308 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 818 



The value of these plates would have been 

 much greater if they could have been arranged 

 in chronological order and properly labeled. 

 Twelve of the plates have no date upon them 

 and even an expert can not be sure to what 

 period in the history some of them belong. 

 Plate LXrV. is said to represent the source 

 of the ilow of 1880-81; but it was taken from 

 near the head of the flow of 1887. 



In utilizing the records of these volcanoes 

 attention must be paid to the personal equa- 

 tion. Because the events happened so long' 

 since we hardly consider the relations of the 

 two early explorers. Admiral Wilkes and Pro- 

 fessor Dana. The former wished to vsrrite the 

 history himself and hence directed that the 

 latter should attend to business elsewhere, al- 

 though he was the official geologist of the ex- 

 pedition. With a keen sense of the injustice 

 done him, Dana would not fail to mention the 

 weak points in the writing of his superior. 

 Wilkes had Vesuvius in mind, evidently, 

 when he spoke of the action as " a sea of 

 molten lava, rolling to and fro its fiery surge 

 and flaming billows." Dana saw only a feeble 

 but constant agitation, like that of a caldron 

 in ebullition, whence came his classification 

 of volcanoes erupting violently and peace- 

 fully. The ascription of the Hawaiian vol- 

 canoes exclusively to the quiet class originated 

 in his criticism of Wilkes; and he was him- 

 self forced to admit later that the eruption of 

 1790 was truly explosive, such as had not been 

 observed since, and consequently that both 

 styles of discharge may be manifested in the 

 same volcano. 



An apparent neglect of Dana's work ap- 

 pears in Captain Dutton's report. Naturally 

 the former felt slighted and failed to acknowl- 

 edge some important suggestions of the latter, 

 such as the use of the term caldera for those 

 volcanoes in which the quiet action predomi- 

 nates. I happen to know that this apparent 

 neglect arose entirely from the inconvenience 

 of obtaining for reference a copy of the geol- 

 ogy of the exploring expedition. 



Dr. Brigham illustrates the personal equa- 

 tion in his selection of observers whose state- 



ments meet his approval. Dutton is not 

 quoted because the reader can consult his 

 report. From Dr. Titus Coan much material 

 is obtained, though he rightly rejects the theory 

 that the lava streams from Kilauea and 

 Mauna Loa united to cause the Kau earth- 

 quakes and the Kahuku eruption of 1868. 

 Miss Bird's descriptions are accepted only be- 

 cause they agree with those of W. L. Green. 

 He is indifierent to Miss Gordon Gumming 

 who acknowledges her indebtedness to him in 

 her " Fire Fountains." There are no allu- 

 sions to H. B. Guppy, W. H. Pickering and A. 

 B. Lyons. 



Every one will approve of Dr. Brigham's 

 recommendation that a permanent scientiflc 

 observatory be established at Kilauea where 

 notes may be taken with the best instruments, 

 of earthquakes, the diurnal changes of level 

 of the dome of Halemaumau, the tempera- 

 tures of the molten lava and steam jets, the 

 analysis of the ejecta and spectroscopic ob- 

 servations. ISTo organization can more fit- 

 tingly attempt such an establishment than the 

 trustees of the Bishop Estate, who sustain the 

 museum of which Dr. Brigham is director. 

 C. H. Hitchcock 



Die Polarwelt und ihre Nachharldnder. Von 

 Otto Nordenskjold. Mit 77 Abbildungen 

 im Text und einem Farbigen Titelbild. 

 Leipzig und Berlin, Druck und Verlag von 

 B. G. Teubner. 1909. 



Most books about the polar regions are 

 either accounts of explorations, histories of 

 discoveries, or scientific monographs. This 

 recent work of Dr. Nordenskjold falls into 

 neither of these categories. It is rather a 

 physical geography, describing in a general 

 way the chief characteristics of the polar and 

 semi-polar regions, especial emphasis being 

 laid on glacialogy and climatology. It has, 

 however, a personal quality rare in such works, 

 because Dr. Nordenskjold has traveled and 

 explored both in the Arctic and the Antarctic, 

 and his comparisons and descriptions are 

 therefore often those of an eye-witness of the 

 phenomena he speaks of, and not merely facts 

 culled from the works of other writers. " Die 



