Personal and Scientific News. 137 
geological laboratory is a complete machine for preparing rock 
specimens for the microscope; also a fine petrographical micro- 
scope with all the modern accessories. 
Mr. G. B. Frankforter has chosen for his thesis for the Mas- 
ter's degree, " The Limestones of Nebraska." His skill as an 
analytical chemist, added to experience in the field, gives assur- 
ance of valuable results. 
And now comes the report that diamonds have been 
found in meteorites. At least small granules, said to have all 
characteristics of the diamond, have been found in a meteoric 
stone that fell in Russia on Sep. 4, 18S6. 
Mr. F. W. Russelt, reports a peat bed in the Loup 
country, in central Nebraska, six miles long, three miles wide, 
and from one to four feet thick. In some places it is deeply 
covered, but for the most part exposed and still forming. The 
peat rests on river sand and is hence siliceous at the base. It 
contains many diatoms, chiefly of the genus Navictila. It 
burns well, leaving no great amount of ash. In a region desti- 
tute of other fuel this deposit promises to be of economic im- 
portance. 
Prof. L. E. Hicks lectured to the State Horticultural 
Society, of Nebraska, at its winter meeting on the *' Relation 
of soils to geological structure," and to the State Agricultural 
Society on " Irrigation in Nebraska." He used for illustration 
an unpublished geological majD of Nebraska, and a topographi- 
cal map enlarged from Gannett, by C. G. McMillan, under the 
direction of Prof C. E. Bessey. 
A VERY FINE collection of gold and silver ores has been 
presented to the University of Nebraska by Gen. Victor Vif- 
quain, U. S. consul at Barranquilla, South America. 
A STRATUM quartzyte NEAR Valentine, Nebraska, con- 
tains free gold, but not in paying quantities. 
A bed of black marl, with numerous shells of fresh water 
mollusca, in the valley of Pumpkin creek, Cheyenne county, 
Nebraska, will sometime prove useful as a fertilizer. 
A fine kaolin-like clay from Pine creek, in Cherry county, 
has been received from Rev. G. W. Reed. The clays of Ne- 
braaska are excellent, and will form the basis of important 
industries, at no distant Jay. 
Dr. Metz, of Madisonville, near Cincinnati, is re- 
ported to have recently found two palaeoliths in undisturbed 
glacial ground at that place. This, if confirmed, will be an- 
other argument for the great antiquity of man on this conti- 
nent, and will be in line with the discoveries of Dr. Charles C. 
Abbott, in New Jersey, and of Miss Babbitt, in Minnesota.. 
All these, if they should ultimately prove genuine, will also 
