June 25, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



995 



for the Philippine Islands and at one time a 

 member of the faculty of the university at 

 Ann Arbor, the gift of a unique collection of 

 photographs of the volcanoes in the Philippine 

 Islands. These excellent photographs, more 

 than two hundred in number, have been taken 

 mainly by Professor Worcester himself in con- 

 nection with his many journeys through the 

 islands, and for the most part are of volcanoes 

 which have never before been photographed. 

 Among them are a considerable number of 

 prints of a volcano 1,600 feet in height, which 

 in 1871 was suddenly thrown up over a fissure 

 in a level plain only 400 yards distant from 

 the town of Catarman on the Island of Cami- 

 guin, north of Mindanao. 



Me. Zaccheus Daniel, of the Princeton Ob- 

 servatory, discovered a comet June 15''.80 

 Greenwich mean time, in R. A. 1' 39"" 54% 

 Dee. + 28° 55'. The comet is visible in a 

 small telescope. " Motion rapidly northerly." 



Dr. Edwin B. Peost, director of the 

 Yerkes Observatory and managing editor of 

 the Asii-ophysical Journal^ announces that the 

 subscription price of the journal has been in- 

 creased from four to five dollars. He writes : 

 " It is obvious that a periodical of a strictly 

 scientific character like the Asirophysical 

 Journal, even though conducted without ex- 

 pense for contributions or for editorial or 

 clerical assistance, can not be self-supporting. 

 The large number of costly illustrations, 

 which are necessary to properly elucidate the 

 text and to place before the reader as nearly 

 as possible the author's original scientific evi- 

 dence, constitute a large item of expense, 

 which has been increased very materially of 

 late by concerted action of engravers. The 

 considerable amount of tabular matter ac- 

 companying many of the articles also adds 

 largely to the cost. In spite of the use of 

 monotype composition for much of the text, 

 the cost of manufacture has been gradually 

 increasing, in accordance with the general 

 tendency toward higher prices. The point 

 has been reached where a reduction in the size 

 of the journal and in the average number of 

 illustrations must be made, or the subscription 

 price be increased. The annual deficit of the 



journal has been met by a subsidy from the 

 University of Chicago, which in the last two 

 years has been $2,000. An increase in this 

 subsidy can not be requested. With the ad- 

 vance in subscription price it is expected that 

 the size of the journal and the number of 

 illustrations will be maintained as during 

 recent years. A careful comparison, in res- 

 pect to amount of text and illustrations, has 

 been made with all the principal contempo- 

 raries of the Asirophysical Journal, both for- 

 eign and domestic. This shows that even 

 after the present advance, the journal will be 

 relatively cheaper than other periodicals of its 

 class." 



An investigation as to the practicability of 

 reforesting the great areas of forest lands 

 which have been devastated by fire and which 

 are now lying barren and unproductive is now~ 

 being carried on by the United States Porest 

 Service in the Olympic National Porest in 

 Washington. The area selected for the ex- 

 periments comprises several thousand acres- 

 on the Soleduck River, and was at one time 

 covered with a magnificent forest of Douglas 

 fir. It was first burned over in 1890 and 

 again in 1895. A third , fire over almost the 

 same area occurred in 1906, destroying the 

 last remnant of the original forest, leaving 

 the entire area treeless. In some regions a 

 second growth of trees will come in naturally 

 after a burn, in the course of a few years time, 

 and where this happens artificial means of se- 

 curing reproduction is not necessary. There 

 are, however, other bums, where new growth 

 does not come in readily, due to the adverse 

 climatic conditions, absence of seed trees, or 

 perhaps to the impoverishment of the soil by 

 repeated fires. These areas are often of very 

 large extent and in such cases some means, 

 such as planting trees or sowing seed, is neces- 

 sary to restore the forest. The burn in the 

 Olympic Forest is of this nature and the 

 Forest Service is planning to conduct a series 

 of experiments to determine the proper meth- 

 ods of reforesting the area. Douglas fir will 

 be the species used. It is believed that on the' 

 greater part of the area simply scattering the' 

 seed over the ground in the fall before the 



