Personal and Scientific News. 
343 
Stillwater well is wholly below the Trenton limestone. (2) 
From 717 feet to the bottom of the well is Keweenawan. This 
thins out or runs deeper, toward the south, not appearing at 
the depth of 1160 feet at Hastings. (3) The Keweenawan 
rocks at Stillwater are almost identical with those at Kewee¬ 
naw Point. (4) The well may be of some value as a source of 
water-supply ; but as a source of gas the prospects are poor—or 
we might say there are no prospects whatever. (5) The well is of 
great value to geologists, as it fixes the place of the Keweenaw¬ 
an below the light-colored sandstones of the Northwest, and 
hence effectually removes them from the mesozoic age. In 
several places the brown shales and sandstones that here are 
shown to overlie the traps, have been pierced by wells in 
Minnesota but not penetrated, and hence the question was left 
open as to the age of the traps. This question is, therefore, 
no longer a debatable one. 
The Geological Survey of Sweden has presented to the State 
of Illinois a complete set of its publications, comprising 121 
lithographed maps, each accompanied with a descriptive 
octavo pamphlet, and ninety-nine .monograhps, seventy-three 
in octavo and twenty-six in quarto. These publications are 
not gratuitously distributed at home, but sold at the cost of 
paper and printing, the aggregate price of the set being 390 
kronor, or about $106. The postage on the whole lot (prepaid) 
amounted to nearly $12. But very few institutions outside of 
the kingdom have been honored with a similar courtesy. 
This survey was organized in 1855 under the direction of 
professor A. Erdmann, who at his death in 1870 was succeeded 
by the present director, professor Otto M. Torell, of Arctic 
fame. The officers permanently employed on his staff number 
twelve, all professional scientists, besides janitors, etc., and in 
the summer seasons extra forces are added for special work. 
The annual appropriations have gradually increased from 
60,000 kronor, or about $16,000 in 1885, to 88,500 kronor, or 
about $24,000 in 1889. Still this survey only comprises the 
purely geognostical branch of the science, with its bearings on 
economy, while the paleontology is cared for in another insti¬ 
tution, viz, the (two) paleontological departments of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences. 
The population of Sweden is not much larger than that of 
Illinois, while its area covers 171,749 English square miles or 
more than three times the area of that state. The national 
wealth of the kingdom is undoubtedly far below that of Illi¬ 
nois (I have no statistical figures to offer), and the natural 
resources of the soil and rocks of Sweden are still smaller, as 
compared with those of Illinois. But the intelligent rulers of 
Sweden realize that the people can not afford to neglect scien¬ 
tific investigations which will enable them to take the full 
advantage of all that there is to be obtained from the soils and 
rocks, and they invest in those investigations every year about 
