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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 829 



Eadcliffe College has received from Mrs. 

 Martha T. Fiske Collard a bequest amounting 

 to about $100,000. 



Dr. Hans Meyer, of Leipzig, has given 150,- 

 000 Marks to the University of Berlin, to es- 

 tablish a chair of colonial geography. 



The new administration building of Throop 

 Polytechnic Institute at Pasadena, California, 

 was recently completed at a cost of $160,000, 

 contributed by Pasadena citizens. 



The new buildings of the department of 

 practical mechanics, of Purdue University, 

 was dedicated on November 12. These build- 

 ings provide facilities for instruction in me- 

 chanical drawing, descriptive geometry and 

 shop work. Ground was broken on July 22, 

 1909, and the completed structure turned over 

 to the university on June 15, 1910. The main 

 building contains 25,000 . square feet of floor 

 space; can accommodate at one time 400 stu- 

 dents in drawing, and has locker accommoda- 

 tions for 1,200 students. The lecture room 

 seats 300 and there are two class rooms, each 

 having a capacity of 60 students. The shops 

 cover 43,000 square feet of ground and are 

 capable of accommodating a group of 350 stu- 

 dents at one time. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



ERUPTIONS OF KILAUEA 



To THE Editor of Science: In your issue 

 of September 2, 1910, Professor 0. H. Hitch- 

 cock says, in his interesting review of Brig- 

 ham's " Kilauea and Mauna Loa," " It is im- 

 possible to learn whether the activities of 

 1849, 1855 and 1879 in Kilauea were to be 

 regarded as true eruptions. An opinion on 

 this point would be a great help." 



On July 2-5, 1855, with one companion, 

 Mr. Rufus A. Lyman, I made my sixteenth 

 and latest (I hope not last) trip to Kilauea. 

 I took full notes on the way, and from these, 

 soon afterward, drew up a somewhat minute 

 account of the tour. That account lies before 

 me, and it thus happens that I can give some 

 information as to the activities of Pele in 

 1855. I venture to transcribe a part of it. 



hoping that it may have interest as a matter 

 of careful record — in spite of the observer's 

 youth, and of the fact that he carried no in- 

 strument of precision but a magnetic compass. 

 The journal, with some few emendations and 

 a few additions (in brackets) runs as follows: 



On the road, July 3, 1855 — less than half a mile 

 from the brink of Kilauea. The magnificent cloud 

 which hung over the volcano was now in sight. 

 We noticed that a thin layer of the cloud on the 

 windward side was separated from the main body, 

 and steadily borne a short distance into the teeth 

 of the wind. After this evolution it returned to 

 its own cloud. . . . Before us were the steam- 

 cracks close to the volcano; they emitted scarcely 

 any vapor. At 12 M. we came suddenly upon the 

 brink of the crater. I sat down under a shelter- 

 ing rock and made these notes: Volcanic action 

 apparently confined to the southwest end of the 

 crater and to its sides (the former position of the 

 Black Ledge). Fresh lava apparently poured 

 over the bottom near the sides. Numerous cones 

 and sources of smoke near the flow of 1832 and 

 near the outer southeast side of the rough basaltic 

 ridge on the southeast side of the crater; also 

 further, toward the large volcanic cone or moimd 

 in the southwest end of the crater [Halemaumau] 

 and behind it, where appears to be the chief point 

 of action. The smoke in this locality rises almost 

 entirely from the west side of the large mound, 

 from ten small lateral cones. On the north and 

 northwest sides of the crater, at a long distance 

 from the mounds, are several sources of smoke, but 

 hardly so numerous or so active as on the east and 

 opposite sides. The whole central part of the 

 crater appears to consist of the old lava of many 

 years solidity, and to be entirely cool and unaf- 

 fected by the action that surrounds it. These 

 notes, penciled in view of the scene, were verified 

 by observations made next day in the crater. The 

 action was apparently and actually more violent 

 than it had been for several years. 



The night was bitter cold. Kilauea was mag- 

 nificent; from the half- ruined hut of the Volcano 

 House sixty fires were visible. 



July 4. With two additions to our party, 

 Messrs. F. Macomber and T. Irwin, we went to- 

 the sulphur-banks, a quarter mile^to the north, 

 and collected a few specimens of sulphur crystals. 

 The " banks " consist of a ridge of clayey earth, 

 about thirty feet high, and twice as broad at the 

 top. From every part of this bank the sulphurous 

 gas arises, leaving its crystallizations in the sides 



