Personal and Scientific News. 291 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Professor C. H. Hitchcock, of Hanover, N. H., is about to 
organize another expedition to Greenland for the summer of 
1897, with Lieut. Peary. The cost per man, last year, was 
$500, and it is expected to be about the same this year. 
New Mine Inspector in Kentucky. Governor Bradley has 
appointed G. W. Stone, a lawyer and a politician, who -'warm- 
ly supported governor Bradley in his race for governor in 
1895," to the position of mine inspector of Kentuck3\ Such 
positions, requiring the knowledge and skill of a practical 
geologist, ought to be exempt from the spoilsman's control. 
Governor Tanner, of Illinois, through the inscrutable 
ways of political magic, has converted a steamboat agent into 
a geologist. In other words, he has appointed Mr. C. H. 
Crantz, state geologist and curator of the state museum at 
Springfield. Wlien the otiice of state geologist falls into the 
position of a politician's football, its questionable usefulness 
is exemplified by the history o-f Indiana and Illinois for the 
last few years. 
The American Institute of Mining Engineers held its 
seventy-second meeting in Chicago, beginning Tuesday, Feb. 
16th. The following papers, relating more or less to geology, 
were read : 
The geology of the magnetites near Port Henry, N. Y. J. F. Kemp. 
The manganese deposits of Panama, E. J. Chibas. 
The Chicago drainage canal. J. F. Leuns. 
The genesis of auriferous lodes from a chemical point of view. J. R. 
Don. 
The cement materials of southwestern Arkansas. J. C. Branner. 
The Chromite deposits on Port au Port bay, Newfoundland. G. W. 
.Maynarcl. 
Faulting in glacial gravels. W. S. Gresley. 
A Nova Scotia copper deposit. Henrif Lewis. 
The I'otsdam gold ore of the Black HiUs. F. C. Siiiilh. 
Geolo(;ical Section of the New York Academy of Sci- 
ences, February 15, 1897. Tlie hrst paper of the evening was 
by Mr. F. C.Nicholas, and was entitled '• Explorations in the 
gold fields of western Columliia.'" 
Mr. Nicholas described the curious placers in western Columl)ia, 
which, while extremely rich in limited portions, are of very low grade 
when considered as extended propositions. The gold gravels occur 
along the western base of the Andes mountains and extend from the 
gulf of Darien southward up the Atrato river to Quibdo. They are also 
found to th(^ southward of the San Juan river, and are in the form of 
terraces similar to the terraces of the Atlantic states. The snrfaee ge- 
ology indicates that the gulf of Darien formerly extended a long dis- 
tance up the valley of the Atrato. Quite detailed descriptions of the 
valleys and of the character of the terraces were given in the paper. 
Mr. Nicholas described a route by which a man could sail in a canoe 
from the Atlantic to the Pacitic, in the wet season, by going up the 
Atrato river to the Quito river, thence to the divide, which is a series of 
swamps, thence into the San Pabhj river and so down the SJin Juan to 
the Pacific. 
