Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/23

 jA^tCAnr 2, I8SI.1

��SCIENCE.

��Wttleiii«iit of Che western ponluti nf Kansas will luiv« a similar effect upon its rainfall; but it is not reuonable lo expect that westt\ra Kansas will ever IXHUt of a rainrall equal to that of enUern EaDsas. So long as the cMterti half of the state remniTig to tbe east of the meridian fonnlng the western boiind- ■17 of the Gulf of Mexico, the south wlaAs will cause U to receive much larger supplies of vapor, for con- dCDMtioD into r^u, than will be received by the we«Iem half of the state, which lies iieyond the im- mediate tracl: of the vapor-laden winds. It must be remembered that climatic changes are exceeiliiigly gntdiutl; and a rain deflcleucy or excess for a siBgle year, or for two or three years In succession, must not be coiisidereil as invalidating the law of general averages. Xeither should the fact lliat the rainfall, upon the whole. In increasing, induce settlers to brealt land in the western third of Kansas with the cxpec- tAlion of suc<-essfully rai»>ing the same crops u In «MI«m Kansas. Such se tilers will surely be disap- pointed. It is even doubtful if paying crop^ of any iiJnd can ever be continuously produced iti that region, With an average before settlement of about fifteen Inches p«r annum, the same |>crcentage of increase as has been made in eastern Kansas in thirty years wtiuld gire an annual amount of less than eighteen inches, — a i|uantlly entirely inadequate I mccessfiil agriculture.

��At a meeting held in Boston, Sept 23, tn consider the advisability of the formation of a society for paychlcal research in America, thu whole matter was pltieed in the hands of a. committee of nine, consist- ing of Dr. G. Stanley Hall of Jolins Hopkins milver- silj; Prof. E. C. Pickering, director of the Harvard college observatory; Dr. H. P. Buwditch and Dr. C. S. MInot, of the Harvard medical school; Mr. S. U. Scudder, preiiilent, and Professor Alpheus ilyatt, cntainr, of the Boston society of nalural history; Pro- feuor William James of Harvard collie; Piofes- tor William Walaon of Boston; and Mr. X. D. C. Hodges of Cambridge. This committee held a tiutii- her of meetings during the months of Ocloi>er an<l November, and issued an invitation to a, number of scientific men throughout the country to join In a Mdety under a constitution upon which they had decided. To this invitation there were favorable replies from about eighty.

The flrsl meethig of the society was held in Bosloti on the 18th of December. Under the constitution the conduct of the society is placed In the hands of a council of twenty-one. seven to be chosen each year, In hold office three years. Of this conncil, there were elected at this first meeting, fifteen: Prof. G. Stanley Hill, Prot. George S. Fullerton, Dr. William James, TnL E. C. Pickering, for three years; Professor Simon Bammnb, Dr. C. S. Hinot, Dr. H. p. Bowditch, Jfr. N. D. C. Hodges, for two years; Prof. George F. Barker, Mr. .S. H. Scudder. Bev. C, V. Everett, Mr.

��MoreReld Storey, ProfeB'oi' John Trowbridge, I'mfi'S- sor William Watson, Professor Alpbeus Hyatt, for one year.

The snb-coinmiiitee on work made an informal report, and has since issued a circular to members, asking for volniiteers on the Investigating committees and for infonnalinn reganltngproinisins subjects for investigation, such as mediums, mind-readers, mes- meric subjects, etc.

The society ail jo urn ed to meet on the ninth day of January.

��TtfK NATURAL BRIDGE OF V/RGimA.^

DUBisu a recent trip to Virginia (Oct. 2 r.o (i) I visited the Natural Bridge; and although in posses- sion of the guide-book of the locality (edition of 18S4), and the admirable articles published by Uajor Jed. Holchkiss in The I'irnlnias, I failed to obtain certain information relating to the bridge, which would be of special interest to the topographer and geologist, Somf of the observations which I made, although of a general character, may he of interest.

The bridge is undoubtedly the remnant of the top of a cave which was probably formed long before the Luray cavern, which Is excavated out of the same lower Silurian limestone formation. The bridge seems to be located in the centre of a gentle basin or synclinal in the strata, which may accannt for the roof of the aticlent cavern being left at this speclat point. The height of the bridge has evidently been much augmented by a lowering of the bed of Cedar Creek through ttie:i^ncy of chemical and mechanical erosion after the destruction of the original caveni. The height of the original cavity, at the point where the bridge now exists, was in consequence very much leas tiian the present height of the intrados of the bridge-arch.

The elevation of the rail road- 1 rack at Natural- Bridge station, on the Shenandoah valley railroad, is seven hundred and sixty feet above or^ean-level; and the elevation of Cedar Creak, under the north face of the bridge-arch, is nine hundred and liftecji feet, as ■letermined by two independent lines of barometric levels which I ran between the ^vil road-station and the bridge.

The lielght of the crown of the ai-cU on the north side, at the ' Lookout Point,' is one hundred and eighty-eight feet above the creek, measured with n cotton twine, which was the only line of the re<|ulret Mason aluminum oneroid) was determined as one hundred and eighty- six feet, Neither of these mettiods of measurement is sufficiently exact lo perniit of a final statement, but the results are of interest in the absence of more deBnite data.

The thickness of the arch under the crown on the north side is approximately forty-six feet, and on the south side llitrly-six feet.

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