special part of the profession with which the long-continued performance of my official duties has afforded me opportunities to become more familiar.

Electrical Engineering. — Of all the forces of nature, the one which has remained a hidden mystery longer than all the rest, but which of late has distanced all in the rapidity of its development, and which is certainly destined to excel them all in the extended range of its useful application, electricity, stands pre-eminent. In the prosecution of subterranean or subaqueous operations, such as tunnelling, mining, sinking of caissons, the use of electric light is found to be of special benefit. In its incandescent form it is absolutely safe against the dangers from explosive gases, and in caisson work it removes the risks and inconveniences incident to the ready and rapid combustion of inflammable substances under the influence of high atmospheric pressure.

Street-Railways and Rapid Transit. — The rapid growth of our cities gradually forces the inhabitants to seek their homes in the suburbs and surrounding country, more or less distant from the business and manufacturing centres where their employment lies. The desire for economy of time, and the necessity for punctuality and prompt attendance, have led to the introduction of various modes of conveyance, beginning with the street-car tramways propelled by horses, followed more recently by elevated railroads and cable-car lines, and still more lately by the electric railroad; which latter system has, within a few years, developed much more rapidly than any of the preceding methods.

At the close of the past year there were completed and in course of construction, in this country, eighty-five electric railways, comprising about 450 miles of track, and the reports show that during the last year over eighteen millions of passengers have been carried over these lines.

The cheapness of original construction and subsequent maintenance and operation commends their adoption in smaller cities, where the older systems would be out of the question; and the practicability of their application in situations which would exclude cable-lines and horse-traction has led to their introduction in places like my own home, Allegheny City, where an electric railway is now in successful operation, which, in a distance of one mile out of a total length of four miles, ascends, with a speed of fully four miles per hour, a hill over 400 feet high, upon gradients of 12 per cent, with numerous curves of 40 feet radius, the cars being often loaded with 75 people. Upon the lower portion of this line the electric current is supplied by means of an underground current, and on the upper portion of the line by the ordinary overhead conductors.

But while undoubtedly the electric railway will be generally preferred in the immediate future, it is by no means to be inferred that the cable-lines are to be considered as the motors of the past. On the contrary, their use will not only be continued, but greatly extended, wherever the conditions and circumstances favor their adoption. Among the advantages which they possess, are uniformity of motion, generally satisfactory speed, and the ease with which, in times of heavy travel, the vehicles can be multiplied and combined into convoys; and the facilities which they afford to converging horse-car lines, whose carriages they can attach to their own at the points of junction, saving thereby transfer of the passengers. The machinery used at the power-houses of some of the principal cable-lines is of very superior character, and some of the details employed are models of skill and ingenuity. Noteworthy among these are the engines of the Brooklyn Bridge cable-line, which many of us admired during the excursion at the time of the last annual meeting, and which are very interestingly described n a recent contribution to our "Transactions" by Mr. Gabriel Leverich, one of our members, and at one time secretary of this society. Elevated railways propelled by steam must necessarily remain confined to larger cities, where the volume of traffic promises a return for the capital invested in their expensive construction, and where the distances to be reached are sufficiently great to make the saving of time, by means of their superior speed, an inducement for patronage.

Water-Works. — The introduction of water-works is now so extensive in this country that there are but very few cities or towns of more than five thousand inhabitants which are not supplied with

one system or another. The beneficial results upon the health of the populations are universally recognized, and the sanitary blessings and the advantages in point of comfort are beyond all calculation. Wherever additions and changes become necessary in the older cities, wise precautions are generally taken, under the advice and direction of professionally skilled experts, to profit by former lessons, and to avoid the errors of the past.

The most extensive enterprises now in progress in connection with water-works extensions are the improvements embracing the * new lake tunnels at Chicago and Cleveland, the new Croton Aqueduct in the city of New York, and the aqueduct extension in Washington, D.C. In all these cases the question of greater purity has been carefully considered in connection with the increased supply. The collection and storing of water-supplies for large cities and manufacturing purposes require, in many cases, the construction of extensive reservoirs, with massive dams for the retaining of the reserve supply. The importance of constructing these dams of proper shape and size, and of suitable material and good workmanship, so as to insure their absolute strength, and give them sufficient resisting capacity against every possible contingency, has been taught by a recent lesson of frightful experience; and while the responsibility for this calamity may not be placed upon the shoulders of the profession, yet it will be well for its members to look upon it and remember it as a warning and an example.

An investigation of the cause of the failure of the South Fork dam is now being made by a committee appointed under a recent resolution of this society, who have just returned from a visit to the scene of the disaster.

Examinations and measurements of the structure and its surroundings, and extensive information obtained from various sources, will enable the committee to submit to the society in due time a comprehensive statement of the conditions and circumstances which have induced and contributed to this most disastrous fail

ure.

Sanitary Engineering. The extensions and improvements of the water-supplies of our cities naturally lead to the adoption of measures for the disposal of sewage. The respective merits of the different methods employed for this purpose have been very ably presented to the profession from time to time, in occasional contributions to our "Transactions," by several members of this society, who stand pre-eminent in their special calling; so that all that would now seem necessary in an emergency is the exercise of sound and impartial judgment in the adoption of the proper method for each special case.

The system most generally used in this country now, and which will no doubt be preferred for a long time to come, is that of common water-carriage by means of the so-called "combined" plan of discharging all sewage and storm-water together through common outlets into adjacent rivers, lakes, or tidal waters. The objectionable features of this method consist in the pollution of the streams and lakes, from which, in turn, the water-supply may have to be drawn; and the injurious effects caused by the deposit and periodical exposure of offensive matter upon the shores of tidal

waters.

In order to overcome, at least partially, these objectionable features, modifications of this method have been tried, consisting in a filtration and chemical purification of the sewage so as to reduce the offensive portions, and to render their final deposit into the streams of the district comparatively harmless. The methods employed for some time at Pullman, Ill., and more recently at Orange, N.J., are samples of this system.

Under the provisions of a law passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1886, the State Board of Health is authorized to investigate, through a commission of experts, the effect of sewage discharge upon the streams and inland waters of the Commonwealth, and to recommend to the courts annually plans in remedy of existing evils. Acting upon the reports of this board, several cities are now making preparations for the disposal of their sewage by various methods of purification and dilution. In connection with some of these systems, the fluid portion of the sewage is utilized as a fertilizer of farm-land.

By the general introduction of natural gas as a domestic fuel in Pittsburgh and other Western cities, a large amount of kitchen

garbage and house-sweepings, which heretofore were regularly burned with the solid fuel then in use, can no longer be disposed of in that way; and after various unsuccessful attempts to bury them, deposit them in the rivers, and burn them in open air, a number of specially designed furnaces were built for the destruction of these accumulations, to which are now added the offal from slaughter-houses, the leached-out bark from tanneries, and all garbage from the public markets. The heat created by the combustion of these waste substances is successfully utilized for generating steam in boilers attached to the furnaces, which, without the addition of any other fuel, except what is required for ignition, supply the motive power for operating the machinery in adjoining factories; so that these establishments not only improve the sanitary condition of the community by the prompt and radical destruction of vegetable and animal refuse, otherwise liable to decay on our hands, but also furnish a cheap fuel-supply for industrial purposes.

Streets and Highways. - Nearly all the larger cities of this country have now passed the experimental stages of their streetpaving experiences, and have by this time entered upon a period of more permanent and substantial improvements in that department of municipal engineering. The days of wooden roadways, the Nicholson, the cedar, and locust blocks, will soon be remembered only as things of the past, like plank roads of earlier date. The various compounds with which, at one time or another, nearly all our city streets have been plastered over and poulticed, have cracked and split, shrunk, melted, and evaporated, and been carried off piecemeal, in course of time, by the persistent adhesion of their ill-flavored mixtures to the boot-heels of the weary pedestrians in hot weather. The abominable cobble-stones, which have jarred our nerves and dislocated our spinal columns in years gone by, are finally relegated to the by-streets and back alleys. Such makeshifts may answer the purpose for a while in new towns of rapid growth, where better materials are not readily attainable, and where first cost is a paramount consideration; but they should never be renewed to the extent that has been the case so often, in spite of the most convincing experience, and contrary to the best counsel of professional advisers. The sums of money wasted in repeating these mistakes would in many instances have gone far towards carrying out much more permanent and substantial improvements.

For streets in the vicinity of freight-stations, or of manufacturing establishments employing heavy teaming, and for streets with steep gradients, pavements should be made of stone blocks of basalt, trap-rock, granite, or hard limestone, laid upon a bed of broken stone ballast, topped off with sand or fine gravel, well rammed, and joints filled with cement grouting or coal-tar; for streets used by lighter traffic or carriages only, a well-laid pavement of pure asphalt upon a bed of stone ballast answers the purpose very well, if prompt attention is given to the maintenance and necessary repairs; for parks and suburban pleasure-drives, a good macadamized road, well drained, and constantly kept in condition, affords a very superior and comfortable highway.

Of late years, pavements of hard burnt fire-clay brick have been extensively laid in many cities and towns of the Middle States, where the supply of this material is very abundant and remarkably cheap. In some towns of West Virginia and eastern Ohio such pavements have been laid for less than a dollar per square yard. They make smooth roadways, are easily kept clean, and last very well under moderately heavy traffic. This pavement is especially well adapted for cities of medium size, which cannot well afford more expensive kinds, and yet require something more substantial and durable than either asphalt or macadam.

But if there is one thing which needs reformation more than any other, it is the condition of our common country roads. If it is true that the highways of a people are a measure of their civilization, then we cannot complain if we are classed as an inferior type of low barbarians. The good nature with which we submit to the imposition of the annual road-tax is only equalled by the sublime resignation with which we accept the result of the effort which swallowed up our money. Our Western members all know what is meant by "working the roads." It means to plough a furrow on each side, and scrape the mud into a ridge in the middle, simply

to be washed down again into the ditches by the first shower of rain. And this performance is repeated year after year, under the provisions of our statutes, and by the consent of a law-abiding but much-suffering people. During the spring and fall, we struggle through the mud manfully as best we can; and when winter comes, and the bottom literally drops out of the roads, we quietly compose ourselves, and contentedly stay at home.

Some years ago, while out on an exploring expedition for a railroad in southern Ohio, I was compelled to hibernate, so to speak. with my entire party, for nearly a month, in a lonely village among the hills of Wills Creek in Noble County; and, when I made an effort to advise my employers of our situation, I was cheered by the comforting assurance of the postmaster that my letter would certainly go out just as soon as the roads dried up.

A faint ray of hope, however, is just beginning to dawn in some parts of the country, most conspicuously in Ohio, where, under the provisions of a recent law, a number of free turnpikes are being built, of quite a superior character, by special tax levied upon the adjacent property.

The beneficial results of this wise system of improvements are very great, and highly appreciated by the people, and it is sincerely to be hoped that other States will profit by the example.

Canals and Hydraulic Engineering. The days of ordinary canal navigation in the interior parts of this country may well be considered as numbered with the past. With the exception of the Erie Canal, which still maintains to some extent its character as a waterway of commerce, and excepting some parts of the canals in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, and Illinois, these primitive transportation lines have either been abandoned entirely, after outliving their short period of usefulness, or they are now merely utilized for carrying bulky products between local points, or for the supply of hydraulic power to manufacturing establishments.

Still more discouraging are the immediate prospects for the various maritime canal projects. The Panama Canal, upon which very large sums of money have been expended, has finally been abandoned, after many unsuccessful efforts of its projectors to raise the funds still required for its completion, and after, as a last resort, modifying the original plans of a sea-level canal to one with locks. But notwithstanding this momentary failure, I most sincerely hope and I honestly believe that it is yet reserved for American engineering skill and American enterprise to resurrect and successfully carry forward this great and important project to its ultimate completion.

The Tehuantepec Ship Railway, which, for the purpose on hand, may properly be classed with the maritime canals, has not met thus far with the encouragement which its importance and the unqualified indorsements of eminent professional talent would seem to justify. Probably the sad fate of its Panama rival, which places it for the present out of the range of active competition, may assist in reviving the ship-railway project to which our lamented fellowmember, the late Capt. Eads, devoted his energies during the last years of his useful life.

New interest is being manifested in the old ship-canal project across the Isthmus of Nicaragua, which, in the matter of demonstrable feasibility, undoubtedly has many points in its favor.

Among other ship-canal projects in active progress may be mentioned the Cape Cod Canal, which was commenced in 1880, and which will, when completed, connect the Bay of Cape Cod, by way of Herring River, with the head of Buzzard Bay in Massachusetts.

The magnificent success of the ship-canal at Sault Ste. Marie, not only as an engineering project but also as a commercial enterprise, has surpassed all expectations; and since its completion the traffic upon the northern lakes has been multiplied to such an extent that it has been found necessary to build an additional canal and a new lock of larger dimensions even than the one now in use. The direct impulse given by the completion of this canal to the lake navigation, and the indirect effect upon the general business of that region of country, have stimulated the work on the hydraulic canal at Sault Ste. Marie, from which great results are expected; and they have also hastened the operations in progress for deepening and widening the channels through the shallow parts of Hay Lake,

whereby the route from Lake Huron to Lake Superior will be considerably shortened and generally improved.

A project is now being agitated, contemplating a direct connection between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan across the narrow portion of the peninsula between Marquette and Escanaba, whereby the passage through the Sault Ste. Marie would be entirely avoided, and much distance saved for the traffic between Lakes Superior and Michigan.

In the extension of the river-walls in New York harbor, under the Department of Docks, large concrete blocks are being used, weighing from 60 to 75 tons, and requiring hoisting-machinery of extraordinary size and power to place them in position. Similar blocks are being placed in the walls along the lake-front in Chicago, where they have been found to resist effectually the action of the waves in places where all former methods of protection have failed. Railroads. Sixty years ago railroads were unknown in this country. At that time the population of the United States consisted of 12,000,000 people. To-day we operate 160,000 miles of railroad, and our population has increased to 60,000,000 people. In 1830 the aggregate wealth of the United States was less than $1,000,000,000: at present it is estimated at $56,000,000,000. Just how much of this phenomenal prosperity may be due to the railroads, it is, of course, impossible to conjecture; but it may be safely assumed that they have very largely contributed to the result. While the population has increased during the last fifty years about 350 per cent, the ratio of increase of the railroad mileage for the same period has been nearly four times that of the population, which would seem to indicate that they have not only supplied a want of the past, but have kept well up with the contemporaneous growth of the country, if they have not, indeed, advanced beyond its actual necessities. The railroad mileage of the United States is now fully one-half that of the total railroad mileage upon this globe, while our population is only about one-twenty fourth part. and our area of territory only about one-twentieth part, of that of the inhabited world.

You have all heard the familiar illustration about girdling the equator a dozen times, more or less, with our railroad-tracks; but it will no doubt please you to know, that, since you heard the statement last, enough additional rail has been laid to give the equator another twist; and I might further supplement the illustration by the assurance that we have now a sufficient supply of materials in the tracks of this country to build a railroad to the moon. Over these 160,000 miles of railroad we carried last year 475,000,000 people, and transported 600,000,000 tons of freight. Upon these lines are engaged 1,000,000 employees. Their equipment consists of 30,000 locomotives, 21,000 passenger-cars, 7,000 baggagecars, and 1,000,000 freight-cars. The capital invested in their construction and equipment amounts to $8,000,000,000, and the yearly disbursements for labor and supplies exceed $600,000,000.

The creation of these vast properties has been accomplished by aggregation rather than by preconcerted systematic development. The trunk lines of the present day are to a great extent composed of pieces of road originally built by local enterprises, and absorbed from time to time by lease or purchase, to constitute with other acquisitions, in connection with some specially constructed connecting links, the various systems under the management and control of the leading railroad companies of the country.

The recent revival of the temporarily abandoned Hudson River Tunnel project, and the proposed tunnel under the river at Detroit, are enterprises demanded by the necessity of continuous transportation lines for the through traffic of our railroads.

The numerous accidents which happen at points where public highways cross the railroads at grade, in spite of alarm-bells, watchmen, and safety-gates, have led to the enactment of laws in some of the Eastern States looking towards a gradual abandonment of existing crossings and the absolute prohibition of new ones in the future. During the years 1887 and 1888 there were abolished in Connecticut 93 grade-crossings, at a cost of $625,000. In Massachusetts a special committee of the Legislature has recently reported upon this subject, recommending that all dividend-paying roads eliminate annually 5 per cent, and all non-dividend-paying roads 2 per cent, of their grade-crossings at the joint expense of the railroads and communities, and that in future no grade-cross

ings shall be permitted. It is to be hoped that the beneficial results of these wise measures will induce other States to take this subject under serious consideration.

The most noteworthy engineering feature in connection with the general progress of railroad construction in this country is the building of bridge structures upon a constantly increasing scale. In 1862 I triangulated the positions and laid the foundations for the piers of the channel span of the Ohio River bridge at Steubenville. This was the first iron railroad-bridge over any of the navigable tributaries of the Mississippi River. The length of its channel span was 320 feet, and it was the longest iron truss ever attempted up to that time. It was designed by Mr. J. H. Linville, still a member of this society; and it has carried in safety, and without accident, the traffic of one of the principal Western connecting lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad for twenty-five years, and is now being replaced by Mr. Henry G. Morse, also a member of this society, giving way to a double-track structure. Today twelve railroad-bridges span the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and Cairo, and two more are in progress of construction. There are fourteen railroad-bridges over the Mississippi, and fifteen over the Missouri. Many of these structures have spans of 500 feet, and one of the projected bridges over the lower Mississippi was designed with a span of 730 feet; but this plan, I understand, has been abandoned, and a cantilever structure adopted in its place.

The erection of these large bridges has become a special business in this country, and the leading contractors engaged in that pursuit have acquired wonderful skill in the performance of this dangerous and difficult work. Few people appreciate the risks and hardships encountered, and the courage and judgment required, in dismantling an old railroad-bridge and erecting a new one in its place, with a deep and rapid river running underneath, a strong wind blowing, and a hundred trains passing daily over the frail, temporary supports, which must carry the traffic during the replacement. The mere erection of entirely new structures, free from the encumbrance of moving traffic, is considered an easy job. In October last, the contractors engaged in the erection of the bridge at Cairo swung free and clear a 520-foot span in six days, and in November last the same parties erected the trusses of another span of 520 feet length in 44 hours, and more recently they erected a 400-foot span in 31 hours, the wind blowing a gale nearly all the time.

The successful completion during the past year of the Hudson River cantilever bridge at Poughkeepsie reflects great credit upon the builders and engineers in charge; and the equally successful completion and skilfully conducted erection of the Hawkesbury Bridge in New South Wales adds new fame to the same firm of contractors, whose leading partners are all prominent members of this society.

Whether the limit of possibilities in bridge construction will be reached in the execution of Mr. Gustav Lindenthal's design of a railroad suspension-bridge over the Hudson River, with a span of 2,800 feet, resting upon towers 500 feet high, and carrying, in addition to wagon-ways and foot-walks, six railroad-tracks, at a height of 150 feet above water; or whether the projected crossing of the British Channel will require still larger dimensions, are problems which may perhaps interest at some future day the younger members of this society.

NOTES AND NEWS.

ACCORDING to an ancient superstition, says Garden and Forest, the beech is never struck by lightning; and so general has been this belief, that a gentleman recently thought it worth while to write to an English journal that he had been told of a lightningshattered beech in Ireland. Beliefs of this sort are rarely without some degree of justification in fact, and it would be interesting to know whether in this country the beech has been observed to possess any greater immunity from electrical dangers than trees of other

sorts.

The Gardeners' Chronicle says that the gingko is proving itself one of the best trees for street-planting in smoky cities, thriving in the most impure atmospheres, and having as yet been attacked

by no insect or fungus disease. In this country, according to Garden and Forest, no extensive use has been made of the gingko as a street tree except in Washington, where of course it is not subjected to the test of an atmosphere impregnated with smoke. If it is, indeed, able to withstand the most unfavorable conditions, it might be more generally adopted; for it grows rapidly, its shape well adapts it for association with architectural forms, and the peculiar character of its foliage always makes it interesting to the popular eye.

The true eating banana, or “madura,” is said to be unknown in northern countries, the varieties we import being simply those which are used in the land of their growth for cooking-purposes. Garden and Forest states that many varieties of the madura are recognized, each of which is distinct in flavor. The smaller are the more delicious; and the smallest of all, the so-called ladyfinger banana," with a skin hardly thicker than paper, is the most highly prized. Green cooking-bananas are peeled, and roasted in the ashes, and eaten with butter; partially ripe ones are boiled for a few minutes with the skin on, and eaten with sirup or honey; and ripe ones are sliced lengthwise, and fried in olive-oil or butter.

It will be new to some Americans, even though they know that peaches are commonly cultivated under glass in England, to be told that cherries are also grown in this manner. A correspondent of the Gardeners' Chronicle recently described the cherryhouse at Gunnersbury Park, where many different varieties afford fruit at different times during the season. When the trees are started into growth," he says, "a temperature of 45° by day, and 40° by night, is maintained. When they are in flower, plenty of air is given, and the bees are encouraged to work among the blossoms as much as possible. Scarcely any fire-heat is employed: indeed, it had been employed only once or twice in order to keep out frost. At the time of flowering, plenty of ventilation is given, top and bottom. As soon as the fruit has set, the house is closed up somewhat, and the temperature kept quite cool until the stoning process is over; then it is kept a little closer, as, when the fruit has stoned it ripens quickly. It is a little difficult to thin out the fruit previous to the stoning stage, as it is uncertain which fruit will mature, and which fail. A good watering is given to the trees before they get into flower, and then water is applied with moderation until the fruit has set. Cherries appear to do best, and set their fruit more freely, when somewhat dry at the roots, whether the trees are planted out or in pots, and it appears to be quite certain that all flower more freely when worked on the mahaleb than when on the cherry stock."

— The following interesting report to the United States Hydrographic Office from the American steamer " Indiana," Capt. W. I. Boggs, seems to indicate a normal condition of the Gulf Stream in the regions and during the times stated: "From noon of May 22 (latitude 40° 20' north, longitude 60° 8' west) to noon, May 23 (latitude 40° 46′ north, longitude 54° 29′ west), experienced a current setting N. 68° E., drift 16.4 knots. The temperature of sea was noted every two hours: maximum temperature, 72°; minimum temperature, 60°; mean temperature, 66°. From noon of May 24 (latitude 41° 15′ north, longitude 49° 3′ west) to noon, May 25 (latitude 43° 49′ north, longitude 43° 47 west), current set N. 51° E., drift 23 knots. The temperature of sea was noted every two hours (and during hours of darkness every half-hour): maximum, 64°; minimum, 54°; mean, 62°; twenty-four observations being taken." It is interesting to note, in this connection, that during the above period, and for fully a week previous, no general storms occurred in the regions referred to. On the contrary, the winds were variable in force and direction, seldom reaching a force of 6 (Beaufort's scale).

Attention is called to certain changes that have been adopted on the Atlantic Pilot Chart" for July, which, it is thought, will commend themselves to all who have occasion to use it. The most important of these is the enlargement of the area represented, the eastern limit being now 10° east longitude (instead of 4°, as heretofore). This allows the whole of the North Sea to be shown, more of the Mediterranean than before, and the entire Gulf of Guinea. The system by means of which the prevailing winds are

indicated in each ocean square has also been changed slightly. Instead of representing a north-east wind, for instance, by an arrow pointing away from the centre of the square at the south-west point of the compass, it is now represented by an arrow pointing toward the centre at the north-east point of the compass. This is regarded as more graphic than the old method, the point of each arrow giving, at a glance, the true direction of the wind (the point from which it blows).

-The Brooklyn Academy of Science, a society incorporated Aug. 22, 1888, has opened a free reading-room in their rooms in Warner Institute, Willoughby Avenue and Broadway, in that city. The various scientific journals will be upon the tables, and there is no charge to the public. Donations of papers will be greatly appreciated.

- A boiler may be inspected to-day and found to be safe under a working pressure of one hundred, and be weakened to-night by low water so as to be dangerous to-morrow with fifty pounds pressure. Yet, as the Age of Steel says, it may explode a month hence with sixty pounds pressure and plenty of water, but the cause is as certainly low water as if it had exploded when the water was low. There is but one sure remedy, and it is a simple one. Put on a real safeguard, something simple, which has been tried, and proven to be trustworthy.

According to the British Medical Journal, the programme of the Leeds meeting of the British Medical Association in August next "is developing in such manner as to afford the ample promise of a meeting of great scientific as well as social interest, and one which will be worthy of the traditions of this great medical centre."

The sacred lotus (Nelumbium speciosum) has become established in a pond in New Jersey, and proves hardy, although the surface of the water is frozen over during the winter. The history of its planting, by E. D. Sturtevant, is given in Garden and Forest for April 10, with a fine photo-engraving of the spot, showing hundreds of open flowers.

There seems to be every prospect, according to Engineering, that the efforts made by the French engineers to entertain the American party of engineers will be very successful. It is intended that an hour and a half or two hours should be spent in Calais to examine the new harbor-works there; and the special train which the Northern Railway of France has so liberally placed at their disposal will make a détour and stop near St. Omer, to give the engineers an opportunity of inspecting the great hydraulic canallifts. On the day after their arrival in Paris nothing official will be done, but on the following morning a formal reception will be held at the offices of the French Society of Civil Engineers. The party will then breakfast with M. Eiffel on the first story of the tower, and will afterwards ascend to the top in detachments. A part of this day will also be spent in an organized visit to the exhibition. The Ville de Paris has made arrangements for an excursion through the Paris sewers, and further visits to the exhibition and elsewhere will be paid. One of the most interesting of the latter will be the compressed-air installations of the Popp Company. Altogether, though the Paris programme is not yet complete, it is certain to be a very full, hospitable, and attractive one.

-The Engineering and Mining Journal says, "It will be remembered that some enterprising associated press agent startled the country a few weeks ago by announcing that the Standard Oil Company had wired from the Media works to Philadelphia for two hundred bull-dogs, which news item the telegraph editors and 'home correspondents' of some of the metropolitan dailies ingeniously enlarged into a small-sized sensation, lasting a day or two, until it was discovered that the bull-dogs' wanted were merely harmless lifting-jacks of a particular style. As an example of how so much remarkable literature is floated, observe the following judicial and editorial comment of one of our technical exchanges in its issue of June 22, at which late date it does not seem to have yet 'caught on 'The Standard Oil Company has, however, introduced a new style of watchman, which we think will be efficient. The company has suffered a good deal by tramps and loafers getting too near its tanks and smoking, and thus setting fire to the gas

generated by the oil, which ignites easily; and it has now given an order to a dog-fancier's association for two hundred bull-dogs, to range in age from six months to a year, the price to be fifteen dollars each. The dogs are to be placed where the company has distributing-stations, and used in the field to guard the large iron tanks that are full of oil. The bull-dog watchman certainly has this merit over the average biped private watchman, that he neither smokes, drinks, nor goes to sleep on watch.'

"

We learn from Nature that the Russian Academy of Sciences offers a prize of $2,500 for the best inquiry into the nature and effects of the poison which develops in cured fish. The objects of competitors must be: "(1) To determine, by means of exact experiments, the physical and chemical nature of the poison which develops in fish; (2) to study, by experiments on animals, its action upon the heart, the circulation of the blood, the organs of digestion, and the nervous system; (3) to determine the rapidity of its absorption by the digestive organs; and (4) to study and describe the characteristics which may serve to distinguish contaminated fish from such as are not contaminated." The fifth and sixth questions, with which it may be impossible for any one to deal satisfactorily, relate to the means of preserving fish from the development of the poison, and to the question of counter-poisons and the medical treatment of poisoned persons. The competition is open to all. The memoirs must be sent in, either in manuscript or printed, before Jan. 1, 1893, and may be written in any one of the following languages: Russian, Latin, French, English, German. If none of the papers is deemed worthy of the full prize, the accumulated interest upon the above-named sum may be handed over to the author who presents the best solution of some part of the problem.

— Arrangements have been made for a daily exchange of telegraphic weather reports between Washington and Havana during the present hurricane season. Early and reliable information can be obtained at any branch hydrographic office.

- The forecast of weather on the Atlantic for July by the United States Hydrographic Office is that generally fair weather will prevail. Occasional moderate gales, frequently accompanied by electric phenomena, will be felt north of the 40th parallel; and West Indian hurricanes are apt to occur, especially during the latter part of the month. Frequent fogs may be expected over the Grand Banks, along the northern coast of the United States, and in the neighborhood of the British Isles. Icebergs are liable to be encountered in the vicinity of the Grand Banks, between the 46th and 53d meridians, as far south as latitude 42° 30' north. Field-ice should be looked out for to the eastward and southward of Newfoundland and off the coast of Cape Breton Island.

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- People may walk until they are fatigued through the almost endless buildings on the Champ de Mars, and yet fail to find any great and striking object by which they would especially remember the exhibition of 1889. The place is filled with evidences of untiring industry and skill on every side, but there is a strange absence of great novelties. We believe, however, that the exhibition will be famous for four distinctive features, - in the first place, for its buildings, especially the Eiffel Tower and the Machinery Hall; in the second place, for its Colonial Exhibition, which for the first time brings vividly to the appreciation of Frenchmen that they are masters of lands beyond the sea; third, it will be remembered for its great collection of war material, the most absorbing subject nowadays, unfortunately, to governments, if not to individuals; and, fourth, it will be remembered, and with good cause by many, for the extraordinary manner in which South American

countries are represented. Several of those nationalities are beginning to put themselves forward as appreciable factors in the politics of the world, and, what is of more interest to the manufacturer, they constitute the richest and largest customers in European and North American markets. Especially this is the case with regard to agricultural machinery of all kinds, and those exhibiters are fortunate who are well represented in this respect.

Mr. Henry William Bristow, F.R.S., died on Friday, June 14, at the age of seventy-two. In 1842, according to Nature, he was appointed a member of the staff of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. Mr. Bristow published various works on mineralogy and geology, and was the author of the mineralogical articles in Brande's “Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art," and of articles on minerals and rocks in Ure's "Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines." He became a fellow of the Geological Society in 1843, and of the Royal Society in 1862, and an honorary fellow of King's College, London, in 1863. He received the diploma of the Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna, and from the King of Italy the diploma and insignia of an officer of the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus.

- In reference to the destructive volcanic eruption on the Island of Oshima (better known to the Western world as Vries Island), it seems that the first news of it was brought to Yokohama by the master of a passing steamer, who described the mountain Miharaizan as being in fiercely active eruption on the morning of April 13. The eruption was of such a nature that it attracted attention on board the steamer at a great distance. Afterwards it was ascertained that the outbreak was at the western base of the mountain. From this it would appear that a new crater has been formed, as the old crater is at the top of the mountain, though there is a place to the south-west whence smoke is always issuing from the sands. The Japan Weekly Mail, from which this information is taken, gives the following historical account of this remarkable volcanic island. Miharaizan, according to the oldest Japanese historical records, was an active volcano so far back as 684 A.D., but the earliest authentic notice of its activity appears to have been taken in 1421, when the sea boiled, and the fish died in shoals. In 1684 an eruption commenced which lasted seven years; and in 1703 there was a great earthquake and tidal wave, and part of the island broke down, and formed the present harbor. In 1777 the mountain was in active eruption, and the island was covered several inches deep with ashes, such phenomena being almost constantly repeated from that date till 1792. It was then quiet till 1837, and more or less in action for the following twenty years. Another lull then took place, when, in 1868, it again broke out, and continued in action four days. The next eruption occurred in 1876, and lasted nearly two months. The most destructive eruptions of Miharaizan were probably those of 1781 and 1789, as during the latter the village of Shimotaka was entirely destroyed, and the people and their houses were completely buried in ashes. There are at present six villages on the island, containing a population of five thousand persons, mostly fishermen.

Maria Mitchell, the well-known astronomer, until recently professor of astronomy at Vassar, died June 28 at Lynn, Mass. Miss Mitchell was born in Nantucket in 1818, and inherited her love of astronomy from her father, a bank cashier who made a hobby of astronomical investigations. It was one of Miss Mitchell's ambitions to discover a telescopic comet, an ambition that was satisfied in 1847. For this discovery a medal was presented to her by the King of Denmark, although, doubting the reality of her discovery for a time, Miss Mitchell had delayed publishing it, a delay which came near losing her the honor, as European astronomers had found the same comet, and made earlier publication. It was through the earnest presentation of her case by Edward Everett that the medal reached this famous woman astronomer.

- Theodore Dwight Woolsey, president of Yale College from 1846 to 1871, died July 1. He was born in New York, Oct. 31, 1801. Besides his Greek text-books, published early in his career, his sermons and essays, President Woolsey wrote the well-known "Treatise on International Law."