404 Personal and Scientific News. 
character. Several interesting letters, will also be given for 
the first time to the public. Pen sketches of some of the dis- 
tinguished persons who were closely associated with the 
geologist will add to the interest of the volume. 
Dr. Houghton's career was a brief one. While prosecuting 
his chosen work, at the early age of 36, he was drowned in a 
storm at night in lake Superior ; his death was deemed a pub- 
lic calamity. 
Besides the narrative of his life and labors, the volume will 
contain some of his geological reports to the Legislature of 
Michigan now out of print. The Hon. Bela Hubbard long as- 
sociated with Dr. Houghton as assistant geologist has ar- 
ranged these reports and has given summaries of others that 
could not well be inserted in full. 
An excellent portrait of Dr. Houghton will add interest to 
the volume. It is taken from the full length portrait, (by 
Pruf. P>radisli), now at Lansing. It represents him in the 
costume of a geologist with hammer in hand, standing on the 
rocky ^^liore of lake Superior, his favorite dog at his feet and 
the famous -'pictured rocks" of the lake forming the back- 
ground. Tiie volume is from the firm of Raynor & Taylor, 
Detroit, Mich. 
In the American Mete<)1!0L0(;i8t for April Prof. Richard 
Owen describes some magnetic phenomena, both theoretical 
and actual, in the southern hemisphere. One of the import- 
ant facts is the observation made by Prof F. M. Webster, who 
has recently returned from Australia. At the instigation of 
Prof. Owen he applied the magnetic needle to the ends of a 
vertical iron bar, and found that the upper end rejects the 
marked end of the needle, and the lower portion attracts it. 
This is the reverse in the northern hemisphere. On the return 
passage Prof. Webster, by noting the latitude at which this 
attraction was reversed, ascertained that the neutral zone, or 
equator of magnetic dip and intensity, runs perhaps W miles 
north of the terrestrial equator at the longitude of his cross- 
ing it. Thus the magnetic equator can be located by any 
traveler, on land or sea, by the use of a pocket compass and 
short iron rod. 
The Texas legislature has made a most liberal appropria- 
tion for the continuance of the survey of that state. Mr. 
Dumble, the young state geologist, proposes to make good use 
of the funds and deserves the assistance and encouragement of 
the scientific world. Considering the obstacles he has had to 
combat and the delicacy of his political surroundings he has 
done well to secure this appropriation, and it is earnestly 
hoped that with two years of unobstructed opportunity he will 
give substantial scientific results to the world. Measured by 
the good appropriation secured, even the popular report 
reviewed in the last number may have been a wise measure. 
