Menoher, chief. The aviator was Sergeant T. J. Fowler. The photographic equipment consisted of a mapping camera, K.1 model, fixed in the bottom of the plane. This camera is designed to take successive pictures automatically and can be so adjusted for the altitude of the plane and the apparent air speed that the exposures take a small overlap. The views can therefore be combined in a continuous mosaic. Theoretically the action should be perfect and the continuity of the pictures unbroken. In practise, the tilting of the plane is equivalent to turning a camera through a greater or less angle on a tripod and successive views may jump interspaces of greater or less extent. One remedy, with this type of camera, would be to repeat, a recourse which is practicable when flying over a restricted area, but impracticable in a flight between distant landing fields. A clinometer would enable the photographer to note the inclination of the plane and a finder might be used.

The flights here noted covered a course of approximately 400 miles each way and were made in 4 hours 40 minutes on the southward trip and 4 hours 13 minutes on the northward.

The San Andreas Rift, the object of observation, is that major continental structure which extends from Humboldt County in northern California to the Mohave Desert in the southern part of the state, a distance of about 600 miles. It is an ancient fault, the locus of innumerable movements, which have given rise to pronounced topographic features. Displacements have been upward or downward or lateral along different sections of the fault or during different movements along the same section. We have yet much to learn about the effects of faulting expressed in the details of geology along the rift.

The earthquake of April, 1906, produced marked surface features, which were carefully studied by Branner, Gilbert, Lawson and other geologists and which have been fully described in the report of the California State Earthquake Commission, publication 87 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. One is often asked to what extent those features are still

"Why are

"mustard gas," the reply was:you worrying about this when you know perfectly well that this is not the gas we shall use in the next war?"

I hold no brief for preventive medicine, which is well able to fight its own case. I would only say that it is the legitimate business of preventive medicine to preserve by all known means the health of any body of men, however large or small, committed to its care. It is not to its discredit if, by knowledge and skill, the numbers so maintained run into millions instead of being limited to thousands. On the other hand, an educated public opinion" will refuse to give credit to any body of scientific men who employ their talents in devising means to develop and perpetuate a mode of warfare which is abhorrent to the higher instincts of humanity.

66

This association, I trust, will set its face against the continued degradation of science in thus augmenting the horrors of war. It could have no loftier task than to use its great influence in arresting a course which is the very negation of civilization.

T. EDWARD THORPE

AERIAL OBSERVATION OF EARTHQUAKE RIFTS

THE Seismological Society of America is interested in mapping the earthquake rifts of California, with a view to increasing our knowledge of the structures related to earthquakes and to promoting security in the engineering work of the state. Data of a general and comprehensive character already exist in published and unpublished maps, but additional surveys are desirable. Faults may be located in several ways and it is possible that a method of tracing them may be developed with the airplane, as was first suggested to the writer by H. O. Wood. To test the idea, a flight was made by me from San Francisco to Los Angeles and return on June 9 and 11, so far as practicable over the San Andreas Rift, to observe and photograph it.

The plane was furnished by the Air Service of the U. S. Army, by courtesy of Major H. H. Arnold, under authority of General C. T.

visible and the answer is that much depends upon the climatic conditions of any selected section. Where rainfall is abundant, vegetation vigorous and erosion efficient, there is not much to be seen after fifteen years; but under arid conditions the marks of the disturbance of 1857 survive plainly.

The essential fact is that the Rift is a line, and features peculiar to it must fall into line. The general position and course of this Rift being known, the observer was constantly noting valleys, lakes and ponds, ravines, washes or scars on the surface, which lined up with one another. From over Mussel Rock, where the Rift cuts the shore, the range along the Rift was plainly that of the axis of San Andreas and Crystal Springs Lakes, and was continued in the valley through Searles Lake and beyond to Black Mountain. Stevens Creek heads in that summit on the Rift, and flows for six miles along it. Thus for a distance of 33 miles the earthquake line is marked by major features of the topography, by valleys which are due to the cooperation of displacement and erosion. Similar valleys might be produced by erosion alone, and since the rocks are hidden by water, soil and vegetation, the aerial observer could not see the displacement. In this section the observer could infer, but could not demonstrate the existence of the Rift.

Continuing southeastward beyond Wright's Station on the Santa Cruz branch of the Southern Pacific the Rift traverses the western slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains near the summit, and determines the course of numerous small valleys which are the head-valleys of streams that flow south to Monterey Bay, but which contrary to what would be expected, range themselves into line parallel with the crest of the mountains. Along this same line there are numerous landslide scars and small ponds. No one or small group of these features would necessarily indicate the existence of the Rift, but their alignment over a distance of 25 miles would be strong presumptive evidence of it, and that alignment can be seen from the airplane. The only other way in which it can be demonstrated is by a

study of an accurate topographic map, which is in itself, as it were, an airplane view. Thus for any section of an earthquake track which might be indicated by features similar to those occurring on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains observation by airplane would constitute a valuable method of investigation.

Passing to the middle section of the earthquake Rift where the aridity of the climate prevents the growth of vegetation, and limits the destructive work of erosion, the marks of the earthquake became more distinct and more continuous. Thus my notes read: "Mustang Ridge and Peach Tree Valley, Rift shows in serpentine slides in the ridge. Temblor Range, the line of the Rift shows like a light soil streak for miles ahead. Over Carrizo Plains at Wolforts, Rift shows up in a line of white washes easily lined up," and a little further along: "Rift shows plainly like a canal ditch."

The ditch-like character of the Rift along the northeast slope of Carrizo Plain has been noted by Fairbanks and others. It is remarkable, plainly visible from an altitude of 12,000 feet, like a large empty irrigation canal. I could see it perhaps 10 miles ahead till it was lost in the rosy dust haze.

At this point the aviator passed me a note: "Forty minutes more gas." I scaled off the distance to Bakersfield, the only landing place. It was 35 minutes away and we turned from the Rift.

Returning from Los Angeles on the 11th we flew along the southeastern section of the Rift from Tejon Pass up Cuddy Valley to San Emidio Peak. In this stretch it is marked by springs which give rise to alkali patches or to green mallins, the marshes peculiar to seepages in arid valleys. Its features are easily traceable because of their linear continuity.

Photographing from an satisfactory than observing.

airplane is less When the camera

is fixed on the plane, as it must be to secure continuity of views, there is the trouble of swinging already referred to. I myself lost the sense of horizontal or vertical and was

quite unconscious of the fact that the camera was winking at the mountain slope when I thought it was photographing the lake.

In the vertical view features are flattened. This is true for vision and is even more pronouncedly true in photographs. It would be desirable therefore to observe during the earlier and later hours of the day when shadows are strong. The swiftness of flight makes this practicable, since miles become short when expressed in minutes and a distant field of study can be reached quickly. Photography, however, requires the strongest light possible because the exposure must be very brief when the camera is moving a hundred miles an hour, and this requirement limits the available hours to those when shadows are weak or lacking. The effect of this limitation is yet to be worked out, but since rift features are to a great extent relief features, it is of consequence.

So far as the trial flights of June 9 and 11 go they seem to demonstrate that aerial observation of a linear structural feature such as an earthquake rift is practicable. If one end of a rift be known it can be followed by a man skilled in the interpretation of topographic forms. Or if a line of features be detected, it may be so traced as to demonstrate their continuity and to facilitate the closer examination which may be necessary to prove the existence of a fault. I conclude that the airplane can be used to advantage as a means of rapid geologic reconaissance to map large structural features.

BAILEY WILLIS

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATION OF THE UPPER AIR 1

INTERNATIONAL exploration of the upper air dates from 1896, when a conference took place at Petrograd. Methods of sounding the atmosphere, even to a height of 23 miles, were devised. By the use of drifting free balloons, and recording instruments carried up by kites and anchored balloons, an unexpected stratification of the atmosphere has been discovered. The temperature falls regularly up to a height averaging six or seven miles from the ground, 1 From the London Times.

lower over the equator, higher near the poles. But the upper air is arranged in vertical columns in which the temperature is constant with height at any particular time and place. Little is known as to the cause of this disposition, and less as to the influence it must have on other factors of wind and weather. Useful knowledge can be gained only from data obtained by the same methods at the same times at the largest possible number of stations. International cooperation is necessary. It was interrupted by the war, although all the combatants made extensive use of the latest meteorological methods for the practical objects of artillery, aviation, poison gas, and sound-ranging. It has now been resumed. The other day we gave an account of the proceedings of the first meeting since the war, held at Bergen, in the last week of July, under the presidency of Professor V. Bjerknes. The name of that distinguished Norwegian meteorologist is associated with a new theory of the weather in temperate latitudes, on which we commented a year ago. The theory briefly is that just as the poles are capped with snow so they are capped by a great mass of cold air. In a wavering line round each temperate zone this polar air meets the warm air from the equator abruptly. Along the front of contact the warm air rises over the cold stream. Cyclones and anticyclones are born of the contest. The professor urges the formation of a closely set chain of observing stations round the globe in the zone of struggle. Other meteorologists are more disposed to assign the causes of our weather to the vaster regions of the upper air. An international meteorological committee, to meet in London in September, has been appointed by the Commission, and is to give special attention to the polar theory. The progress of its labors will be followed with deep interest. There are few human activities which would not gain by the advance of meteorological science, and the future of aviation will be largely determined by it.

THE WORLD'S SUPPLY OF WHEAT

ACCORDING to a report issued to the Department of Agriculture prospects for the world's

wheat supply, while not so satisfactory as was expected during the first part of the current season, show at the present time no cause for serious alarm. Estimates of the quantity of wheat harvested in 20 countries, including the United States, for 1921, total 2,461,430,000 bushels, compared with 2,384,143,000 bushels harvested last year according to data compiled by the Bureau of Markets and Crop Estimates, United States Department of Agriculture.

The 20 countries included in this estimate are the United States, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain, British India, Japan, Algeria, Tunis, Union of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. These countries produced approximately 68 per cent. of the known wheat crop of the world during the years 1903-1913, according to the annual average production records of the bureau.

Although the long-sustained drought throughout the greater part of the Northern Hemisphere was a serious menace to the various crops in many countries, the fallsown wheat has not been affected adversely so much as was at first supposed. On the contrary, the fall-sown wheat managed to obtain a firm hold on the soil and a fairly vigorous growth before the beginning of the drought.

Nearly all of northern and central Europe will have larger wheat crops this year than last, according to the last estimates made by the bureau, Belgium and Greece being the only countries in which smaller crops are expected.

Outside of Europe, British India was most seriously affected by the drought. The dryness and the hot winds that have prevailed throughout most of the growing season have resulted in the very low yield 250,469,000 bushels of wheat, or about 50,000,000 bushels less than the quantity normally consumed in that country. With the rice crop also seriously affected, India is expected to import wheat this year instead of exporting it. In an average year before the World War, India exported over 50,000,000 bushels of wheat.

In Canada the total yield of spring wheat is estimated at 273,020,000 bushels, of which 264,137,000 bushels were grown in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta. Fall wheat, grown almost exclusively in Ontario and Alberta, was estimated at 15,473,000 bushels. The total wheat yield of Canada for 1921 is therefore 288,493,000 bushels, compared with 263,189,000 bushels last year.

A very unsatisfactory feature in the present international situation is the hopeless cɔndition of the Russian crops. Unofficial reports state that during last autumn and the spring of this year only a very small area was sown to the various crops, resulting in a failure to produce sufficient food for the country's needs. It is also reported unofficially that a considerable amount of wheat will yet be imported by Russia this year. But up to the present time the amount of wheat, as well as other foodstuffs, which will be imported is conjectural, and the Bureau of Markets and Crop Estimates is unable to make a definite statement concerning it.

In northern Africa, the wheat crop was generally larger than last year. In Algeria, thrashing results show a better yield than was expected earlier in the season. In Tunis, bad weather reduced the yields somewhat from those expected earlier, while in Morocco the crop was generally reported as satisfactory. According to estimates published by the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome, these three countries are expected to produce, for 1921, a yield of 66,138,000 bushels of wheat, compared with 36,743,000 bushels in 1920.

AN ENGLISH VIEW OF AMERICAN BIOLOGY

Ar a recent meeting of the National Union of Scientific Workers in the Royal School of Mines, London, Sir Daniel Hall took the chair, and a lecture was given by Mr. W. B. Brierley head of the department of mycology at Rothamsted on "Personal Impressions of American Biological Research."

According to Science Progress Mr. Brierley opened by explaining that his visit to America was made primarily to attend the Phyto

pathological Conference, which was peripatetic, ending at Lancaster, Ohio. By means of a sketch-map Mr. Brierley showed a complicated personal itinerary, from Quebec as a point of arrival, reaching to the southern limits of the United States, and including all the principal universities and biological stations. He then indicated the most striking and individual feature of American agriculture, which he described as the main source of wealth of the country. This was the almost complete concentration in wide areas of a single crop, so that there were 500 miles together of maize, of cotton, or of rice, and not much smaller areas of fruit or vegetables for preserving. One consequence of this was that plant disease ran riot through a whole area, and the field problems confronting the American agricultural biologist were so vast and menacing as almost to destroy the possibility of academic research, except in the eastern industrial regions, and to force the whole available scientific personnel into the field to stem a tide of disaster. In the industrial area, containing the older universities, the biological work approximated closely to that done in this country in subject and mode of attack, but in the state universities in the newer agricultural regions-each with its own single crop presenting urgent problems for solution-certain feaures were noticeable: (1) An early and extreme specialization, subjects which were here studied after a degree course in botany (such as plant pathology), being themselves degree courses, and the graduates, almost all of whom, from economic pressure on individuals and the crying need in the field, were unable to take post-graduate training, immediately devoting themselves exclusively to the study of a single type of disease. (2) There was almost no gradation between the academic biologist of real eminence and national or international reputation and the ordinary worker dealing with a limited field of applied science. For this reason the science on which their specialized practise was founded was apt to be too much in the background. Coming back, he felt Europe and England to be somewhat old,

sophisticated, and contemptuous of youth. America is young, and has all the boundless energy of adolescence and its unique fervor. Sir D. Hall, before opening the discussion, pointed out that America was not a country of farmers, but of industrialists working upon the land. Consequently they were less tied by tradition, and more ready to look to science for help. On the other hand, the state legislatures, which supported the biological work, were very apt to demand immediate results, and some promising work was spoiled by premature publication. England should take warning of the danger of allowing the legislature to get direct control of scientific research. He wecomed such a visit as Mr. Brierley's as a help towards counteracting the tendency in all civilized countries to erect quarantine walls against the entry of plants from abroad, for fear of disease. This fear was easily exploited by commercial firms for their own ends. The only way to get over the difficulty was to establish such mutual confidence between biologists in different countries as to render a guarantee of health given by the experts in any country absolutely trustworthy.

THE RETIREMENT OF DR. W. H. JORDAN THE faculty of Cornell University has adopted the following resolutions:

On the occasion of the retirement of Dr. Whitman Howard Jordan from the professorship of animal nutrition in Cornell University and from the directorship of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, the members of this faculty desire to record their appreciation of the inestimable service which Professor Jordan has rendered to science and to the scientific agriculture of the state and of the nation.

Professor Jordan assumed the directorship of the experiment station in 1896, a critical time for agriculture and for the new experiment stations. He brought to his work true scientific training, gained as an undergraduate student at the University of Maine, as a postgraduate student at Cornell University under the guidance of Professor Caldwell, and as an assistant to Dr. Atwater at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station; and long experience as a teacher of agriculture and agricultural chemistry at the University of Maine