Return of Prof. Jaggar's Expedition

Professor T. A. Jaggar '93, recently a professor of geology in the University, and the foremost authority on earthquakes and volcanoes, returned yesterday to take up his new work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after a long expedition of scientific research among the Aleutian. Islands, Special attention was paid to volcanoes on this trip. It has been learned that these islands in the northern Pacific are more volcanic than any other district of the globe.

The members of the expedition left here early last May. They went overland to Seattle, Washington, where they chartered the schooner Lydia for their long trip. Nothing was heard of them until they landed in safety at Seattle again on September 11 after a successful trip.

Two members of the senior class of the Institute of Technology accompanied Professor Jaggar. The results of their investigations are to appear later in the Technology Quarterly. The party visited all the islands of the Aleutian chain from Unimak Pass to Atka. It was found that the island of Bogoslof was one of the wonders of volcanology. This island volcano is northwest of the peninsula of Alaska. It first appeared as the result of an eruption in 1796, and it has been more or less active ever since.

These islands, among which Professor Jaggar and his associates have spent the summer, from part of a submerged mountain chain from Alaska to Kamchatka, and glacial action has so deepended the valleys that the result is called a sea of mountains. Owing to the prevalence of gales and the danger of the coasts, ships have rarely visited the archipelago. The islands are destitute of trees, but are covered with a thick growth of herbage. The climate is foggy but free from extremes.

The islands are inhabited by a rapidly decreasing half-civilized race with many virtues, but the usual aboriginal weaknesses. On the island of Omimak is a ruin of a large town, the inhabitants of which were slain by Russian sailors in 1830. There are 150 islands in the group, each exhibiting violent internal commotion, volcanoes still active, and numerous hot volcanic springs.