UNIVERSITY COURIER.
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a descriptive article by W. D. Howells, "The Academic Career of ex-President Woolsey," "The Col. Ben William's Mine," by Joaquin Miller, and "The War in Egypt."
The causes which sent our ancestors to the United States, and in fact their entire history, will teach us very much in our own political economy. The "Story of Our Fathers" has already been given by Macaulay, Froude, and Green, but the philosophy of the search for liberty has just been given us in Lecky's "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," $ ^{*} $ which is a wellwritten, impartial discussion of the period preceding our revolution. For causes back of this, we have this month "The Reign of William Rufus." $ ^{\dagger} $ by Freeman, the noted writer of English htstory. This is the life of a man who was debauched and cruel, whose character bears no redeeming feature. He received the name Rufus from his red face. During his reign in the eleventh century feudalism became firmly established and the first crusade begun.
MISCELLANY.
COLLEGE NOTES.
Ten thousand dollars have been appropriated by the Legislature of Wisconsin, for the improvement of the State University buildings. The main building is to be renovated and a part of the south dormitory turned into an agricultural college.—Ex.
Amherst is a progressive college. Valedictories and salutatories have been abolished. The old-fashioned marking system has been abolished. The students to a great degree govern themselves. They elect ten undergraduates to try and sentence offenders against college laws. All works well.—Ex.
Columbia College has 1,494 students, the largest number in any American college. The trustees of Columbia have made some radical changes in the marking system. A grade of sixty per cent. is necessary for a Junior to pass in any department, and the average mark for Sophomores has been raised from thirty-three and a third to fifty per cent. Such is the tendency of all progressive American colleges. The change brought about disastrous results, a great portion of the Soph Class being unable to pass.
The Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College was sold at sheriff's sale, on the 24th, for a debt of $75,000, its appraised value was $117,000. Rev. Dr. J. M. Walker, being designated by the trustees, bought it for $78,632.34. It will be reopened during this month with Rev. Dr. W. K. Brown and wife as president andt vice-presiden, a subscription of $60,000 having been raised. The wife of ex-President Hayes is a graduate of this institution.
We see an article going the rounds of the educational papers entitled "College and School Boards." This is timely. It has long been the opinion of our most talented, thorough, and practical students that board is altogether too high, especially when the theater season comes around and dances are on the tapis. Articles
which will put boarding mistresses in the same mind will be warmly received and appreciated by the students.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.
Leptoptila fulviventris and Formicarius pallidus are the names of two new species of Yucatan birds, the only representatives of which are in the museum of the University of Kansas. Prof. Snow purchased for the University a full series of the birds found in Yucatan by Prof. G. F. Gaumer. Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence, to whom a part of the collection was sent for determination, says: "Besides the species above described, of which there is but one example of each, it contains many others of much interest." One of these little known and interesting birds bears the name Chaetura Gaumeri.
At Montreal, August 28, the American Association for the Advancement of Science passed a resolution in reference to a memorial to the late Chas. Darwin, recommending contributions from American scientists, to be sent to Alexander Agassiz.
Mention was recently made in the Science and Art column of the Bartholdi statue of "Liberty," to be presented by the French government to America as a token of international good-will. The colossus is now in process of construction in Paris, and the other day Bartholdi, according to the Boston Transcript, invited twenty of his literary and artistic comrades to breakfast with him inside the thigh of the statue, which so far is built only up to the waist. "The little banquet was most successful in every way; the guests walked in by the right foot of the statue, and one of them laid himself down most comfortably inside one of the toes; ladders conveyed them all the way up the calf and finally deposited them where a temporary platform had been constructed and the festive board had been laid. They hope, when the statue has been entirely put together at some future day, to enjoy a lively dinner inside the head."—Ex.
Mr. Albert S. Gatschett, in a study of the Indian languages of the Pacific States and Territories, and of the Pueblos of New Mexico, disputes the affinities which are supposed by many to exist between the Aztecs and Pueblos. The oldest and most important characteristics of race and language, he alleges, are far from being common to both races, and even secondary and more recent characteristics, as implements, manners, customs, laws, government, religions, worshipp, and traditions, have not been shown to be identical in them.
Mt. Etna has been in a half-active condition ever since the great eruption of 1879.
We hear much of the great Sutro Tunnel, and perhaps it will be necessary to say, by way of explanation to some, that it is a huge tunnel that has been run under the the mountains to tap the famous Comstock Mines of Virginia City, Nevada, and afford a sluice way and escape for the floods of hot water with which the deep lower levels of these mines are deluged. The temperature of the water is 195 degrees, and twelve million tons, or three million gallons, are carried through the tunnel every twenty-four hours. The tunnel is four miles long, and the water is conducted through it by means of a closep pine flume, thus confining the immense masses of vapor that would arise from so vast a body of water. When the water leaves the tunnel it has lost but seven
*A History of England in the Eighteenth Century by W. E. H. Lecky. Four volumes. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1882.
+ The Reign of Wm. Rufus and the Accession of Henry the First. Two volumes. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882.