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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 919 



the new name, The Scripps Institution for 

 Biological Eesearch of the University of Cali- 

 fornia, will be a department of the univer- 

 sity. All details of management and determi- 

 nation of scientific policy will, however, be by 

 a local board at San Diego. Miss Ellen B. 

 Scripps, already a benefactor of the institu- 

 tion to a large amount, has signified her will- 

 ingness to add liberally to her gifts, and new 

 developments will be begun at once. Addi- 

 tions to the library, a wharf, the salt water 

 pumping plant and housings for those con- 

 nected with the laboratory, will be provided as 

 rapidly as the plans can be perfected. As a 

 step preparatory to the new work a survey of 

 the 100-acre tract of land owned by the insti- 

 tution, and on which the laboratory stands, 

 will be made for the purpose of laying out 

 roads and locating the sites of the projected 

 dwelling houses. 



News reached Copenhagen early in May, as 

 we learn from the Geographical Journal, of 

 the arrival at Maskat of Mr. Barclay Eaun- 

 kiser; a Danish traveler, who set out for that 

 country in November, 1911, under the auspices 

 of the Eoyal Danish Geographical Society. 

 The explorer traveled from Aleppo via Bagh- 

 dad to Basra, which he reached on January 22. 

 From Koweit (where he was well received by 

 the regent) his intention was to go south to 

 Eiad in the Wahabi country, and thence to 

 make his way back to the Persian gulf by an 

 eastward route through the Hofuf oasis. Ac- 

 cording to the preliminary announcement he 

 appears to have successfully carried out this 

 program, and to have secured valuable anthro- 

 pological, zoological and botanical observa- 

 tions, besides mapping the country traversed. 

 Mr. Eaunkiasr is known as a writer on the 

 geography of plants, and for a previous jour- 

 ney made by him in Central Tunis. 



The volcanoes of Alaska are not all dead, 

 and those that smoke are held in dreadful 

 awe by the natives. As late as 1883 Mount 

 Augustine, a volcanic cone which rises 4,000 

 feet out of the waters of Cook Inlet, was in 

 violent eruption, and Mount Iliamna and 

 Mount Eedoubt, about 10,000 feet high, tower- 



ing above the coast range, were in eruption in 

 1854 and 1902, respectively. Lake Iliamna 

 is the largest freshwater body in Alaska. It 

 is 80 miles long by 8 to 20 miles wide — some- 

 what larger, perhaps, than Long Island Sound. 

 Its bottom is far below sea level. The alti- 

 tude of its surface is only 50 feet above the 

 ocean, but soundings at its upper end indicate 

 a depth of many hundred feet. North of and 

 tributary to Iliamna Lake is Clark Lake, 

 more than 50 miles long, but narrow. This 

 lake is 220 feet above the ocean tides, but in 

 places is more than 600 feet deep. The region 

 containing these volcanoes and lakes was the 

 scene of very early missionary endeavors and 

 trade exploitation by the Eussians. Neverthe- 

 less little exact knowledge of the region has 

 been acquired, and that has been largely inac- 

 cessible to the public, so that the recent in- 

 vestigation's by the United States Geological 

 Survey, a report of which has just been 

 published as Bulletin 485, entitled " A Geolog- 

 ical Eeconnaissance of the Eiamna Eegion, 

 Alaska," by G. C. Martin and F. J. Katz, 

 should be very welcome. This report describes 

 the geographic and geologic features and the 

 mineral resources of an area covering more 

 than 5,000 square miles lying west of Cook 

 Inlet. It discusses the mountain systems, the 

 lakes, rivers and glaciers. The climate and 

 vegetation, particularly the distribution of 

 forests and the cause of the limits of the 

 forests, are considered. Transportation routes 

 are indicated. The geology is treated at con- 

 siderable length, and so also the prospective 

 mineral resources, which are copper, gold, sil- 

 ver and petroleum. None of these minerals 

 have yet been shipped from this district, but 

 the region may neverthless some day become 

 important commercially. The report should 

 be of value to those who are interested in the 

 mineral prospects and to those who intend to 

 search for similar deposits in other parts of 

 the district, as it describes the known mineral 

 deposits and the geology of the region contain- 

 ing them. The report is accompanied by 

 topographic and geologic maps in colors on a 

 scale of 4 miles to the inch and by numerous 

 smaller maps, sections and views. 



