136 The American Geotdpist August, \m 
against which he can find plentj of proof in the field. He also writes 
of the ( 'hi cage nutlet of thegreal lakes, ami here again, had he studied 
my papers, he would have seen thai several beaohes are lower than the 
present surface of the head of lake Michigan, — submerged, in short, — 
at levels higher than the drowned Algonquin <>r Nipissing beach (as he 
calls it ). Also he says that seven-eighths of the Algonquin uplift in the 
Nipissing region took place before the birth of Niagara. I should like 
to know the grounds for this calculation, for my computations, based 
on the actual surveys of beaches sJiow thai onlj one-fifth of that uplift 
was before the birth of Niagara, and that the age of the Niagara falls 
is indicated to be a in mi 32.000 years. M r. LIpham's paper is misleading, 
so far as anything I have done in surveys of the lakes is concerned; bul 
I dislike tn criticise aii\ writer, and especially before all the results are 
published, for I here are other phenomena that c annul be explained awa) 
i>\ a priori reasoning. 
One word more: around the northeastern Hanks of the Adirondacks 
beaches extend a i high levels into the Champlain valley land contain no 
shells). The position of these beaches disproves any glacial dam at that 
locality. J. W. Spencer, 
July 5th, 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
George Huntington Williams, Professor of Inorganic Ge- 
ology in Johns Hopkins University and vice president of the 
Geological Society of America, died of typhoid fever at his 
father's house. I'tira. N. Y.. July 12th: aged 38. Prof. Wil- 
liams graduated from Amherst in 1878 and studied under 
Rosenbusch at Heidelberg, where he took the degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy in 1882; the next year he became connected 
with .Johns Hopkins and was associate professor there from 
L885 to 1892 when he was appointed to the chair he held at 
his death. A number of the younger geologists of the coun- 
try have studied under him and to them, as well as to all who 
knew him, the news of his death comes with special sadness. 
In an early number of the Geologist we hope to give a more 
extended account of the life and work of Prof. Williams, who. 
both by his publications and his teaching, has done more 
than any other individual to advance the knowledge of pe- 
trography in America. 
At the Kansas State University the whole subject of 
stvatigraphic and physical geology has been assigned to Prof . 
Haworth, leaving only paleontology to Prof. Williston. A 
collecting expedition to the "hud lands" of Dakota has been 
made under the direction of Prof. Williston. 
