Personal aiid Scientijic J^^ews. 195 
Pleistoct'iit' drumlins, which, as I have shown, was under the border of 
the retreat inji' ice. estimated to have reached in si)me instances no more 
than a milr in front of the dninilin whih' it was beinj;- amassed; their 
enjriacial source of drift supply: and tiie concentration of tliisdrift into 
hi,yers in the basal part of the continental glacier, so that it became 
rapidly heaped by ct»nverging' currents in these lenticular hills, — again, 
all these (diaracteristics are displayed in the Greenland photographs. 
4. Seeing the englacial drift there so remarl<abl.y gathered into dis- 
tinct layers, 1 now think it probable that drumlin accumulation was 
not usually, perhaps indeed was never, dependent on the process of the 
englacial drift becoming superglacial by ablation and afterward being 
enveloped by tlu' ice of increased snowfall and onward glacial flow, 
which I ha\-e supposed requisite for the i'\ idently rather rapid heaping 
together of so large amounts of the glacial drift. The statement of my 
theorv given in the American Geolooist (vol. x. pp. 330 8G2, Dec. 1892), 
ami in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History (vol. 
x.KVi, pp. 2-17, for Nov.. 1892, with ensuing discussion by Prof. W. M. 
Davis and Mr. George H. Barton), seems therefore to be now well sus- 
tained, e.xcepting that the most cumbersome part of the supposed prep- 
aration for drumlin-making now appears superfluous, Nature's method 
being more simple and direct. 
Other conditions of variability in the rate and manner of departure 
of the ice-sheet may account foi- tln' gi'ographic distribution of the 
drumlins. as certain areas of their abundaiicf. neighboring tracts where 
they ari' more scattered, and tin- ran' dccurrenee of lime drumlins, yet 
of large size and typical form. With much englacial drift gathered in 
layers and patches in the lower ])art of the ice-sheet, the inequalities of 
ablation and superglacial drainage, when extended at certain timesover 
a somewhat broad belt of the ice-border, may have produced convergent 
currents of the lower ice siitlicienl for amassing these hills in all their 
variety' (»f gioupiiig and t)ccasional solitary occurrence. 
Ft'h. Oth, ISU'i. W.MJKEN ri'H.v.M. 
PERSONAL AN D SCIE NTIFIC NEWS. 
I)h. GEOK(iE M. l).\wsoN, C. M. G., F. K. S., was appointed 
Director of tlie Geological Survey of (Umadu on January l(»tl), 
succeeding Dr A. R. (', Selwyn, retired. 
The Council of the Amehkax Association fou the Ad- 
VANCKMENT OF SCIENCE held u Special meeting on January 26th 
and decided to postpone the proposed meeting in San Fran- 
cisco. An invitation from Springfield, Mass., to hold the meet- 
ing of 1895 in that city, was accepted. The date of the meet- 
ing was iixed as follows: Council meeting, Wednesday, 
August 28tli, at noon; general sessions, Thursday, August 
29th, at 10 a. m. 
The Si.xth Intei^nationai, GEociKAi-nicAL CoN(;i{ess will 
meet in London from July 26th to August 3d, 1N95. The 
