Evening Star Newspaper, August 30, 1925, Page 73

ILLUSTRATED FEATURES MAGAZINE SECTION he Sunthy Staf FICTION AND HUMOR Part 5—8 Pages WASHI iTON, D. SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST ra 30, 1925. “World Knowledse Increased by Geographic Society Efforts MacMillan expedition, 11 present-day Society’ of a one tional expedi- has HE of seve Georgraphic tions, is the lat by which that NIy tor tHe added world's knowl- edge { The Geographic's flag that flis on Bowdoin foremast has been car- ried by intrepid explorers who cruised the seas, sc mountain 1 dely into volcanic craters and mn"ed from the Arctic to the tropics to spread how facts upon the pages of geog- raph: “Of :\ll Conrad, th the sci said Joseph “geography finds its origin in at is more, in adven- turous action.” That ement unique 3 graphic to a Geo- gives a clue hip by a millic of their endowment by more wealthy individual Tt took Columbus m vears to find a_quec: her h w World s MacMi dney, » radioc ck: “We snscious of a high ibility when the Governme us its | suppart and under the auspices graphic Soclety, with its membership of a_million ography and ex tion.’ The members MacMillan refe 10t only have = one or | earten spor give we set out of the Natior enthus tereste follo ende: work Joseph partners in the the daily dr or that marks e Rock inferno v hiss. es and Iron fissures; , plunging into the s of rn pierced by 2 few of the ventures which ploration a unive: ping human appeal neerin ing fuma Sometimes other tim: amazing ingenuit an _astoundir marks the search for new facts. Dr. Charles G. A to leave on a joint Georg sonian expedition to me: sun- beam’s heat every day for four years. 1t took Dr. Abbot ) to com- pute the basic fig nd invent the instruments with which to do this work. Adventures probably lurk in the remote area he will choose to per- | form it t the result, if solar radia- tion can be linked to weather forec ing I benefit every farmer, fisher: man and navigator i "THE question, fore we came? lure. Out at Chaco Canyon, Ico, a Natic 1 Geor aphic Society | expedition is revealing new wonder: of the most densely populated area of | Indian Amer the New York of pre- Columbian times. The society’s explorers built a little raiiroad and pui a tiny, pufing en- gine to hauling away the debris from Pueblo Bonito—the Beautiful Village— and out of that haystack of the cen- turies they are finding minute evi- dences of the daily life of a long-lost people. They are really exploring a great communal apartment house—an apart- ment that sheltered 1,200 people, and is estimated to have been the largest permanent domicile on this continent until a certain commodious family apartment was erected in New York City within our own time Today they may unearth evidence of love story of some pre-Columbian hontas, ‘told in the trinkets an lian swain made for her adornment may delve into the| life of centuries ago, betokened weapons and the house- hold utensils they find A red-letter day in the tedious, in- gentous work of Dr. Neil M. Judd, the leader of the expedition, was when he came upon a beautiful turquoise In- dian necklace of 2,500 pieces and four superb pendants—the only complete specimen of such a necklace known. The way the pueblo dwellers ground down each tiny piece and bored it to be strung on sinews challenges the admiration of modern jewelers. Who wore it? How steam -h(n/] directed by 1 deductive at ionce. about “Who lived here be- a universal New Mex: long ago? A an explorer's mind, is at And the prog- k itself is a true de. t the society’s mem.- | work to help 3 | | | s of ational Geo- Society is exploring the major settlement of the North Amer)um‘ ancients. An earlier expedition, spon- | sored by the society, discovered the most important South American ruins at Machu Picchu, and a third expedi- tion now is at work in Mexico Valley, exploring the ruins of the oldest ‘known civilization on either of the Americas * k% % HE scene tion’s work Mexico C 400 feet high, whic forced his s before Tut-ankh side the € Recently Dr. Byron charge of this project, reported star- | tilng evidences of a civilization ther: whose history was venerable when the Pharaohs started their slaves to work butlding the pyramids Already there have been found Fkeleton remains of Americans of 4,000 years or more ago, specimens of their emblems and idols and pieces of their earthenware. These _explorations back the hor many centu dead line. gines to O} tant to a on this po made this impo of the Mexican expedi- is Cuicuilco, south of | ghty mound, some ! and more than 50 feet | some ancient monarch viects to erect centuries Cummings, in have pushed zons of American history s beyond the former 1492 ition of these abori 1 ancients is fmpor- story study, and Neil M. Judd recently tant announcement “There absolx is no chance of tracing any relationship between our country’s prehistoric tribes and those of the Old World. Tut-ankh-Amen and hia fellow Egyptians represent a high stage of cultural development along the desert borders of the Nile. The pnclent Bonitans surpassed all their cotemporaries in the desert regions of our South America, but the prehis- toric peoples of America and Egypt had nothing in common.” Both the Chaco Canyon and Cui- cuilco expeditions still are in the fleld. That which unearthed the ruins ot tae Amen was buried be- | §; all-but-forgotten Inca civilization and traced the origin of two of the world's | major crops—Indian corn and the “Irish" ato—went out in 1912, led | by Dr. Hitam Bingham, now United States Senator from Connectict One day an Indian guide gave Dr. Bingham a slight clue regarding what he thought might be ancient ruins set | on an almost impregnable rib of the Andes. The expedition’s leader en- gaged the Indian to try to lead his 1do so, party to these ruins, which commission the guide undertook on condition he Ye permitted to name his own prioce. Then-an Sgn&tor xpforef “tow & Tniteol States RA.M. BINGHAM. Exploration in All Parts of Globe Has Brought Great Results, While Much Scientific Information Has Been Obtained by Repre- sentatives of This Organization—Unique Fea- ture Is Share That Million Members Have in Aiding Wide Activities—coing Back Through the Centuries to Civi lizations of the Past. Voyages to the Polar Regions of the Earth. The Indian The explorer: made good his story. found a city of hanging gardens that outnumbered the ter- races of Babylon. Tt was the largest nd most important ruin discovered in South America since the panish conquest. The ruins disclosed block after block of close-built stone houses. miles of narrow streets and long granite stair- interspe: with fountains. On every subur ope there were ter race garden: The city was divided into wards, or clan groups. Each ward had a single entrance gate, which could be barred at will by huge, rock-carved locks. It had a civic center, a sacred plaza with a beautiful temple, and the utensils and ornaments betokened artistry and skill. No doubt metropolis, certain “flapper Inca generations—those freakish pins, for example, with hummingbirds carved on their héads, and those “new- fangled” earrings, with disks on the outer side of the ear lobe, perforated so tiny feathers might be stuck in them. The city farmers of Machu Picchu were cultivating their specialized veg- etable crops, slowly carving the gran- ite steps of their wonder-valley home, gossiping by their fountains and fash- ioning trinkets for their gods and their women while our European ancestors itved by the chase and dressed in skins. In the face of all these finds, the In- dian guide became more insistent that he should name his own price for pointing the way. He was allowed to and it was duly paid— of bew: the Machu 1 matrons Picchu, hions of the y iled 50 cents a day! oo IT is just 35 v ince the National Geographic Soclety sent out its first expedition—an_ expedition which e: plored the region of Mount St. Elias, in Alaska. To the general public Alaska was a frozen country, and its populaf nick- name was “Seward’s Ice Box.” The National Geographic Sociely v days of the this| oung | | pioneer in stimulating national inter- {est in its development—an interest that has transfc prized | | domain, a new |and a recognized | explorers of | dirt They studied the glacie had harrowed our continent after vol (e u)m‘s ploughed it—a beginning of the | important _contributions to | of glaciology. They burst | valleys which were veritable paradises of flowers, and thus set a slow fuse to help explode the myth that still is not entirely demolished— the myth that the Far North is wholly a frozen North. They took notes on the Yakutat Indians and observed mi rages which in Alaska’s Far West last Spring helped smash Maj. Martin's plane and delayed the Americar round-the-world flight It w mirage, incidentally, tha Peary suspected was a land he tents- tively named Crocker. It was the same age that MacMillan pursued on his last trip over ice from Cape Hubbard. MacMillan saw it as land so clearly that he even picked a landing place along its mountainous shores. In 1825 we know the North is hos- pitable and comely, in parts, but the following description from a_glacier region was rather astounding 35 years ago: “Our camp was in a little valley amid irregular hills of debris left by the former ice ifvasion, each of which | was a rounded dome of flowers. The desolate ice flelds were completely shut out from view by the rank vege- tation. On the slope above us dark spruce trees, loaded with streamers of moss and_seemingly many centuri | 0ld, formed a background for the fior decoration with which the ground was | everywhere covered. Flowering plants and ferns were massed in such dense luxuriance that the streams were lost in gorgeous banks of bloom."” A little later, when they camped for 35 days above the line of perpetual snow, braving extreme cold and dodg- ing avalanches, this experience seemed enc upon like a mirage of memory. The scene of the society’s expe- Te. g her wm{ a iceber ‘/i Ha sbhg nearls PEARY. thread - Dr Byron Cumminds, leadex of the N’:.vt.,omi aphic Jociety Cueicuilo Mexico ex Siii%fl,pcha’(a,mlnuy a fire God. - Dr.Jos R ROC roe{‘gk OK(:‘ a,ionq ested. 2o z8 Pa,o{o mph, of {ke groai Fo untam basin a.o(, Cavern,New Mexi eadler of drt cographic ed,d.xom »M.ou.vti, Katmai .SAia.skA ditionary work shifted from the desolate peak of Mount St. Elias to a sylvan, sawed-off mountain of Mar, tinique. In the Spring of 1902 Mount Pelee still was a favorite picnic spot. In- deed, it was a party of picknickers who told of seeing a tiny wisp of “smoke” rising from a corner of its crater lake. Th said it smelled of sulphur and withered the follage of the trees. In August, 1902, this pretty, ful, siren mountain exploded. It wiped out the city of St. Pierre, dealt in- stant death to practically every one of its 30,000 people and destroyed 17 ships anchored there. Here was a violent contrast in nat- ural forces—a contrast between the mighty sloth of glaciers, moving a few feet a year to carve valleys in the course of thousands of years, and a sharp, sudden detonation of nature which withers a city as readily as a tiny wisp of sulphur smoke withered the leaves of a few trees. Geographers had begun to study vol- ” peace- canoes. They realized they were not haphazard occurrences. . Moreover, they afford laboratory demonstrations of how the earth continued in making after this early ball of “fire mist” had been surfaced by a protective crust. The crust was essential to support life on our globe, but life-giving forces of the seething interior had to break through to sustain this life. Therefore, when the United States Congress voted $200,000 to aid the West Indies victims the National Geographic Society sent an expedition on the supply ship, both to help give immediate relief and to ameliorate the | suffering from future casualties by | inding means to issue forewarnings. | Among the members of this expedi- tion was Dr. Thomas A. Jaggar, today an outstanding authority of world note on volcanic and earthquake phe- nomena. As in the case of glaclers, the Na- tional Geographic Society gave an im- petus to investigation of volcanoes— then almost a virgin field of study— \ and Dr. Jaggar himself, in a commu- nication to.the society in 1924, de- scribed in detail how Japan’s greatest volcanic eruption, that of Sakurajima, was definitely predicted and its rav- ages minimized. ‘The society’s volcanic studies reached their climax in the expedi- tions to Mount Katmai, which made the mast thorough survey ever accom- plished of the after effects of an erup- tion, and discovered the now famous “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes,” one of the foremost wonders of the world. Scenically the region is unique. In years to come it will be a national park ag distinctive as Yellowstone, but disclosing by its steaming fissures and hissing $umaroles a far earlier stage in our world's geology than Yellowstone's geysers. Scientifically the region was a gold mine. It was estimated to be emitting more gases from the earth’s interior than all the craters and all the fuma- roles h’l"flll the rest of the world. and the United § Mount Katman itself is the world’s | it the active blew ahara When top overcast, volcano. off its sky was largest literally cloudless cold, damp Summer weather observe the not account for. The dust explosion circled the earth. Had the eruption York city, vived on Manhattan. noise—probably _ the of 1912, second States, and the peopis of St. derous artillery duel. The sulphur fumes would have pol- luted the air of all the territory east |only be 1 of the Rocky The socief Tountains. seasons studyving the o) when the vast, ash-blanketed area, a | jicrify | new-born_bit of Mother Earth’s sur face, gradually formed a drainage sys- tem, revegetated and conformed to en- vironing physical conditions. Here was the geography of action!writing a history indeed—an ynfolding picture of geog- raphy in the making. Over in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes was a panorama of physics Rolling clouds of va- por arose in never-ending streams and went billowing down the valley with and chemistry. mile-long trails behind them. On closer inspection this vapor was Sometimes it was six times as hot as ordinary steam, and over some of the vents the explorers cooked their bacon and eggs. They had to be careful, however, not to get one so hot it would melt their Nearby they had natural refrigerators—great snow banks and seen to pour from vents. trying pan. ice cakes. They eame upon a falling mountain that is rattling and rumbling as it dis- lake where one may integrates; a regulate his bath, hot, cold or medium, by swimming a few strokes, most any bait. All these phenomena and the ex ates experienced the which ime could from the | occured in New | not a soul would have sur- The thunderous loudest sound ever heard on our planet—would | have reverberated across the Central Louis would have had the illusion of a pon- expeditions spent five effects of the | eruption and recording what happened (rof ar;zn zzggvj g}hg “%% anexp ed,d,iozu | and streams of trout that will bite at al- plorers’ adventures were recorded b vhuxob aphy. A gathering of geography | from all over the countr |tion of the National Education Asso ciation saw motion pictures of proc ses in the earth's making that nor jma were completed before human life emerged. Hundreds children 3 teachers at a conven of thousands of school ons of adults have ‘)<d their interest quickened in the study of geography by the photo | eraphs and narratives of the perils |and adventures of these explorers. | Everywhere the vents of the valley | produced colorfu ations, now a mass of bright y Iphur, now a. ‘rh'm', and blue by the acti of pure white silici | For the first t | tography wag emploved on a scientific | expedition of this kind, and the re | mark results obtained enabled the ‘«m iety's membership to sce what their | expedition had found, and also were of igh value for further scientific Color photography—not colored ph | tographs, but photographs in natura | color—are peculiarly adapted to dix eminating geogr: information | the society’s officers believe. They ax | sure the ‘accurate portrayal of colo |as well as the forms of landsca; | costumes and nature subjects. 'T! | soctety makes use of color photograph its members to identify birds re ural-color phe s well as to conve: uek shades of scenery fe studies THE National Geographic Society is exceptional a ties in conside only half fin | scientific * * k¥ ong scie ng that its wo hed w it collects information. Its chartered | purpose _is to “increase and diff geographic knowledge.” By means of the pbotograph, w speaks the only universal language and by eliminating technical terms. which are essential to the laborator: but barriers to the layman, the Na tional Geographic Societ es al findings and known fac intelligible of the Katmai expeditions were lished in a serfes of morograp! lating to the tuff deposits, the ck try of the fumaroles, the incrustat: and the coleoptera collect But the broader asp plorations, intelligible to all . who take an interest in the world the live in, were described in language and by photographs society’s principal organ, the National Geographic Magazine; in its bulletins to newspapers, and in its week! trated bulletins to scho stitute a notable contribution to Amer ican public school education The society's pioneer glacier expe dition, as well as its first volcanic study, had a sequel A “series of expeditions to A under Prof. Ralph S. Tarr, s glaciers with a_view of solving Age problems. The most startling d covery was the geological trace of a Jamaica flora, showing that Alaska once had a tropical climate. e AFTER giving an impetus and doinc important work on two funda mental geographical problems the so clety entered a third field, that of seismology. Until the devastation of Tokio and Yokohama, the most calamitous earth quake of modern times occurred at Messina, Sicily. To this region of re curring ' tremors the Natianal Geo graphic ent an observer Charles W. Wright, an eminent geol ogist. ‘While Mother Earth keeps her chi dren humble by chastisement of earth quakes and volcanoes, she likewise long withheld two forbidden z¢ nd the poles ational Geographic Society's participation in polar exploration be gan with its co-op man expedition of 1898, in its support of Pe: which ed th Wellman's party Nor they spent 1 of 127 days. a light almec Winter day abling the y tures. Their = Wint At times the moon gave s bright as that of a temperate zones, er ¥ to take excellent pic explorations on Franz Josef Land, then- virtually terra cognita, were importan The party’s report abounded in fas inating geographical observations For example “Just as the C eam is product of piling up masses of water of Me: by trade outhern hemisphere. so which brings the icy water down into the Atlantic from the Polar Sea, is the produet of-north |ern trade winds. We w at the meeting of the waters the two poles of our earth. This_constant movement of the waters brings to Arctic shores from the headwaters of Siberian rivers masses of driftwood for fuel and build- ing purposes. It seems to us a re markable beneficence of nature that we should find timber from the inte. rior of Asia to put into our little hu yand to burn with blubber for our fires a thousand miles above the tree and within 600 miles of the North Pole.” st * ok %ok lwn,n is the use of Arctic explora tion? What is the use of cour age, of high adventure, of seeking the unattainable? “The layman doesn't realize how | many secrets of science the Far North holds,” said MacMillan. “Every sports- man, every farmer, every civilized hu- man being, in short, has been bene- fited and is vet to be benefited by the facts about birds, flowers, fish, rocks, | magnetism and meteorology which can ned in the Arctic. | _“Put all these aside, however, and |the literature Arctic exploration a noble recital of human courage. Ity and resourcefulness would Aretic exploration Pe: s discovery of the North Pola s the great hero story of the Arctic | Dr. Gilbert Grosvenor, president of the National Geographic Society, in of Arctic explora tions as an introduction for Peary's own narrative of his explorations, calls attention to this heroic quality and mentions this incident: “At the very beginning of his first expedition to Greenland in 1891 Peary suffered an accident which gorely taxed his patience as well as his body. and which is mentionad here, as it illustrates the grit ana stamisa of his moral and physical make-up. As bis ship, the Kite, was working its way through the ice fields off the Green- land shore, a cake of ice became wedged in the rudder, causing the wheel to reverse. One of the spokes jammed Peary's leg against the case ment, making it impossible to extri cate himself until both bones of the leg were broken. “The party urged him to return to the United States for the Winter and to resume his exploration the follow- ing year. But Peary insisted on baing landed. as originally planne: M ontinved on Fifth