130 The American Geologist. August, 1902. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Dr. T. C. Hopkins^ Professor of Geology at Syracuse 
University, is spending the summer in geological work in 
Ontario. 
The degree or Doctor of Laws was conferred on Dr. 
John M. Clarke of Albany, one of the editors of the Ameri- 
can Geologist, by Amherst college at the late Commencement. 
Mr. Morgan (J. Pierpont) has added a collection of 
gems and precious stones to the mineralogical collection in 
the ^Museum d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris, the value of which 
is said to be ten thousand dollars. 
RiGNON de la Viejo, a volcano about 60 miles south of 
lake Nicaragua, in Costa Rica, was in eruption June 28. There 
is a large mountain creek flowing at its base. It would have to 
have a long surface fissure to get enough water for a grand 
explosion unless through subterranean channels that might 
connect its caverns with lake Nicaragua or with the Pacific. 
/. Crawford. 
The Ninth Session of the International Congress of 
Geologists is duly announced by circular from the "Committee 
of Organization." It will occur at Vienna, Austria, 20 to 27 
August, 1903. The president of the executive committee is 
E. Tietze, and the general secretary is C. Diener. There will 
be a series of grand excursions both before and after the ses- 
sion, and smaller excursions in the environs of Vienna during 
the session. 
Not\vithstandtng the relative minuteness of the speck 
of cosmic dust on which we reside, and notwithstanding the 
relative incompetency of the mind to discover our exact rela- 
tions to the rest of the universe, it has yet been possible to 
measure that minuteness, and to detennine that incompetency. 
These, in brief, are the elements of positive knowledge at 
which we have arrived through the long course of unconscious, 
or only half-conscious, experience of mankind. All lines of 
investigation converge towards or diverge from these elements. 
R. S. Woodward. 
The University of Texas Mineral Survey which was 
organized a year ago, has already issued two bulletins, the 
first on "Petroleum" and the second on "Sulphur, Oil and 
Quicksilver in Trans-Pecos Texas." The latter, as stated by 
Dr. Wm. B. Phillips, the Director, "deals with the results of 
the examination of certain public lands in the counties of 
Brewster. El Paso, Jeff Davis, Presidio, and Reeves. It con- 
tains two reports on the sulphur deposits of El Paso county, 
showing that they are well worth attention and that they could 
supply large quantities of sulphur to commerce. There is also 
a description of the quicksih'er ores in Brewster county, show- 
