Appendix VIII. 



REPORT ON THE PUBLICATIONS. 



Sib : I have the honor to submit the following report on the publications of 

 the Smithsonian Institution and its branches during the year ending June 30, 

 1907: 



/. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. 



In the series of tbe Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge three memoirs 

 were in press at the close of the fiscal year and several manuscripts were in 

 preparation. 



1692. Glaciers of the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks. Report of the Smith- 

 sonian Expedition of 1904. By William Hittell Sherzer, Ph. D. Quarto. Pages 

 xii, 135, with 42 plates. Part of Volume XXXV. In press. 



The advertisement of this publication describes it as follows : 



Dr. William H. Sherzer, professor of natural science at Michigan State Nor- 

 mal College, has brought together in the present memoir the results of an ex- 

 pedition undertaken by the Smithsonian Institution among the glaciers of the 

 Canadian Rockies and Selkirks in the year 1904. The general objects of the 

 research were to render available a description of some of the most accessible 

 glaciers upon the American continent, to investigate to what extent the known 

 glacial features of other portions of the world are reproduced in these American 

 representatives, and to ascertain what additional light a study of similar 

 features might shed upon glacier formation and upon some of the unsettled 

 problems of Pleistocene geology. 



A systematic survey was made of the Victoria and Wenkchemna glaciers in 

 Alberta, and of the Yoho and Illecillewaet glaciers in British Columbia, located 

 about 200 miles north of the boundary of the United States. The largest of 

 these is the Yoho glacier, extending more than 3 miles below the neve field 

 and 1 mile in width for two-thirds of its length. Doctor Sherzer investigated 

 various surface features of each of these glaciers, the nature and cause of ice 

 flow, the temperature of the ice at various depths and its relation to air tem- 

 perature, the amount of surface melting, and the possible transference of ma- 

 terial from the surface to the lower portion ; their forward movement and the 

 recession and advance of their extremities, and the general structure of 

 glacial ice. 



In summarizing the most important results Doctor Sherzer discusses the 

 indicated physiographic changes in the region during the Mesozoic and Pleisto- 

 cene periods; the question of precipitation of snow and rain, and the effect of 

 climatic cycles on glacial movements, the structure of the ice as to stratifica- 

 tion, shearing, blue bands, ice dykes, glacial granules, and the possible methods 

 of their development. In discussing the theories of glacial motion the author 

 expresses his conviction that the nature of the ice movement can be satisfac- 

 torily explained only upon the theory that under certain circumstances and 

 within certain limits ice is capable of behaving as a plastic body — that is. 

 capable of yielding continuously to stress without rupture — but the plasticity 

 of ice, a crystalline substance, must be thought of as essentially different from 

 that manifested by such amorphous substances as wax or asphaltuni. 



Doctor Sherzer also discusses the cause of the richness and variety of color- 

 ing of glaciers and glacial lakes. 



1718. The Young of the Crayfishes Astacus and Cambarus. By E. A. Andrews. 

 Quarto. Pages 79. with 10 plates. Part Of Vol. XXXV. In press. 



