78 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 655 



surrounded the conception of " carbon assim- 

 ilation," or whatever else it was called, has 

 been wonderfully cleared by the adoption of 

 " photosynthesis." It is to be believed that a 

 similar clarifying process would take place, 

 and the thanks of teachers of plant physiology 

 would again be earned by Dr. Barnes, if the 

 word " energesis " could be generally adopted. 



W. E. Praeger 



Kalamazoo College 



VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN" ALASKA 



To THE Editor of Science: llr. Arthur P. 

 Porter, civil engineer and graduate of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wri- 

 ting from Elliott Creek, Alaska, under date of 

 May 24, 1907, communicates the following in- 

 teresting observations : 



On and about April 5, several mountains of the 

 Wrangell range in Alaska were active voleanically, 

 sending up great clouds of steam and causing a 

 flood in the Kotsina River that, on April 6, came 

 down past our camp at the mouth of the Kotsina, 

 cut us off from our supply train and prevented 

 our going \ip the Kotsina on the ice. 



To go more into detail, the first we heard about 

 it was on April 1, when we were mushing dovra 

 the Tonsino River. We stopped for dinner at the 

 camp of some freighters hauling in supplies for 

 the Hubbard-Elliott mine; and Mr. Hubbard said 

 that they could plainly see the smoke ( ? ) and 

 steam rising from Mt. Wrangell. That afternoon 

 and the following day, as we proceeded down the 

 Tonsino and then down the Copper River, we 

 caught occasional distant views of the mountains, 

 but I noted nothing remarkable. (A photograph 

 taken April 2 shows the mountains clear.) On 

 April 5 and 6 we saw great white clouds which 

 always rolled away from the mountains, yet never 

 left them clear; and with the field glasses steam 

 was seen issuing from the sides of the mountains 

 below the tops. We were at the mouth of the 

 Kotsina, about forty miles from the mountains, 

 and could not positively identify the peaks. Ap- 

 parently, however, Mts. Wrangell, Blackburn and 

 Sanford were all sending up steam. 



The next day, April 6, a sudden flood came 

 down the Kotsina on top of the ice and under- 

 neath it. There had been no warm weather and 

 no rain (28° below zero instead). The flood lasted 



two days and then went down. The enclosed pho- 

 tograph shows the head of the flood advancing 

 down the river and spreading over the snow as it 

 came. I stepped on an ice hummock to take the 

 picture; and by the time I could focus my camera, 

 the flood had passed me on both sides and nearly 

 cut me off. The toe of the flood advanced at the 

 rate of fifty feet a minute, actual timing, eating 

 its way through the snow as if the water were 

 warm. 



May 28, the mountains seem to be steaming 

 again (Mt. Drum or Mt. Sanford), and others 

 noted the same two days ago. 



W. 0. Crosby 



Massachusetts Institute op. TECHJfOLOCY 



RANA PIPIENS 



To THE Editor of Science: While I was in 

 charge of the neurological work at the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, there were published from 

 the laboratory eight papers dealing with the 

 anatomy of the nervous system of the leopard 

 frog. In these publications the species was 

 designated as Bana virescens hrachycephala 

 (Cope). I have recently learned through the 

 kindness of Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, of the 

 National Museum, that this name is no longer 

 used, and that the correct designation for the 

 leopard frog is Rana pipiens (Schreber), as 

 given by Jordan, " Manual of the Vertebrate 

 Animals of the Northern United States," and 

 adopted by Holmes, "Biology of the Erog," 

 1906, and Miss Dickerson, " The Frog Book," 

 1906. 



In my further studies on the nervous sys- 

 tem of the leopard frog, the species will be 

 designated, therefore, as Bana pipiens. In 

 view of the fact that there are several investi- 

 gations on this species still to be published, 

 I take this opportunity of calling attention to 

 the change in name, first, because those of us 

 who are not specially concerned with taxon- 

 omy are apt to be confused by such changes, 

 and second, because I wish to emphasize the 

 fact that these later studies will apply to the 

 same species as that used in the earlier investi- 

 gations. 



Henry H. Donaldson 



WisTAR Institute of ANATOiiy 



