PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



146TH MEETING 



The 146th meeting of the Washington Academy of Sciences was 

 held at the Cosmos Club on Thursday, April 15, 1920. Dr. Vernon 

 Kellogg, Chairman of the Division of Educational Relations, National 

 Research Council, delivered an address on Europe's food in war and 

 armistice. 



147TH MEETING 

 The 147th meeting was held at the Cosmos Club on May 20, 1920. 

 Dr. E. B. Rosa, of the Bureau of Standards, delivered an address 

 entitled Economic importance of the scientific work of the government. 

 This has since been published.^ 



148TH MEETING 



The 148th meeting was held at the Cosmos Club on June 15, 1920. 

 Dr. W. VAN BemmelEn, Director of the Magnetic and Meterological 

 Observatory of Batavia, delivered an illustrated address entitled The 

 volcanoes of Java. 



Java, the most important, though not the largest island of the Malay 

 Archipelago, is chiefly of volcanic nature. It possesses about 50 

 volcanoes, with their lateral cones, of which about 20 are more or less 

 active. They may be called the rulers of the island, since the climate, 

 weather, agriculture, and soil are largely dependent on them. The 

 fertile alluvial plains have been formed by their "ejecta" and "ef- 

 flata." 



In contrast with the intricate features found in mountain folding, in 

 the realm of the volcanoes, such geometrical patterns are met with as 

 the straight line, the circle, and the oval. The reason for this is that 

 the causes which produced them were simple, just as in the case of the 

 geometrical line. It is, therefore, comparatively eas}^ to understand 

 their life stor}^ Javanese volcanoes are especially instructive in this 

 regard. 



In 1883, Mt. Krakatoa gave the world an interesting lesson in 

 volcanology, when by its terrible eruption two of its secondary cones 

 were blown up and a lateral cone rent asunder. Careful soundings 

 have been made in the newly-formed basin, the bottom of which is 

 280 meters below sea level, whereas previously the central cones, Per- 

 buwatan and Danan, rose to altitudes of about 250 meters and 450 

 meters, respectively. The return of the flora and fauna has been 

 studied. 



1 This Journal,, 10: 341-382. June 19, 1920. 



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