January 3, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



15 



General Secretary: Qeo. T. Moore, Missouri 

 Botanic Garden, St. Louis, Mo. 



Nine men were elected members of the 

 committee on grants, as follows: N. L. 

 Britton, Louis I. Dublin and J. McK. 

 Cattell for one year; G. N. Lewis, W. B. 

 Cannon, and R. T. Chamberlin for two 

 years; and Henry Crew, Joel Stebbins. and 

 G. H. Parker for three years. 



To fill vacancies in the council of the 

 association Drs. N. L. Britton and J. McK. 

 Cattell were reelected and Dr. J. C. Mer- 

 riam was elected as a new member. Dr. 

 E. F. Buchner was appointed to represent 

 the association in the American Council 

 of Education, and J. C. Merriam, H. B. 

 "Ward, and Stewart Paton were elected to 

 serve for three years on the Committee on 

 Policy. 



The report for 1918 of the treasurer of 

 the association, Dr. Robert S. Woodward, 

 showed total cash receipts of $7,747.27 and 

 disbursements $7,786.00, including the 

 purchase of $4,000 Liberty Bonds. The 

 total funds of the association are now 

 $116,605.45. 



The financial report of the permanent 

 secretary, L. 0. Howard, for the period 

 November 1, 1917, to October 30, 1918. 

 showed receipts $43,784.49 and expendi- 

 tures of $36,209.04, leaving a balance of 

 $7,575.45. 



The two financial reports will be printed 

 in full in a later issue of Science. 



0. E. Jennings, 

 General Secretary. 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 

 THE KATMAI NATIONAL MONUMENT 



President Wilson has created by proclama- 

 tion the Katmai National Monument. This 

 reservation incloses wliat the explosive erup- 

 tion of June, 1912, left of Mount Katmai, 

 on the southern shore of Alaska, together with 

 several neighboring valleys of steaming vents. 



the largest of which the National Geographic 

 Society, which explored it in Jime, 1917, 

 named the " Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes." 



Tlie two features are intimately related. 

 Rock strata superheated since the great erup- 

 tion underlie Katmai near enough to the 

 surface to turn to instant steam the spring 

 and drainage waters of many a siurounding 

 mile of foothills. Thus originates the steam 

 which bursts from the myriad valley vents. 

 The phenomenon is familiar in the neighbor- 

 hood of most volcanoes which still are classed 

 as active. Steaming springs, a later stage of 

 the vents in this valley, are found upon the 

 flauks of several of the most prominent of our 

 Cascade volcanoes, and are numerous around 

 the base of Lassen Peak. 



The comparison, however, between Katmai's 

 steaming valleys and the geyser basins of 

 Yellowstone is especially instructive because 

 Yellowstone's basins once were what Katmai's 

 steaming valleys are now. The " Valley of 

 Ten Thousand Smokes " is probably a coming 

 geyser field of enormous size. The explana- 

 tion is simple. Bunsen's geyser theory, now 

 generally accepted, presupposes a column of 

 water filling the geyser vent above a deep 

 rocky superheated chamber in which trickling 

 spring water is being rapidly turned into 

 steam. When this steam becomes plentiful 

 enough and sufficiently compressed to over- 

 come the weight of the water in the vent, it 

 suddenly expands and hurls the water out. 

 That is what makes the geyser pla,v. 



Now, the difference between the Yellowstone 

 geyser fields and Katmai's steaming valleys is 

 just a difference in temperature. The entire 

 depth of earth under these valleys is heated 

 far above boiling point, so that it is not 

 possible for water to remain in the vents; it 

 turns to steam as fast as it collects and rushes 

 out at the top in continuous flow. But when 

 centuries or hundreds of centuries enough 

 elapse for the rocks between the surface and 

 the deep internal pockets to cool, the water 

 will remain in many vents as water mitil, at 

 regular intervals, enough steam gathers below 

 to hurl it out. Then these valleys will become 



