Pergonal and Scientific News. 125 
Samples sent by Prof. Tocld from a depth of 1400 feet are of a 
normal gray granite, and are said to fairly illustrate the rock 
below 1060 leet. The red quartzyte of the region seems to have 
been struck at about 900 feet, but was not firmly consolidated. 
The drill is making good progress daily in eager pursuit of the 
coveted oil, regardless of the fact that never was oil found in 
strata within ten thousand feet above the rock in which it is 
now at work, and at no j)lace below it. 
The Georgia Legislature has made appropriations for a 
geological survey, under Prof. J. W. Spencer, of Athens. Work 
will begin in the summer. There will be two full assistants in 
the field. 
Prof. Robt. T. Hill has resigned the position of assistant 
professor of geology in the University of Texas. 
Prof. Theo. B. Comstock has resigned his position at the 
University of Illinois, and has been appointed b}^ state geol- 
ogist Dumble, an assistant on the Texas survey, having spec- 
ially in charge the region of central Texas, embracing strata 
that are pre-Carbouiferous, and including the supposed 
Archean of that state. Prof. Comstock has been in the field 
from June to December and has made a very interesting lot 
of observations, illustrated by ample collections. 
A meeting of the American Committee of the International 
Congress of Geologists was held in the Park Avenue hotel, 
New York city, on the evening of December 26, 1889, at 8 p. m. 
Prof James IJall in the chair. Present, James Hall, T. Sterry 
Hunt, C. H. Plitchcock, E. D. Cope, H. S. Williams, J. J. Stev- 
enson, E. A. Smith, and Persifor Frazer. 
A letter to Director Hauchecorne relating to the distribution 
of the geological map of Europe to the American subscribers 
was adopted and signed ly those present. 
l^rof. Wm. B. Scott, Mr. C. D. Walcott, and Dr. Robt. Bell 
were elected members of the committee to take the places re- 
spectively of Prof. G. H. Cook (deceased) ; Maj. J. W. Powell 
(resigned) ; and Sir J. William Dawson (resigned). 
Dr. Persifor Frazer resigned the office of reporter of the 
Archean and Prof. C. H. Hitchcock was elected to that office. 
Mr. Walcott was elected a member of the sub-committee on the 
Lower-Paleozoic, and Dr. Robt. Bell of the sub-committees on 
the Archean and the Quaternar}', and reporter on the latter. 
Prof. Wm. B. Scott was elected a member of the sub-committee 
on the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, and reporter for the former. 
Prof. II. S. Williams and J. J. Stevenson resigned as report- 
ers respectively of the Devonic and the Carbonic, and Dr. J. S. 
Newberry was elected in place of both of them reporter on the 
Upper Paleozoic. 
Prof. W. B. Clark, Johns Hopkins University, was elected an 
associate member of the sub-committee on tiie Cenozoic. 
