392 TJic ADiericaii Geologist. Dccombor, 1899 
physiographic studies in the highschools of Iowa, these slide? 
are loaned to responsible teachers in the state on more liberal 
terms than are customary. 
The department is provided with a Julian lathe of the Col- 
lege pattern, a petrological microscope, a small collection of 
microsections, an equipment for class work in blow pipe analy- 
sis of minerals, and phc:)tographic apparatus unexcelled in the 
])erfection of its instruments. 
The college museum supplies ample illustrative material 
from a collection of fossils estimated at 9,000 specimens, and 
one of rocks and minerals estimated at one-third of that num- 
ber. The departmental library contains over 800 volumes. 
The chair of geology at Cornell is held by professor W. H. 
Norton, and the department enrolls this term more than 90 
students. 
The students in the Division of Geology, Harvard 
University in the first year of research, form the assistants of 
a local survey under the direction of Dr. Jaggar. During the 
first half year the work is areal, plotted on maps to a scale of 
1200 feet to the inch. The final report is in the form of a thesis, 
with maps and sections. In the second half-year the thesis 
springs from work upon a held problem, not areal, which may 
require study of large or small districts. In this the student 
is at liberty to avail himself of any previous knowledge pos- 
sessed by co-workers or published in papers, and to visit any 
regions which may be important. 
Two OF THE SERIES OF LECTURES novv being given in 
the Lowell Institute courses in Boston are "The Geology and 
Natural History of the Bermudas," by Prof. A. E. Verrill of 
Yale ; and "The relation of the topographical features of the 
earth's surface to geological structure," by Prof. G. H. Barton 
of Mass. Inst, of Technology. 
According to the State Mining Inspector of Mis- 
souri (George E. Quinby) it is the opinion of Prof. W. P. 
Jenne}^ who spent several weeks in southwestern Missouri 
investigating the drill records and the development of deep 
drilling, that there exists, all through that district, in the 
sedimentary rocks, strata of zinc ore two hundred feet apart, 
below the 250-foot level, to a depth of more than a thous- 
and feet below the surface. 
Dr. R. S. Woodward of Columbia College, read a paper 
at the late meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, giv- 
ing some of the results of long investigation into the physics 
of the earth's atmosphere. He stated that the atmosphere ex- 
tends, at the equator 26,000 miles beyond the earth, and 17,000 
at the poles, thus taking a position intermediate between those 
who hold that it has no limit and those who consider that it 
