point in the bottom, while the lighter particles and the large stones are thrown on the edge of the bowl and are from time to time scraped away with the hand, being examined meantime. While the vision of FIG. 5. SIX MINERS BAILING WATER THAT ONE MAY COLLECT CASCALHO. those engaged in this process is very sharp and they will frequently yet from investigation I know that by this method many large dia take out from sand and pebbles diamonds smaller than a pin's head, monds and carbons escape them. This in part accounts for the reason why large diamonds and carbons are frequently found in gravel already washed and picked over. I have heard of places which have been washed for the fourth time and paid, though doubtless in some of these instances the later finds were due to disintegration of conglomerate which yielded up stones heretofore inaccessible. The limit of a good man is to concentrate and pick over a cubic yard of cascalho per day, but this presupposes that the cascalho is easy of access and that the water is near at hand. If the cascalho has to be taken from the cracks, crevices, caves, etc., and with the present methods of mining those are the only places with virgin material which are accessible, it is accumulated very slowly. When it is remembered that at the South Africa mines there is worked over 192,000 cubic feet per day, it can readily be seen why the output of Brazil with its few thousand of hand-workers sinks into insignificance, if indeed the diamonds are in Brazil to extract. The mines of Minas Geraes have been worked regularly since their discovery, chiefly by hand methods until during the last ten years when some machinery has been installed to aid in the separation of the diamond-producing gravel from the clay and sand and later on in partly sorting the gravel prior to the final clean-up which is always by hand process. In Bahia a little machinery consisting of a few pumps, a gravel sorter and a so-called automatic separator, which does not separate, has been installed at Salobro, but it is being allowed to rust out, work at present being done by hand entirely ignoring the machinery. The only other machinery in the great Bahia district consists of a few pumps mounted by an English company on the São José river. This company has machinery in transit for mounting a small electro-hydraulic plant, but will still leave the clean-up to hand process instead of adopting the automatic table in use at South Africa. The diamondiferous lands of Bahia are owned by the state and leased either as small claims or large parcels to parties or companies desiring to work them. About all of the known areas capable of work with groups without machinery have been preempted. The nature of the work already done has been such that many productive areas have been covered with tailings. The river beds and other productive sections which will necessitate machinery are still awaiting exploitation. SHORTER ARTICLES SIGMA XI CONSPICUOUS among the events that attended the recent Ithaca meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was the twentieth celebration of the founding of the Sigma Xi, and, as so little is known about this organization, I venture to give a brief description of its history. 1898, and the University of Pennsylvania in 1899. With the opening of the new century came chapters at Brown and the University of Iowa, and then Stanford University and the University of California, and Columbia University in 1901 and 1902. Three chapters were established in 1903, namely, at the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, and the University of Chicago, and a year later organizations were effected at the Case School and in the University of Indiana. Application for a chapter is now be fore the council for the University of Wisconsin. Thus it will be seen that this organization has already secured a good foothold and has been established at nearly all of the larger universities. The first president was Henry S. Williams, of Cornell, one of the founders, who was succeeded by S. W. Willis The career of the Phi Beta Kappa Society has been a long and honorable one, having been founded at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Va., on December 5, 1776, and it is, therefore, the oldest of the so-called Greek letter societies. This organization, as is well known, admits to membership honor students in the humanities who are about to graduate, and the lack of any organization that should similarly recognize distinction in the study of the scientific branches led in 1886 to the organization in Ithaca of the So-ton, of the University of Chicago, who ciety of the Sigma Xi, which has as its two years ago gave place to E. L. Biennial convenobjects to encourage original investiga- Nichols, of Cornell. tion in science, pure and applied, and by meeting for the discussion of scientific subjects, as well as for the publication of such scientific material as might be deemed desirable; and also to establish fraternal relations among investigators in scientific centers. Its name is derived from its motto Σrodov Ξενώνες, signifying Companions Zealous Research. tions are usually held in connection with the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the next of which will be held in December, 1906, many of its members being prominently connected with that organization. The membership is already a large one, numbering more in than a thousand persons, most of The success of the organization led to the establishment of a chapter in the Rensselaer Polytechnic in Troy and in Union University in Schenectady a year later. A chapter in the University of Kansas in 1890 and one at Yale University in 1895 followed. In 1896 a chapter was established at the University of Minnesota and one at the University of Nebraska in 1897. The Ohio State University came next in whom are either teachers of or advanced students of science. The different chapters hold public meetings at which speakers of eminence are invited to address the organization. The badge or insignia is a watch charm or pendant consisting of the monogram formed in gold of the Greek letter Sigma superimposed on the greek letter Xi, the former being somwhat smaller than the latter. On the reverse side of the badge is engraved on the upper bar the name of the college in which below it the date of the foundation, the owner was initiated, together with 1856. the date of such initiation; while on At the celebration of the twentieth the lower bar is the name of the owner anniversary, representatives of nearly with the numerals of the class in which every chapter were present, and under he was graduated. The society has the auspices of the local chapter a adopted as its colors electric blue and public address, commemorative of the white. Its seal consists of a wreath occasion, on 'The Recent California of laurel, typifying the honorary char- Earthquake' was delivered by Proacter of membership in the society, ar- fessor John C. Branner, of Stanford ranged as an oval enclosing the words University. Subsequently a dinner 'the Society of the Sigma Xi' at the was tendered to the visiting members top and the Greek motto at the bottom. which was presided over by Professor These words form an inner oval con- E. L. Nichols, when addresses were centric with the first, punctuated with made by Dr. L. O. Howard, who spoke ten stars enclosing a field illuminated of the affiliation of the Sigma Xi with by the lamp of research. Above the the American Association, and by Prolamp in the field of illumination is fessor Henry S. Williams who described placed the monogram composed of the its founding, and by other members of two Greek letters Sigma and Xi, and the society. M. B. THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. No one can fill the vacancy left by Dr. Harris, but the new commissioner has a great opportunity for useful serv industrious, an able writer and speaker, and of a personality which makes THE retiring commissioner of educa-him very acceptable in the educational tion has been so completely identified world. In many ways and because with the Bureau of Education that it of many characteristics and qualities he is difficult to imagine the institution promises to be a worthy successor of without the man. Dr. Eliot, at Harone of the most widely revered educavard, and Dr. Harris, at Washington, tors this country has ever had the good have been our two great educational fortune to enlist in its service." leaders, and when we turn to other lines of service to the church, to medirine, to law, to journalism, to business, to politics-it is doubtful whether we can find elsewhere two men equally great. This is not a time to attempt an analysis of the work and limitations of a complex personality. better to quote the appreciation of a personal friend, Dr. Canfield: He is indeed whole in himself, a common good -a man of amplest influence yet clearest of ambitious crime, our greatest yet with least pretense; rich in a saving common sense, and, as the greatest only are, in his simplicity sublime. His is the good gray head which all men know, and his the voice from which their omens all men draw. In the great battle of the public schools for sound and effective citizenship he is a tower of strength which stands foursquare to all the winds that blow." It is Lice. navy. 6 The commissionership of education has been filled by the appointment of Dr. Elmer E. Brown, professor of education in the University of California. We may again quote, this time from the editorial pages of the Outlook: "He has shown himself to be safe and sane, philosophic in temper, practical But apart from cooperation with the in choice of ends and means, with un- states, such as now in fact exists in the usual administrative ability, ready to case of the Department of Agriculture take the initiative, not carried away and the land grant colleges of agricul by undue enthusiasm for novelties, yet ture and the mechanic arts, there is always alert for all that marks true ample room to strengthen the Bureau advancement, energetic and active and of Education. After a secretary of |