244 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1341 



analysis of the ash shows it to be rich in 

 titanium, a character common to the few 

 examples yet analyzed of the basaltic volcanic 

 rocks of Iceland, the Faeroes, and Greenland. 



UTILIZATION OF THE FORESTS OF ALASKA 



Colonel W. B. Greeley, the new chief for- 

 ester of the United States, has returned from 

 a month's inspection of the timber, water 

 power and national resources of Alaska. In an 

 interview in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer he 

 is reported to have said : 



Alaska has more than 100,000,000 cords of 

 pulp wood. The territory has sufficient timber re- 

 sources to produce 1,500,000 tons of paper an- 

 nually. The Alaska Pulp and Paper Company, 

 comprising California interests, is now construct- 

 ing the first pulp plant at Port Snettisham, in 

 southeastern Alaska. This mill will be supplied 

 with 100,000,000 feet of timber just purchased 

 from the Forest Service and is probably the fore- 

 runner of a large pulp and newspaper factory at 

 that point. 



In addition to the vast pulp resources of Alaska, 

 Puget Sound offers splendid opportunity for at 

 least six large pulp and paper mills. There are 

 frequent inquiries of the Federal Forest Depart- 

 ment for pulp wood concessions in this state. Even 

 at the present time there is enough or would be 

 enough wood of inferior quality cut in logging 

 camps to support a large local paper industry here. 



Establishment of such an industry on Puget 

 Sound would toe a great accomplishment from the 

 standpoint of practical conservation — it would af- 

 ford a market for inferior woods now being 

 wasted in logging camps already established. In 

 addition, there are large areas of hemlock and 

 spruce and balsam on the Olympic Peninsula and 

 in the Snoquatmie national forest. The entire 

 forestry industry of the United States is moving 

 westward, and with it is coming the paper in- 

 dustry. 



Alaska contains 100,000,000 cords of pulpwood. 

 She has the resources to produce 1,500,000 tons of 

 paper yearly. That is nearly a third of the paper 

 used in the United States, an amount nearly equal 

 to what we are now compelled to import from 

 Canada. With reasonable care, under the meth- 

 ods followed by the Forest Service, this output can 

 be kept up from the national forests of Alaska 

 perpetually. There is a real solution of the paper 

 shortage. 



A few years ago we heard much about the in- 

 ferior character of the forests in Alaska. As a 

 matter of fact, aside from enormous quantities of 

 good pulpwood and serviceable construction timber, 

 the territory probably contains the largest quantity 

 of clear, high-grade spruce to be found in the 

 United States. 



During the war this spruce passed every test for 

 airplane construction, and it is now being shipped 

 to the eastern states in increasing quantities for 

 ear and factory stock and high-grade finish. One 

 of the things we shall accomplish by bringing the 

 paper industry into Alaska will be to open up her 

 thousands of miles of coastal forests and make 

 available a much larger supply of special products 

 like cedar, clear spruce and long piling. 



THE INTERNATIONAL CHEMICAL 

 CONFERENCE 



The third session of the International Chem- 

 ical Conference met at Home, June 21 to 25, 

 with Professor Charles Moureu, member of the 

 Institute of France, as president. According 

 to the account of the Journal of Industrial and 

 Engineering Chemistry the program began 

 with the meeting of the council of the Interna- 

 tional Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, 

 composed of the representatives of the five 

 nations which founded the Union. The coun- 

 cil considered the adhesion to the union of 

 seven new countries: namely, Canada, Den- 

 mark, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Portu- 

 gal and Czecho-Slovakia, which were all ad- 

 mitted. The plan of organization and adminis- 

 tration of the International Union of Pure 

 and Applied Chemistry, which was presented 

 by M. Gerard, was as follows : 



To adhere to the union a country must establish 

 a liaison between its chemical groups by the for- 

 mation of a national council or federation. The 

 initiative of this organization must be taken by 

 a chemical society, the National Academy, the Na- 

 tional Eesearch Council or a similar national in- 

 stitution, or by the government. 



The union is governed by the council, composed 

 of delegates from each of the supporting countries, 

 whose executive power is vested in a bureau. The 

 general assembly receives reports from the coun- 

 cil, approves the accounts of the past session, 

 adopts the budget for the following session, and 

 considers the questions to be included on the pro- 

 gram. Under the council and an executive com- 



