586 GEOPHYSICS: H. S. WASHINGTON Proc. N. A. S. 
most valuable contributions to volcanology yet made. It is of the greatest 
importance to our science that both these stations be maintained, and 
their observations published, so as to continue the important work so 
well begun. And it is also important that similar stations be estab- 
lished and maintained at other volcanoes of types different from these 
two. In its type of activity Kilauea is very unusual, while Vesuvius, 
though more normal in its form of activity, is very unusual in the char- 
acter of its ejected material. Stations for continuous observations over 
a long series of years are needed at volcanoes of the rhyolitic, andesitic, 
and basaltic (besides Kilauea) types. These should be established at 
volcanoes which are more or less continuously active, and with a fair 
prospect of some eruptions from time to time. Several volcanoes in 
Japan and Java suggest themselves as favorable, and there might be 
mentioned also Apia in Samoa, Izalco in San Salvador, Stromboli and 
Santorini in the Mediterranean, and some volcanoes along the Andes and 
in Mexico. The establishment of such stations offers, of course, many 
difficulties, but it would be well for the Section to bear this in mind as one 
of the most important, even if one of the most difficultly realizable, 
objects of effort. 
At any such station the continuous observations to be made would be 
many and various, including, for instance, daily notes on the state of the 
crater and fumaroles, the noises emitted, the microseismic vibrations, the 
weather and barometric data, etc. With all this, there would be oppor- 
tunity for the collection of specimens from the various flows, fumarolic 
salts, gases from the lava; measurement of the earlier flows; observation 
of the temperature of the lavas; and many other matters. The collection 
of volcanic gases, and study of the best methods for this, are of special 
importance. 
It is not probable that many of these stations will be maintained, at 
least in the near future, and, as the study of the phenomena of great 
eruptions is also of great importance, it would be very desirable if some 
arrangements could be made (possibly international as well as national), 
through which any usually dormant volcano that was reported to be show- 
ing signs of renewed activity or to be in a state of eruption might be visi- 
ted immediately by competent observers. This has been done for several 
great eruptions, such as Santorini in 1866, Mont Pelee in 1902, Vesuvius 
in 1906, and Sakurajima in 1914; but always in a haphazard way, thus 
diminishing materially the value and scope of the observations in some 
cases. The immense value of such visits, however, is shown by such 
monumental works as those of Fouque on vSantorini, the British and Dutch 
at Krakatoa, and of Lacroix at Pelee. of Ferret, Omori, and Kato at 
Sakurajima, with others of scarcely less importance. It may be mentioned 
here that we may hope soon to have a similarly complete and monumental 
report by Ferret on the Vesuvius eruption of 1906. 
