266 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. YOL. LIV. No. 1395 



Menoher, chief. The aviator was Sergeant T. 

 J. Fowler. The photographic equipment con- 

 sisted of a mapping camera, K.l model, fixed 

 In the bottom of the plane. This camera is 

 designed to take successive pictures auto- 

 matically and can be so adjusted for the alti- 

 tude of the plane and the apparent air speed 

 that the exposures take a small overlap. The 

 views can therefore be combined in a continu- 

 ous mosaic. Theoretically the action should 

 be perfect and the continuity of the pictures 

 unbroken. In practise, the tilting of the plane 

 is equivalent to turning a camera through a 

 greater or less angle on a tripod and suc- 

 cessive views may jump interspaces of greater 

 or less extent. One remedy, with this type of 

 camera, would be to repeat, a recourse which 

 is practicable when flying over a restricted 

 area, but impracticable in a flight between 

 distant landing fields. A clinometer would 

 «nable the photographer to note the inclina- 

 tion of the plane and a finder might be used. 

 , The flights here noted covered a course of 

 approximately 400 miles each way and were 

 made in 4 hours 40 minutes on the southward 

 trip and 4 hours 13 minutes on the north- 

 ward. 



The San Andreas Eift, the object of ob- 

 servation, is that major continental structure 

 which extends from Humboldt County in 

 northern California to the Mohave Desert in 

 the southern part of the state, a distance of 

 about 600 miles. It is an ancient fault, the 

 locus of innumerable movements, which have 

 given rise to pronounced topographic features. 

 Displacements have been upward or downward 

 or lateral along different sections of the fault 

 or during different movements along the same 

 section.. We have yet much to learn about the 

 effects of faulting expressed in the details of 

 geology along the rift. 



The earthquake of April, 1906, produced 

 marked surface features, which were carefully 

 studied by Branner, Gilbert, Lawson and other 

 geologists and which have been fully described 

 in the report of the California State Earth- 

 quake Commission, publication 87 of the Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington. One is often 

 asked to what extent those features are still 



" mustard gas," the reply was : — " Why are 

 you worrying about this when you know 

 perfectly well that this is not the gas we shall 

 use in the next war ? " 



I hold no brief for preventive mediciue, 

 which is well able to fight its own case. I 

 would only say that it is the legitimate busi- 

 ness of preventive medicine to preserve by 

 all known means the health of any body of 

 men, however large or small, committed to its 

 care. It is not to its discredit if, by knowl- 

 edge and skill, the numbers so maintained 

 run into millions instead of being limited to 

 thousands. On the other hand, " an educated 

 public opinion " will refuse to give credit 

 to any body of scientific men who employ 

 their talents in devising means to develop and 

 perpetuate a mode of warfare which is abhor- 

 rent to the higher instincts of humanity. 



This association, I trust, will set its face 

 against the continued degradation of science 

 in thus augmenting the horrors of war. It 

 could have no loftier task than to use its 

 great infiuence in arresting a course which 

 is the very negation of civilization. 



T. Edward Thorpe 



AERIAL OBSERVATION OF EARTH- 

 QUAKE RIFTS 



The Seismological Society of America is 

 interested in mapping the earthquake rifts of 

 California, with a view to increasing our 

 knowledge of the structures related to earth- 

 quakes and to promoting security in the en- 

 gineering work of the state. Data of a gen- 

 eral and comprehensive character already exist 

 in published and unpublished maps, but ad- 

 ditional surveys are desirable. Faults may 

 be located in several ways and it is possible 

 that a method of tracing them may be de- 

 veloped with the airplane, as was first sug- 

 gested to the writer by H. 0. Wood. To test 

 the idea, a flight was made by me from San 

 Francisco to Los Angeles and return on June 

 9 and 11, so far as practicable over the San 

 Andreas Eift, to observe and photograph it. 



The plane was furnished by the Air Service 

 of the U. S. Army, by courtesy of Major H. 

 H. Arnold, under authority of General C. T. 



