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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1181 



ing " of live stock production may do more 

 harm than good. If it is desirable to restrict 

 or prohibit the production of alcohol from 

 grain or potatoes on the ground that it in- 

 volves a waste of food value, the same reason 

 calls for restriction of the buming-up of these 

 materials to produce roast pig. This means, 

 of course, a limited meat supply. To some 

 of us this may seem a hardship. Meat, how- 

 ever, is by no means the essential that we 

 have been wont to suppose and partial depriv- 

 ation of it is not inconsistent with high 

 bodily efficiency. Certainly no patriotic citi- 

 zen would wish to insist on his customary 

 allowance of roast pig at the cost of the food 

 supply of his brothers in the trenches. 



H. P. Aemsby 

 State College, Pa., 

 June, 1917 



A NEW CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN 

 GEOLOGY 



Under the heading ""Work going on at 

 Kilauea Volcano " there was published in Sci- 

 ence of September 12, 1913, an account from 

 Hawaii by Mr. Geo. Carroll Curtis, of the field 

 work, cirkut and kite camera surveys being 

 conducted in the great active crater, in con- 

 nection with the construction of a natural- 

 istic model for the geological department of 

 Harvard University. 



After four years of continuous effort this 

 work has been completed and installed in the 

 university museum. While the size and time 

 required distinguish it, the principles it in- 

 volves of faithful and expressive reproduction 

 of the earth surface is of special significance, 

 as it seems to mark a distinct progress in the 

 complex subject of representing our earth in 

 true relief and character. A single glance at 

 the great model is convincing, for in looking 

 upon this vast collection of accurate data, one 

 receives the impression that he is viewing the 

 outdoor field itself! The model looks like the 

 actual ground because it has been made like 

 it, an immense amount of information never 

 before collected having been incorporated from 

 the special surveys. This is a signal triumph 

 in the truthful interpretation of a splendid 

 type of geological structure such as Kilauea 



presents. It clearly indicates the novel and 

 broad interest which awaits the earth sciences 

 in the reproduction of their museum natural 

 history specimens through the medium of 

 serious work in land relief. 



The longest time previously given to any 

 work we have had of this nature, was two 

 years, in the naturalistic reproduction of the 

 coral island Bora Bora,^ under the instigation 

 of Alexander Agassiz. It was made to illus- 

 trate the typical " high coral island." This 

 work, completed in 190Y, was the first in the 

 land where the necessary photographic survey 

 and special field work were employed to truth- 

 fully reproduce a land form type, and marked 

 the introduction of the naturalistic or land- 

 scape model in American exhibition. The 

 character of the work was illustrated by the 

 photographs made from it, bearing a surpris- 

 ing resemblance to those taken on the actual 

 ground, a thing previously unlooked for in 

 our land reliefs. This unique contribution to 

 the progress of earth science is still considered 

 the most complete exposition of a coral island 

 known, and as the pioneer in naturalistic land 

 relief (the completest expression which science 

 and art can give of the earth's surface) will 

 always remain a most significant piece of 

 work. 



The Kilauea model represents the progress 

 of the intervening decade, in the new and 

 developing art of the accurate reproduction of 

 the surface of the planet, and is the culmina- 

 tion of the unique experience which has come 

 through a training in both geology and in art, 

 which Mr. Curtis has given to this profound 

 though much misrepresented work of earth re- 

 lief. Against precedent he has attempted to 

 make a profession rather than a business of a 

 work which calls for treatment adequate to 

 the dignity of natural science. Valuable as 

 may be the individual models to which Curtis 

 has given so much time and study, it is in the 

 establishment of a standard more in keeping 

 with that called for by the natural sciences 

 and by the meaning and interest of the face 

 of our earth, that his most significant achieve- 



1 Darwin, ' ' Structure and Distribution of Coral 

 Eeefs," p. 4. 



