It is rumored again that a survey is soon to be made through the
heaviest portion of the Black Canon of the Gunnison. For a long distance
the walls of syenite rise to the stupendous height of 3,000 feet, and
for 1,800 feet the walls of the canon are arched not many feet from the
bed of the river. If the survey is successful, and the Denver and Rio
Grande is built through the canon, it will undoubtedly be the grandest
piece of engineering on the American continent. The river is very swift,
and it is proposed to build a boat at the western end, and provision
it for a length of time, allowing it to float with the stream, but
controlled by ropes. If the boat goes, the chances are that the baby
road goes, too.--_Gunnison (Colo.) Review_.

* * * * *




THE ANCIENT MISSISSIPPI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.

[Footnote: This lecture was delivered in the Chapel of the State
University, at Columbia, as an inaugural address on January 10, 1883,
and illustrated by projections. The author has purposely avoided the
very lengthy details of scientific observation by which the conclusions
have been arrived at relating to the former wonderful condition of
the Mississippi, and the subsequent changes to its present form: as a
consideration of them would not only cause him to go beyond the allotted
time, but might, perhaps, prove tiresome.]

By J. W. SPENCER, B.A.Sc., Ph.D., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the