54 The Ohio Journal of Science [Vol. XIX, No. 1, 



The ash on which the salt marsh plants were starting was 

 foul with decaying algae on the surface, and beneath it was 

 blackened by bacterial action and emitted a strong odor of 

 hydrogen sulphide. This was taken to indicate that subsoil 

 conditions did not differ greatly from the normal salt marsh. 

 The complete re-establishment of the salt marsh is, therefore, 

 expected before many years have passed. 



PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE. 



It is already clear that the recovery at Kodiak is permanent. 

 For, with the demonstration that seedlings can start in the ash, 

 it is evident that any gaps which may develop in the ranks of 

 the old vegetation will be promptly filled by new plants starting 

 from seed. 



The problems of the future in this area concern, first, the 

 fate of the exposed habitats where the surface is at present too 

 unstable to admit of revegetation, and second, the succession 

 of plants which will develop as the first ephemeral plant cover 

 shall give way to more permanent vegetation, for it appears 

 quite likely that the stages in the course of succession toward the 

 climax associations of the country will be materially altered 

 by the disturbance caused by the eruption. 



ASH BEING RAPIDLY REMOVED. 



The unstable conditions caused by the shifting sand will be, 

 for the most part, of short duration. Where the ash layer was 

 only a foot thick originally, it does not require a very long 

 period for the wind to remove the whole deposit. Indeed, in 

 many exposed places, the ash is already completely gone. And 

 in any case it will be only a few years until the large part of 

 the ash from the mountains has been blown out to sea. Even 

 on the level, some places, where the wind has a clear sweep, 

 have been nearly cleared alread3^ Thus the field at the 

 Frye-Bruhn ranch, repeatedly spoken of above, retains at present 

 only enough ash to veil the black soil beneath, and the sand 

 blast is almost a thing of the past. The conditions no longer 

 offer any obstacle to revegetation, and in 1916 lupine seedlings 

 came up thickly over the whole area. (See page 55). These 

 were able to penetrate the ash and reach the old soil immediately 

 with their roots, so that in another year the whole bare field will 

 be green with lupine. 



