13S Tersonal and Scientific News. 
of large numbers of rounded hills and elongated ridges appar- 
ently corresponding to the kamcs and asar of Ireland and 
Scandinavia respectively, a unique distribution of the loess 
which is here generally confined to the summits of eminences 
including kames and asar, an anomalous deportment on the part 
of the rivers of the area, whose general courses are at right 
angles to the general slope of the surface, and which have fre- 
quently avoided driftless valleys and lowlands and have cut 
considerable canons in the axes of ridges and other elevated 
tracts. A few preliminary notices of these phenomena have 
been published, but no systematic report upon the investigations 
has thus far been issued. It now appears that the delay in pub- 
lication was due to the necessity for topographic maps exhibit- 
ing the unique distribution of the loess and the drainage lines. 
This requirement was met last summer by a topographic survey 
of an area of one hvmdred square miles centering about Iowa 
City, upon a scale of a mile to an inch with twenty foot con- 
tours, and Mr. McGee is now reviewing this area with a view 
to the preparation of a memoir embodying the results of his 
various investigations in Iowa. 
The annual meeting of the American Association 
FOR THE Advancement of Science will be held during the 
week beginning August 15, at Cleveland, Ohio. There is every 
prospect of a large and successful meeting. The retiring presi- 
dent is Prof. S. P. Langley, Washington, and the president 
elect is Maj. J. W. Powell, director of the U. S. geological 
survey. Section E. will be presided over by Prof. George H. 
Cook the veteran state geologist of New Jersey. Prof. George 
H. Williams, who was elected secretary of Section E., has re- 
signed. The members of Section E will hold an informal 
meeting at the Central High School building on Tuesday, Au- 
gust iz|, at three o'clock to consider plans for holding sessions 
between the annual meetings of the Association. 
Dr. Persifor Frazer, secretary of the American 
Committee of the International Congress of Geologists, one 
of the editors of this journal, leaves early in August for Europe. 
Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, another member of the American Com- 
mittee, sailed from Quebec for Liverpool on July 12, on the 
SS. Polynesian, and intends to be absent till October. 
The regents of the University of Texas recently 
elected Mr. Robert T. Hill, of Commanche, professor of geol- 
ogy in the university. Mr. Hill has so thoroughly studied and 
described the Cretaceous of Texas that it may be said to be es- 
tablished on a new foundation. 
According to W. T. Cummins the western area of the 
Carboniferous in Texas is entirely barren of coal, and in the 
foot-hills the ovelying Cretaceous is found to dip conformably 
with the Carboniferous. 
