Personal and Scientific Nczvs. 195 
sition, will spend two months in Paris supervising the in- 
stallation of the United States mineralogical exhibits. 
Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the United States Geological 
Survey, has been awarded the Wollaston medal by the Ro)- 
al Geological Society, conferred Yeh i6th. 
Dr. Geo. F. Becker has recenth' returned from the 
Phillipines where he made preliminary examination for the 
U. S. Geological survey with view to the economic develop- 
ment of the islands. 
The Wisconsin Geological and Natural History 
Survey expects to issue shortly a preliminary report on the 
copper-bearing rocks of Douglas county in that state. The 
report was prepared by Prof. U. S. Grant of Northwestern 
University. 
Mr. J. B. Hatcher, whose late discoveries in Patagonia 
are well known, relieves Dr. Wortman in charge of the ver- 
tebrate paleontolog)' of the Carnegie museum at Pittsburg. 
Dr. Wortman will continue work on the great collections 
left by Prof. Marsh at the Peabody museum, Yale Universit)-. 
The University of Chicago has acquired the large 
collection of paleozoic fossils of W. F. E. Gurley, who spent 
many years in getting it together. Mr. Gurley was former- 
ly state geologist of Illinois and many of the types of spe- 
cies described by the late S. A. Miller and himself in the 
Bulletins issued at that time, are in this collection. 
Iowa Geological Survey. At the meeting of the Geo- 
logical Board on February 17th, Dr. H. Foster Bain, who 
has been assistant state geologist for several years, was 
granted leave of absence for six months from March ist. 
During this time Mr. Frank A. Wilder, of the West Des 
Moines High School will have charge of the ofifice of the 
survey. Dr. Bain takes charge of the affairs of the Dubuque 
Ore Concentrating Compan\- temporarily, and he will also 
look after certain development work in the lead and zinc re- 
gion of Iowa. His headquarters will be at Dubuque. 
Secretary of Mines and Mining. The newspapers re- 
port that a new cabinet officer, to be known as the secretar)- 
of mines and mining, is provided for in a bill which has 
been favorabl)' acted upon by the house committee on mines 
and mining. The bill creates an executive department 
which shall have entire charge of affairs relating to mines, 
including the U. S. Geological Survey. The proposed sec- 
retary of mines is to have the same rank and salary as other 
cabinet officers, and an assistant secretary is given the same 
standing as the first assistant secretary of the interior. 
Geological Society of Washington. The program 
of the meeting of Feb. 14th was as follows: "A peculiar 
clastic dike and its associated ore deposits," F. L.Ransome; 
