September 10, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



243 



very real loss. Professor Pricer had for years 

 maintained an intimate and influential rela- 

 tionship to the problems involved in the teach- 

 ing of the natural sciences in the secondary 

 schools. His wholesome and extensive per- 

 sonal contact with science teachers and his 

 untiring labor in the work of various educa- 

 tional organizations had brought him into 

 prominence as one of the leaders in the pro- 

 gram of reconstruction of the science curricu- 

 lum of the secondary schools of the middle 

 west. Unusual thoroughness of analysis, fair- 

 ness of judgment, and whole-hearted sincerity 

 had created for him a place in the esteem of 

 his coworkers in natural science. 



As secretary of the Illinois State Academy 

 of Science for a period of four years, his serv- 

 ice to that organization has been very marked. 

 In this capacity as well as in his other rela- 

 tions he has done much to bring before the 

 public the needs for more extensive education 

 in science as a foundation for rational living 

 and as an aid to the advancement of public 

 health work. 



The reception accorded his work upon the 

 Life History of the Carpenter Ant^ indicates 

 his ability in original investigation. Teaching 

 duties and a sense of personal obligation to 

 devote his energies to teaching problems 

 marked for him a course that lay chiefly 

 through the educational field though he never 

 lost interest in following the progress of cur- 

 rent investigations. 



H. J. Van Cleave 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE ERUPTION OF KATLA IN ICELAND 



The volcano of Katla, situated some 50 

 kilometers southwest of Hekla, was in violent 

 eruption in October, 1918, after remaining 

 quiescent since the last previous eruption in 

 1860. A note by M. A. Lacroix in the 

 Comptes Rendus of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, abstracted in the Geographical 

 Journal, gives some account of the eruption 

 from data sent to him from Iceland. A little 

 after noon on the 12th a slight earthquake 

 shock was followed by the uprising above the 



^Biological Bulletin, Vol. 14 (1908). 



Myrdalsjokull of an enormous column of in- 

 candescent ashes visible throughout the island 

 for 200 to 300 kilometers. At Reykjavik a 

 thick fall of ash darkened the whole sky, and 

 a tidal wave was experienced on the coast 

 south of the volcano. As is usual in Iceland, 

 the paroxysm was accompanied by violent 

 glacier outbursts. The first visitor to the 

 crater after the eruption was M. Pall Sveins- 

 son, whose notes have been placed at M. 

 Lacroix's disposal. Katla lies in the east- 

 southeast of the Myrdalsjokull, one of the 

 great ice-masses of southern Iceland, and on 

 its southeast side extends the Myrdalsandur, 

 a great desert of sand formed of the material 

 deposited during the glacial outbursts. In 

 the northwest and southwest the Myrdals- 

 jokull is surmounted by two domes of ice 

 rising to heights of 1,500 to 1,600 meters. 

 Between them is a cup-shaped depression at 

 the bottom of which the crater of Katla 

 opens. Even the outer slopes of the ice-dome 

 by which M. Sveinsson ascended were covered 

 with ashes to a depth of half a meter, and 

 those falling to the crater with half as much 

 again. The rift of the crater, which meas- 

 ured from 500 to 800 by 40 meters, was free 

 from ice, but water was flowing along it. No 

 fumeroles nor products of sublimation were 

 seen, only a yellowish-brown mud, the lighter 

 portions of which seem derived by alteration 

 from the darker, heavier ash. The glacier 

 torrents had opened two deep ravines towards 

 the south and east, and had done consider- 

 able damage, carrying with them huge masses 

 of ice to a distance of 30 kilometers. The 

 stony debris had formed a vast promontory on 

 the coast similar to that formed in 1860. 

 Like the thirteen previously recorded erup- 

 tions, that of 1918 was exclusively explosive, 

 with no outpouring of lava — a fact more re- 

 markable from the vicinity of Katla to the 

 scene of the great fissure eruption of 1Y83. 

 A chemical comparison of the ash of 1918 

 with the lava of 1783 will be of interest, for 

 it is possible that the exclusive explosive 

 character of the Katla eruptions may be due 

 to the superimposition of the enoi-mous ice- 

 mass of the Myrdalsjokull. A preliminary 



