152 Personal and Scientific News, 
granulyte mountains lias been confirmed to a far greater extent-than was at 
first expected, notwithstanding-some necessary corrections and additions. 
-The same hypothesis approached very near the truth in regard to the 
gneisses in the granulyte, inasmuch as this must lie at the base of a sup¬ 
posed schist broken through by granulyte. Such schist, or gneiss, may 
have been penetrated by granitic masses either before or after its enclos- 
ure in the granulyte. 
It would be of great value to prosecute an examination into the origin 
of certain crystalline schists in other Archsean regions, especially in the 
neighboring Erz mountains. Perhaps many will be found to be eruptive 
which are now taken to be portions of the oldest sedimentary rocks. 
Especially would it be well to investigate the “red gneisses,” with a view 
to ascertaining whether they do not also present features which may 
prove them to be eruptive in the same manner as those from Bohrigen 
and Rosswein. Their transition into granite appears to give some found¬ 
ation for such a prediction. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Prof. J. W. Spencer was recently appointed state geolo¬ 
gist of Georgia. 
Dr. J. S. Kingsley, editor of the American Naturalist, 
and too well known in scientific circles to need farther introduc¬ 
tion, has been elected to the chair of Agriculture and Biology 
in the University of Nebraska. 
Dr. Charles A. Schaeffer, Presidents the State Uni¬ 
versity of Iowa, is now at work on analyses of some clays and 
chalky beds that occur in the Cretaceous deposits of Woodbury 
county, with a view to ascertaining their availability as ma¬ 
terials for the manufacture of Portland cement. The indica¬ 
tions are that with proper handling a superior quality of cement 
could be made from them, and the cost would be such as to 
yield a fair profit. 
Prof. W. H. Benedict, of Port Henry, N. Y., has made an 
important discovery in the Potsdam sandstone near that place. 
He has found a layer marked by tracks and trails of a crusta¬ 
cean inhabiting the ocean of the Potsdam era. They are in 
connection with fine ripple-marking, making a most excellent 
appearance. A quantity of the stone has been quarried and 
will be displayed in the state museum. 
Mr. Otto L. Syrski, who was mentioned in some of the 
early numbers of the Geologist , now confined in the Ohio peni¬ 
tentiary for theft of scientific books- and apparatus, - was re¬ 
cently visited by Prof. E. T. Nelson, of Delaware, 0. This 
gentleman, who was formerly “deaf and dumb,” has recovered 
his voice, and has made a fine record in the penitentiary, where 
he. teaches the night-school. 
