Personal and Scientific Nczvs. 59 
Prof. L. V. Pirsson, of Yale University, spent parts of 
the last field season with Dr. H. S. Washington in New- 
Hampshire, at lake Winnepesaukee, the Belknap moun- 
tains. Red hill and Livermore falls in Campton. During the 
present winter Prof. Pirsson expects to complete the petro- 
graphic work on the Highland mountains of Montana, upon 
which he and Mr. W. H. Weed have been engaged at times 
for several years. He now occupies the position on the 
staff of the American Journal of Science formerly held by 
the late Prof. Marsh. 
Dawson Chair of Geology. It was announced in this 
journal last week that funds had been provided for a chair 
of geology in McGill University in memory of the late Sir 
William IDawson, the income to be given to Lady Dawson 
during her life. At the last meeting of the governors of the 
university it was announced that the donor is Sir William 
MacDonald, to whom the university is already indebted for 
such great gifts. The amount of endowment is $62,000, and 
the chair is to be known as the Dawson chair of geologw 
There is already a L.ogan chair of geology in the university, 
filled by Prof. Frank D. Adams, but a second will be filled 
when the income becomes available. — (Science.) 
Deep Sea Soundings and Deposits. In a recent let- 
ter (published in Science for Dec. 8) to the U. S. Fish Com- 
mission Prof. Alexander Agassiz, who is engaged in a cruise 
in the Pacific on the steamer Albatross, announces some 
interesting facts concerning deep sea soundings, deposits 
and life, and concerning coral islands. The soundings 
taken showed a deep basin, between latitude 24° 30' N. and 
6^ 25' S., varying in depth from nearly 3100 fathoms to a 
little less than 2500. These soundings and others disclose a 
large basin of rather uniform depth in the central Pacific, 
which Prof. Agassiz proposes to call Moser basin. The bot- 
tom of this basin shows many manganese nodules, sharks' 
teeth and cetacean ear bones, as well as red clay. 
Coal in Lower Michigan. Under this title Dr. A. C. 
Lane, state geologist of Michigan, has published in The 
Michigan Miner, of Saginaw (vol. i, Nos. 3-10, Feb. -Sept., 
1899), a report whose object is stated to be to give the land 
owner of lower Michigan that amount of geological inform- 
ation which will enable him to form an intelligent estimate 
of the value of his land for coal mining purposes, and to 
plan intelligently for the economical development of that 
value. The report is prepared in accordance with a para- 
graph of the act, establishing the Geological Survey of Mich- 
gan, which provides for condensed statements of important 
and interesting facts for general circulation. The paper is 
written in a semi-popular manner, and is as free from tech- 
