406 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 114. 



Dr. Hirsch devotes nearlj' one-third of his 

 book to the defense of Richard Wagner. He 

 must have felt that his hero was hard pressed. 

 The great majority of his readers will, no doubt, 

 believe that he has maintained his thesis and 

 established his hero on a sane and solid basis. 

 We are not at all unwilling to accept his position. 

 But it is an interesting fact that the Wagner 

 vogue, aside from Germany, has reached its great- 

 est popularity in this country, a land which has, 

 with equal fervor, taken to its heart spiritual- 

 ism, homoeopathy, Christian science and free 

 coinage. Dr. Hirsch has, in general, reasoned 

 well and shown both the learning of an alienist 

 and the scholarship of a literateur. But we are 

 grieved to see him descend to thecheap sophism 

 that Nordau, by his own rules, has shown him- 

 self a degenerate. This brilliant touch has been 

 applied before by three-fourths of the penny-a- 

 liners who have attacked his work. While it 

 may be suggested by Nordau 's extravagant in- 

 vective, it is simply not a logical retort. For 

 it makes no difference what the author of an 

 argument is. It is the force of the facts upon 

 which it is based that concerns the critic. 



Chaeles L. Dana. 



New York. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 

 AMERICAN JOURNAL OP SCIENCE. 



The March number opens with an article by 

 J. S. Diller, of the United States Geological 

 Survey, describing Crater Lake, in southern 

 Oregon. This lake is situated in the summit 

 of the Cascade Range, and, notwithstanding the 

 interest of its geological history and the beauty 

 of the natural scenery, a comparatively small 

 part of the scientific public is acquainted with 

 its features. The nearly circular rim of the 

 lake has an average diameter of six miles and 

 rises 1,000 feet above the general level of the 

 range. The slope without is gentle, but with- 

 in quite precipitous. The general appearance 

 is that of the hollow base of a large and deeply 

 truncated cone, filled within by the waters of 

 the lake. The crest of the rim varies in height 

 from 6,700 to 8,200 feet above the sea, or from 

 a little more than 500 to nearly 2,000 feet 

 above the waters of the lake. The rim is com- 

 posed of lava streams and beds of volcanic con- 



glomerate, which dip away from the lake. The 

 prevailing rock is andesite, but rhyolites are 

 common along the later flows and these are 

 largely associated with pumice. A number of 

 vertical dikes intersect the rim, the largest of 

 which is known as the Devil's Backbone. 

 Within the lake is an island called Wizard's 

 Island, which consists of a steep cinder cone 84.5 

 feet in height, surmounted by a perfect crater 

 80 feet in depth and encircled by a rough lava 

 field. According to soundings taken by Dutton 

 in 1886, other prominences of this kind exist at 

 the bottom of the pit. The rim of the lake has 

 been extensively glaciated, and the study of the 

 glacial striae and moraines gives evidence of the 

 changes which have taken place since the gla- 

 cial period. 



After discussing the prominent features of 

 the locality, some of which are here alluded to, 

 the author concludes that in the glacial period 

 the site of Crater Lake was occupied by an ac- 

 tive volcano about the height of Mt. Shasta ; 

 this has been called Mt. Mazama. Its sides 

 were glaciated by the descending ice streams, 

 and moraines were deposited about its base. 

 The author concludes as follows : 



' ' The later eruptions of Mt. Mazama occurred . 

 in the glacial period and doubtless produced 

 extensive floods which filled with d6bris the 

 valleys of all the streams radiating from the 

 mountain. In approximate connection with its 

 final eruption, the molten material of the in- 

 terior withdrawing, the summit of Mt. Mazama 

 caved in and sank away, giving rise to a caldera 

 nearly six miles in diameter and 4,000 feet 

 deep. Thus originated the great pit in which 

 Crater Lake is contained, encircled by a gla- 

 ciated rim, the hollow base of the engulfed Mt. 

 Mazama. LTpon the bottom of the caldera 

 volcanic activity continued. There were new 

 eruptions building up cinder cones and lava 

 fields and partially refilling the great pit. Pre- 

 cipitation is greater than evaporation in that 

 region. Volcanic activity ceasing, the condi- 

 tions were favorable for water accumulation, 

 and Crater Lake was formed in the pit." 



F. D. Adams and A. E. Barlow discuss the 

 origin and relations of the Grenville and Hast- 

 ings series in the Canadian Laurentian. This 

 is in continuation of an earlier paper by the 



