114 



N-ATURE 



[March 25, 1909 



SCIENTIFIC WORK OF THE SMITHSONIAN 

 INSTITUTION.' 

 Explorations and Researches. 

 "T^HE resources of the Smithsonian Institution are at 

 ■*■ present too limited to permit of large grants for 

 -ixtensive explorations or investigations, but, so far as 

 the income allows, aid is given in various lines of research 

 work, and it is sometimes found possible to engage in 

 expeditions likely to accomplish important results. 



Through the National Museum, the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, and the Astrophysical Observatory, the institu- 

 tion has been enabled to carry on various biological, ethno- 

 logical, and astrophysical researches during the year 

 covered by the report. 



Studies in Cambrian Geology and Palaeontology. 



In the last report reference was made to studies of the 

 older sedimentary rocks of the North American Continent 

 which Dr. Walcott has been carrying on for the past 

 twenty years. This work was continued in the Canadian 

 Rockies during the field season of 1907. Early in July a 

 camp outfit was secured at Field, British Columbia, and 

 work begun on Mount Stephen. Subsequently sections 

 were studied and measured at Castle Mountain, west of 

 Banff, Alberta ; at Lake Louise, south of Laggan, Alberta ; 

 and on Mount Bosworth, on the Continental Divide near 

 Hector, British Columbia. Upward of 20,000 feet of strata 

 were carefully examined and measured, and collections of 

 fossils and rocks made from many localities. It was found 

 that the Cambrian section included more than 12,000 feet 

 of sandstones, shales, and limestones, and that the three 

 great divisions of the Cambrian — the Lower, Middle, and 

 Upper — were represented in the Bow River series and the 

 Castle Mountain group. Characteristic fossils were found 

 in each division. 



Aerial Navigation. 



Within the past year there has been a renewed interest 

 in experiments in aerial navigation, to which the institu- 

 tion, through Dr. Langley, made notable contributions. 

 Toward the end of the year the demand for literature on 

 the subject so entirely exhausted the supply of papers on 

 hand that a special edition of some of Dr. Langley's more 

 popular memoirs was issued. It is gratifying to be able 

 to say that his pioneer work in heavier-than-air machines, 

 resulting as it did in the actual demonstration of the possi- 

 bility of mechanical flight, has now received universal 

 recognition. 



. Besides numerous popular papers, Dr. Langley wrote 

 two technical works relating to the general subject of 

 aerodromics, which form parts of an incomplete volume 

 of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. The 

 record of his experiments from 1893 to 1905 was kept by 

 him partly in manuscript form and largely in the shape of 

 voluminous notes and waste-books. These have been 

 turned over to his principal assistant in this work, Mr. 

 C. M.^ Manly, who has been for some time engaged in 

 preparing them for publication and adding such necessary 

 information, especially on the engineering side, as comes 

 within the immediate purview of Mr. Manly 's work. 

 Meteor Crater of Canyon Diablo, Arizona. 



An investigation of the remarkable crater-like depression 

 at Coon Butte, near Canyon Diablo, Arizona, was made 

 in 1907 by Dr. G. P. Merrill, head curator of geology in 

 the National Museum, aided by a grant from the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. An article upon studies of this crater 

 by other geologists appeared in N.^ture of September 13, 

 1906. The " crater " is some three-fourths of a mile in 

 diameter and 500 feet in depth in a region of undisturbed 

 sedimentary rocks and remote from volcanoes. The object 

 of the study was to determine, if possible, whether the 

 crater was caused by volcanic action, as assumed by some 

 investigators, or due to the impact of a mass of meteoric 

 iron, as asserted by others. 



From the available evidence Dr. Merrill concluded that 

 the crater could not have been formed by volcanic action, 

 all the observed phenomena being of a superficial nature. 

 Some 300 feet of overlying limestone and 500 feet of sand- 

 stone have been shattered as by some powerful blow, and 



' From the Report of the Secretary of the .Smithsonian Institution, 

 Dr. C. D. Walcott, for the year ending June 30, 1908. 



NO. 2056, VOL. 80] 



the quartz particles in the sandstone in part fused, in- 

 dicating a very high degree of heat. The deeper-lying 

 sandstone, however, is entirely unchanged. These facts 

 absolutely preclude the formation of the crater by any deep- 

 seated agency, and forces the conclusion that it resulted 

 from the impact of a stellar body. 



No record has been found of a meteoric fall comparable 

 with this, the largest known meteorites, such as that from 

 Cape York, Greenland, and the enormous irons from 

 Oregon, having fallen under such conditions as scarcely to 

 bury themselves. The nearest approach to the Canyon 

 Diablo occurrence was that at Knyahinya, Hungary, where 

 a 660-lb. stone penetrated the ground to a depth of ii feet. 

 No meteoritic mass of sufficient size to have made this 

 enormous crater has been brought to light, but it is 

 thought there still remains the possibility of its having 

 become dissipated through the heat developed by its 

 impact while travelling at a speed of many miles a second. 



In his report Dr. Merrill goes very thoroughly into 

 details. He has secured many specimens of the meteoritic 

 irons and their associations froin the locality, which are 

 deposited in the U.S. National Museum. The specimens 

 include a hitherto unrecognised type of meteoritic iron and 

 a peculiar form of metamorphism in the siliceous sandstone 

 of the region. 



Mining operations carried on in the crater afforded 

 special opportunity for this research. These operations 

 were discontinued during the winter, but their resumption 

 in May, 1908, presented a second opportunity for the 

 observation of the unique phenomena at the crater, and 

 Dr. Merrill was authorised to proceed again to Arizona 

 to be present during this second, and probably final, series 

 of drillings. The greatest depth reached during his stay 

 at the crater was 842 feet, and the results of the examina- 

 tion of the ejectamenta thus secured confirmed the former 

 conclusion. 



Alaskan Expedition. 



In the last report mention was made of an expedition 

 to be made to the Yukon country in Alaska for the collec- 

 tion of the remains of large extinct vertebrates, par- 

 ticularly mammals. A Smithsonian expedition had been 

 made to this region in the summer of 1904 by Mr. 

 Maddren, the results of which were published by the 

 institution in 1905. The present expedition of 1907 was 

 in charge of Mr. C. W. Gilmore, of the National Museum. 

 The results of the explorations have been published in the 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 



Mr. Gilmore was not successful in finding what was 

 most desired, a fairly complete skeleton of a mammoth, 

 but the expedition was by no means barren of results. He 

 found that scattered remains of Pleistocene animals occur 

 throughout the unglaciated region of Alaska and adjacent 

 Canadian territory in the black muck accumulated in 

 gulches and the valleys of the smaller streams, in' the fine 

 elevated clays of the Yukon silts and Kowak clays, and in 

 the more recent fluvial and alluvial deposits. Some of.the 

 specimens are so well preserved that they could not have 

 travelled far from the original place of interment, while 

 many bones are broken, abraded, and waterworn. Mr. 

 Gilmore gives a list of the various genera and species of 

 extinct vertebrates thus far reported from Alaska, followed 

 by a brief review with a number of illustrations. He 

 believes that when more perfect material is available it 

 will be found, probably in all instances, to be quite dis- 

 tinct from the living forms. The skull of an Ovibos was 

 found sufficiently complete to warrant its separation from 

 the living form O. moschatus, to which nearly all musk-ox 

 material from this region had previously been referred. 



Geology of the .ilps. 

 The investigation by Mr. Bailey Willis of the current 

 theories of Alpine structure, under the grant approved in 

 1907, was successful in offering opportunities for consulta- 

 tion with leading European geologists, among whom were 

 Rothpletz, Suess, Lugeon, Margerie, and Saccord. In 

 cooperation with several distinguished students of the great 

 problems of the Alps, Mr. Willis made detailed studies of 

 critical districts, and was thus enabled to compare opposing 

 theories by object-lessons on the ground. Mr. Willis's full, 

 report is expected early in 1909. 



