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Show j r J Where the Face of the ! Earth Is Young I By Frederic J. Haskin. 4 4 WASHINGTON. D. C Dec. IS. The astounding proposal made by a world-famed world-famed engineer to the British Association Associa-tion for the Advancement of Scleuce that a shaft be bored twelve miles deep a i task estimated to take eighty-five years! and to cost $25, 000, 000 is only one evl- j dence of the increasing interest in the 1 possible value of the pent-up energy un- der the thin crust of the earth's sur- j face. While British science has' been debating- that project an American body, the National Geographic Society of Washing- j ton, has made rapid strides in the study i of the composition of the earth's sub- i surface. The sixth of its expeditions to : tlie Mount Katmal region, in Alaska, has j just returned. In that area there are ' nature-made shafts volcanoes which nl-ready nl-ready have revealed hidden secrets ' of Mother Earth. There is also a field of hissing vapors, hundreds of degrees abovo the boiling point, popularly known as the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. The expedition which has Just come back is the largest and best equipped yet sent to Mount Katmal. Dr. Robert F. Griggs, who was In personal charge, has headed the previous National Geographic expeditions Into the little-known areas. Drs Griggs's report not only disclosed that the' region was one of great interest for science but also a place' Of such wondrous natural beauty that, by executive order, President Wilson has directed it to be set aside as a national monument, pending, pend-ing, the time when transportation facilities facili-ties will make it our farthest-north national na-tional playground.. The great- scientific value of the region re-gion lies in the fact that it affords an opportunity to study the mysterious natural nat-ural processes by which the earth became habitable.. For this entire volcanic field is an isolated patch on the surface of the earth, where, through some backward physical, process, that surface still is in the making. This region, in a word, Is a bit of the earth that remains much as all of .it was a million years .ago, before man, had appeared. Chemists, petrographers, zoologists and various other scientists who made up the expedition now .are preparing their reports. re-ports. There are two aspects of the expedition's ex-pedition's work, revealed in these reports, re-ports, -which are of marked general interest. in-terest. A preliminary report shows that the region north of the national monument area abounds in fish ,and game, and will therefore be of great Interest to. sportsmen sports-men and scientists. ' '. For the first time an expedition of this kind, was equlpped. to take extensive motion mo-tion picture photographs, so that it brings .back- materal not only for the prolonged study of laboratory microscopes, but a record that may be conveyed, in a few hours, to , millions of . eyes. Tl)fs record shows that nature not only is performing some queer pranks in Alaska, but that this region also has natural beauties, which some day will vie in popularity with those of the Yellowstone, Yosemite and Mesa Verde. The so-called Valley of- Ten Thousand Smokes is such an unusual phenomenon that It is hard to convey a mental picture of its wonders. It most resembles a magnified mag-nified train, yard, where thousands of engines en-gines are spitting forth hissing columns of steam. But many of the fumaroles, the. technical name for these natural emdkestacks, spurt forth vapors far too hot to be visible as steam: , The "early expeditions found that some of them were so hot that instruments taken along could not 1 measure 'the . intensity ', of the heat. Preparation "for this bo'ntlrigericy was made on the 1919 expedition, and the highest temperature found was 1191.2 degrees de-grees Fahrenheit! A heavy piece of wood kindles as quickly when held, over the opening of many of these, seething fumaroles as does a .match over a gas flame. In the course of centuries, or more likely. ,af Ijer. several miyennjwps, this region wiiP resemble the geysers to ,'be seen in our western national parks. As yet most of the region has not raeched the comparatively late stage in surface developments when gevsers are formed. 'A j discovery of Importance made during dur-ing Uhls( summer was the finding of a lake twelve miles long. The body of water is one of great natural, beauty and adds one more to the scenic" wonders of a region which practically was unknown until Mount Katmal blew off Its Gargantuan Gargan-tuan lid and attracted men there for humanity's hu-manity's sake who returned In the interests inter-ests of science. The party reached an unevplored ' end of the valley and found volcanoes which hitherto have not been viewed by civil-ilized civil-ilized man. The crater of one was half a mile in diameter. The explorers' traversed 2200 miles of uncommon country, and surveyed much of 'the region. Some parts were extremely rugged. ' More than 100 miles of uncharted or incorrectly charted coast line was mapped. But some of the most valuable results of the trip are yet to be revealed those results which only - will be known after thorough tests of the comprehensive collection col-lection of laVa specimens brought back for petographlc examination, and laboratory labora-tory study of many specimens of plant and animal life. A Explorations of this sort are 'not a new thing for the National Geographic society. so-ciety. In the more than thirty years of 'Its existence this society has sailed the seas, climbed the mountains, pushed out Into the frozen zones, explored other' volcanic vol-canic craters, and studied the past of the earth. Once the north pole was the goal apparently ap-parently beyond the reach of men. A founder of the society, Greely, reached farthest north; then it was hardy Nan-sen, Nan-sen, and finally came Peary, who conquered con-quered the earth's ultimate north. The society helped support his undertakings. Mont ' Pelee exploded In distant Martinique, Mar-tinique, at Messina the earth developed an ague that destroyed a great city and snuffed out thousands of lives, and then Mount Katmai, the Alaskan Titan, exploded, ex-ploded, and to all three places the National Na-tional Geographic sent expeditions which brought back data about the relation between be-tween volcano and earthquake, Another achievement was that of -unearthing a city where a conquered race with a vanished religion had fled . for refuge. 'At Machu PIcchiT the ancient Incas lived, and their city was preserved for present-day study by' the debris of centuries, which National Geographic explorers ex-plorers removed. A wealth of Information Informa-tion about the people who lived here before Columbus came was . the result of the study of these ruins. . For example it was found that when the Incas desired de-sired to commemorate a heroic life it was their custom to construct as memorials me-morials wonderful agricultural works hanging gardens greater than, those of ancient Babylon, and probably on these hanging gardens the potato, a Peruvian gift to civilization, was originated. . Since the National Geographic society Js an Institution for the sole purpose of working toward the "increase and diffusion dif-fusion of geographic knowledge," it pays no monetary dividends, nor does any pecuniary pe-cuniary profit accrue to any individual or group of individuals from Its work. Neither does it accept endowments. The mites of the many outweigh the bounty of the few, and the explorer who faces the unknown with 700,000 representative American homes Interested In his welfare wel-fare and his success goes well equipped to his task. Research funds of the society, accruing from the dues of its members, not only have added to the sum of human knowledge knowl-edge In many regions and along many lines, but upon one occasion rescued one of the nation's greatest national treasures the great sequoia trees of California In 1916 one of the largest of the few remaining re-maining groups of these trees was about to fall prey to commercialism. Congress engrossed with other of the. nation's affairs, af-fairs, failed to make a sufficient appropriation appro-priation before the time limit expired The National Geographic society furnished fur-nished the money that ransomed these venerable giants of the forest for posterity. |