Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1891 — THE REAL QUESTION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE REAL QUESTION.

Professor C. H. Merriam and Professor i Mendenhall, Commissioners to Go to Alaska. In order that the Government may be fully prepared with all necessary technical information respecting the actual state of the Behring Sea seal.

fisheries in the probable event of early arbitration of the UnitedStates’ rights in those waters, the President has d e-| cided to send two 1 agents to Alaska to! gather the necessary information. He has had under; consideration for

some time the names of Professor Men-: donhall, Chief of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Professor O. H. Merriam, Ornithologist of the Department: of Agriculture, and has at last named them. This mission will be similar to that with which Sir Baden-Powell is charged on behalf of the British Gov-j emment, and if Professor Merriam ao-i cepts the place he will be instructed to leave for Alaska at once with Professor Mendenhall, who has already accepted. Professor Mendenhall was bom near Hanovertown, Ohio, in 1841. He received a common school education. At an early age he developed a fondness for thq study of mathematics and the

natural sciences. He was professor of physios and mechanics in Ohio University from 1873 to 1878. Later he went to Japan as professor of physics in the Im- ( perial University at' Tokio. During his stay he organized the general meteorologic-

al system of the Im- T - mendenhall. perial Government, and he was also one of the organizers of the Seismological Society of Tokio. In 1881 he returned to the United States and resumed the chair of the Ohio State University. He organized the Ohio State Weather Bureau Service in 1882, and subsequently devised a system of weather signals for display on railroad trains. Mr. Mendenhall became professor in the United States Signal Service in 1884, and established stations in the United States for the systematic observation of earthquake phenomena. He resigned from the Government service to accept the presidency of the Bose Polytechnic Institute of Ten® Haute, Ind. Besides member-' ship in other scientific societies, Professor Mendenhall has held the office of Vice President of the physical section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and President of the National Academy of Sciences.

C. H. MERRIAM.