1901, 
the first published description of the geysers, and other remark- 
able features of the Yellowstone National Park, was written by 
W. A. Ferris, ])ul)lished in the Western Literary Messenger, in 
July, 1842, at Buffalo, N. Y. He visited the park May 19 and 
20, 1834. He was a trapper, of more than ordinary education 
and intelligence, originally a civil engineer, connected v.ith the 
American Fur Company of St: Louis. He removed to Texa?. 
and died in 1873, near Dallas. 
Under the United States Geological Survey in con- 
nection with professor Osborn's monograph on the titano- 
theres, which is the first of the new series of monographs on 
fossil vertebrates to be taken up, JNIr. N. H. Darton, of the vSur • 
vey, accompanied by Mr. J. B. Hatcher of the Carnegie ^luse- 
um in Pittsburg, will make a thorough investigation of the 
titanothere beds in South Dakota to establish as definitely as 
possible the stratigraphical relations of the horizons in which 
such remains have been found. 
Prof. C. R. Van Hise, vice president, section E, Geologv 
and Geography, of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, has announced a plan and program of a i)ro- 
posed excursion for geologists from Aug. 17 to Aug. 26, pre- 
ceding the Denver meeting of the association, intended to 
accommodate also the members of the Geological Society of 
America. The itinerary of the trip, which will be within the 
