Correspondence. 59 
now sweeps over snowy mountain peaks, over dark precipitous cliffs 
and verdant vales, and with commanding glance reads their structure in 
the features of the landscape. But not less is the demand on the ad- 
justing powers of the mind. From the most subtle conclusions derived 
from an ingenious experiment the geologist must be able to lift the 
mental eye over hill and valley into the most distant parts of the uni- 
verse. There the glowing spectra of nebulae teach him that even now 
the great processes of world making are not yet ended. With the aid 
of instruments he can daily witness the greatest eruptions of super- 
heated gases emanating from the body of our sun. Photography 
spreads before him the pictures of the desolate crater-fields -of the moon. 
"Returning to his earth he now perceives that the sum total of 
life's phenomena not only forms a single phenomenon, but that it is also 
limited by space and time. It occurs to him now that the stone which 
his hammer strikes is but the nearest lying piece of the planet, that 
the history of this stone is a fragment of the history of the planet, and 
that the history of the planet itself is only a very small part of the his- 
tory of the great, wonderful and ever changing Kosmos. 
"His heart then thrills ; he feels called as a co-laborer on the most 
sublime problems in which feeble, mortal beings can take part. Then, 
too, he sees that the fundamental lines of structure coursing over the 
earth's surface have nothing to do with the political lines separating the 
nations. The vastness of the problem itself makes the concord of civ- 
ilized nations natural, and they remain separated only through their 
emulation, all filled with the idea that mankind in general will most 
highly esteem that nation which is in the position to offer the most and 
the best of noble example, of new truth and of ideal worth. 
"These are the words which have crowded into articulation at this 
moment when you, now gathered from all parts of the world, are about 
to disperse. 
"For the continuation of the feelings that fill us today, and for con- 
tinued inspiration for our noble science. I raise my glass.'' 
CH.\RLES SCHUCHERT. 
Vienna, Hotel Continental, Atigust 27. 1903. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
J. S. DiLLER read a paper before the LeConte club of San 
Francisco, on the geology of the Redding quadrangle, the study 
of which is just completed. 
Mr. G. H. Eldridge of the U. S. Geological Survev has 
nearly ready for the press his detailed monograph on the oil 
fields of southern California. 
Wm. S. Tangier Smith, of the U. S. Geological Survey, 
is engaged in writing his report on work in the Dakotas and 
Wyoming, at Los Gatos. California. 
