August i8, 1923] 



NATURE 



251 



application to problems other than those for which 

 they have been devised. The results are interesting 

 almost to the degree of being " sensational." In 

 January of 191 3-1 4 the rate of production of plaice 

 eggs over the whole area sampled was 180,000 millions 

 per 3 days, and in February the rate dropped to 

 157,000 millions per 3 days. That works out at 

 about two million million eggs per month and about 

 five million million per year. To produce these eggs 

 some twenty millions of female plaice at least must 

 have been required. The rate of mortality is very 

 high, and only about 10 to 30 per cent, of the eggs 

 hatch out. The production was far higher in 191 4 

 than in 191 1. 



No. 3 of vol. 5, written by Mr. J. O. Borley and his 

 collaborators, deals with the plaice fisheries during the 

 war years, and discusses the results of the special 

 investigations made in various parts of the British 

 sea-fishery area. The report and recommendations 

 of the plaice committee of the International Fishery 

 Council are appended. 



No. 4 of vol. 5 breaks entirely new ground so far as 

 the British sea fisheries are concerned. It is an 

 account of the various kinds of gear now used in sea 

 fishing in England and Wales, and has been written 

 by Mr. F. M. Davis. The descriptions are clear ; the 

 drawings are very well done, and the Report represents 

 a vast amount of very careful local investigation. 



J-J- 



The Floor of the Valley of Ten Thousand 

 Smokes. 



■T^HE amazing display of fumarole action over an 



-*- area of some fifty square miles, which arose in 



association with the volcanic outbreak of Mt. Katmai 



in Alaska in 191 2, was described and illustrated by 



its discoverer, R. F. Griggs, in Nature, vol. loi, 



p. 497 (1918). In 1920 (vol. 104, p. 595), J. W. 



Shipley, of Winnipeg, chemist to the first Katmai 



expedition, gave an illustrated account of the " great 



mud-flow" through which the vapours fume, and 



. he attributed the material to an eruption of Mt. 



Il Novarupta, preceding that of Katmai. He concluded 



f- that the spreading of the volcanic dust and scoriae 



down the valley towards the Bering Sea was assisted 



by rains, and that heat from below had hardened the 



surface and produced the cracks that traverse it. 



The National Geographic Society, which organised 

 the expedition led by Dr. Griggs, has now begun the 

 publication of a series of scientific memoirs on special 

 features of the district, following on the general 

 description that was noticed in Nature, vol. iii, 

 p. 269 (1923). No. I of the " Katmai Series " of 

 contributed papers is on " The Origin and Mode of 

 Emplacement of the great Tuff Deposit of the Valley 

 of Ten Thousand Smokes," by the well-known 

 petrologist Clarence N. Fenner, of the Geophysical 

 Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



The author finds, from a thorough study of the 

 valley-floor, that the tuff was erupted from a large 

 number of vents that opened along fissures mainly 

 occurring in the lowland, and that these fissures 

 determine the present lines of fumaroles. The 

 fragmental material flowed while hot enough to 

 char all vegetation in its path ; no doubt it was still 

 liberating gases, and the phenomena of Mount 

 Pelee of Martinique were repeated. Katmai exploded 

 somewhat later, since its ashes rest upon the volcanic 

 detritus connected with the fumaroles. 



Most of this detritus consists of highly siliceous 

 glass, which has caught up basic matter from older 

 igneous rocks ; the mixed blocks possibly come from 



the moraines around Novarupta, the cone of which 

 is formed of a soda-rhyolite that has penetrated 

 and mingled with a dark medium andesite (p. 56 of 

 memoir). But the author regards it as more likely 

 that similar rock underlies the valley generally. 

 Jurassic sandstones and shales have been blown to 

 fragments by the explosions in the valley-floor ; 

 but the source of the andesitic admixture has not been 

 traced here or at Novarupta. 



Dr. Fenner's conclusion is that a sill of igneous 

 rock penetrated the sedimentary series beneath the 

 valley, burst into explosive activity along the cracks 

 that opened, and deluged the country with fragmental 

 matter that continued to give off gases and to spread 

 as a quasi-liquid towards the coast. The numerous 

 beautiful photographs accompanying his contribution, 

 including several of Novarupta, complete its value 

 as a petrological study carried out mainly in the 

 field. We may now regard the Valley of Ten 

 Thousand Smokes as one of the finest examples of 

 the uprise and emanation of magmatic waters, and 

 as a further reminder that igneous rocks as they 

 reach us in hard specimens are something very 

 different, both chemically and physically, from their 

 representatives in the cauldrons of the crust. 



Grenville a. J. Cole. 



Cultivation of Metal Crystals by Separation 

 from the Gaseous State. 



T7 KOREF describes experiments on the deposi- 

 -*- • tion of crystalline tungsten on a wire con- 

 sisting of a single tungsten crystal, which is heated 

 electrically in a mixture of hydrogen and tungsten 

 hexachloride vapour in an electric oven.^ When the 

 oven is fairly cool (about 110° C.) and the pressure 

 is kept down to 12 mm. of mercury, the wire being 

 raised to 1000° C, the metal deposits in crystalline 

 form, growing from the unit crystal, so that the 

 dividing line between the two is scarcely visible in a 

 magnified section, which, when etched, shows the 

 characteristic structure of a tungsten crystal. The 

 external form shows more or less distinct crystalline 

 surfaces and edges, though the surfaces are not 

 perfectly plane, being sometimes concave cylindrical, 

 while the edges are not always sharp. It is con- 

 cluded, however, that the whole mass forms one 

 crystal, which has grown from the original crystal 

 wire. The number of bounding surfaces seems to 

 depend on the direction of the crystal axis in the 

 original wire, the prism being four-, six-, or eight-sided. 

 The diameter can be increased from 0-05 to 0-15 mm., 

 the temperature being kept constant during the 

 deposition by regulating the heating current. 



Although the original wire is flexible the crystal 

 grown from it is brittle ; but it becomes flexible 

 after being heated for a few minutes to 2500° C. ; 

 no difference in the structure can be observed after 

 this annealing, either microscopically or by X-ray 

 examination. Burger has made a similar observation 

 on tin crystals, obtained from molten tin. Appar- 

 ently the atoms do not alter their positions during 

 the heat treatment ; but in some way, possibly by 

 rotations about their centres, come into new rela- 

 tive relations to one another, and link together 

 more perfectly to form a stronger and more flexible 

 whole. 



If the attempt is made to cultivate the crystal 

 beyond the dimensions given above, the surfaces 

 become deformed by the growth on them of numerous 

 small pyramids, the molecules (atoms) no longer 



' Zeil. EUctrochem., 28, pp. 511-517, December i, 1922. 



NO. 2807, VOL. I 12] 



