THE NATIONAL PARK PUBLICATIONS DISTRIBUTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR HE following publications may be obtained free of charge from the Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C.: List of national park publications. 28 pp. An annotated list of books, gov ernment publications, and magazine articles on the national parks. National park pictures collected and exhibited by the Department of the Interior. 16 pp. A descriptive list of pictures exhibited at public libraries by the Department of the Interior. Contains short descriptiions quoted from well-known writers but does not contain illustrations. The following information circulars contain data regarding hotels, camps, and principal points of interest, lists of books and magazine articles, sketch maps, and rules and regulations: General information regarding Yellowstone National Park. 32 pp. General information regarding Sequoia and General Grant National Parks. 24 pp. General information regarding the Hot Springs of Arkansas. 8 pp. SOLD BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS The following publications issued by the Department of the Interior are for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.: Geological History of the Yellowstone National Park, by Arnold Hague. 24 pages, including 10 illustrations. 10 cents. Geysers, by Walter Harvey Weed. 32 pages, including 23 illustratoins. 10 cents. Geological History of Crater Lake, Oregon, by Joseph S. Diller. 32 pages, including 28 illustrations. 10 cents. Some Lakes of Glacier National Park, by M. J. Elrod. 32 pages, inculding 19 illustrations. 10 cents. Sketch of Yosemite National Park and an Account of the Origin of the Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy Valleys, by F. E. Matthes. 48 pages, including 24 illustrations. 10 cents. Analyses of the Waters of the Hot Springs of Arkansas, by J. K. Haywood, and Geological Sketch of Hot Springs, Ark., by Walter Harvey Weed. 56 pp. 10 cents. Proceedings of the National Park Conference held at Yellowstone National Park, September 11 and 12, 1911. 210 pp. 15 cents. Contains a discussion of national park problems by officers of the Government and other persons. The Secret of the Big Trees: Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant National Parks, by Ellsworth Huntington. 24 pages, including 14 illustrations. 5 cents. Contains an account of the climate changes indicated by the growth rings and compares climate conditions in California with those in Asia. Remittances for these publications should go by money order, payable to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., or in cash. Checks and postage stamps can not be accepted. THE PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION HE Panama-Pacific International Exposition was formally opened on the scheduled date, February 20, 1915. This glorious record of present day achievement was complete from blooming flower beds and paved roads to tinted domes and turrets. The Exposition as opened is a reflection of the advance made by the nations along all lines of human endeavor since the St. Louis Fair. The Exposition is universal, which means that it shows the best in all of the world. The keynote is progress; not with an historic spirit that carries one back to the beginning, but with the spirit of the last ten years. This is the more important because of the event it celebrates-the completion of the Panama Canal. The Exposition itself had its beginning when, on February 15, 1911, President Taft signed the bill that recognized San Francisco as the city in which to hold the Panama completion celebration. The site was chosen in July,-635 amphitheatrical acres along the shores of San Francisco bay just inside the Golden Gate. This is about two miles and a half long with an average width of a half mile. To the east is Fort Mason with its government fortifications, while to the west is the Presidio. San Francisco, like Rome, has been built on seven hills, and it is these that form the natural background. It takes one but twenty minutes to travel from the heart of San Francisco's cosmopolitan shopping district to the gates of the Exposition grounds. The architecture is a blending of the old and new, an embodiment of the location and color of the best. The whole plan has been comprehensively grouped in three divisions: the west with its pavilions of nations, state buildings, and Live Stock Section; the east with its amusement section, here called the Zone; the central part with the Eleven Main Exhibit palaces. Twenty-eight foreign nations are represented in the western section, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Bolivia, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Guatemala, Great Britain, Germany, Honduras, Holland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Persia, Portugal, Switzerland, Siam, Turkey, and Uruguay. This includes not only exhibits in the main palaces, but in most cases a separate building of great cost. Alabama, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Philippines, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington are the states and territories officially represented. Of these the California Host Building, which is an investment of over two million dollars, is the largest. It covers five acres and is built in characteristic Spanish Mission style. In it are located the exhibits of the fifty-eight counties as well as the various offices and social headquarters of the state people. The most westerly 65 acres of the Exposition area is given up to the Live Stock department, where special events along all lines of the exhibit will be displayed. The appropriations for live stock premiums total over $250,000 and prize money over $425,000. Even the barns, with their excellent planning and model construction, are a part of the exhibit of the industry. The concessions in the east cover another 65 acres. Here may be found amusements of all kinds and descriptions, educational and fun provoking. More than $12,000,000 has been expended along an area divided by a 3,000 foot avenue. Nearly all of these displays are unique, something new that the world has never been able to enjoy before. The Main Exhibit palaces are devoted to Education and Social Economy, Liberal Arts, Manufactures, Varied Industries, Mines and Metallurgy, Transportation, Agriculture, Food Products, Fine Arts, Machinery, and Horticulture. Of these the last three are rather apart from the main group, which is laid out in the form of a Greek Cross. The Palace of Machinery is at the east, the Palace of Fine Arts at the west, the Palace of Horticulture to the south along with Festival Hall. Festival Hall is not a real exhibit palace. It has an Auditorium seating 10,000 people. In this palace will center the great music events, for the exposition has given particular attention to that feature. The eight connected groups of palaces-Varied Industries, Manufactures, Liberal Arts, Education, facing south, and Mines and Metallurgy, Transportation, Agriculture, and Food Products facing north on San Francisco Bay are connected by colonnades and five wonderful courts: Court of Abundance, Court of Flowers, Court of the Universe, Court of the Four Seasons and the Court of Palms. The Court of the Universe is the center for the entire exposition-a glorious court entered into under the Tower of Jewels. This tower is the dominant feature of the entire area. It is 435 feet high, with seven levels of graduated areas, each ornamented with sculptural features and hung with 135,000 scientifically cut glass jewels, possessing extraordinary refracting power. These give out marvelous colors in the glorious California sunlight by day, and at night distribute their beauty under shifting beams from scintillators. Everywhere the lights are a mass of concealed electricity softly displayed. Probably of all the wonders of the exposition the illumination marks the greatest advancement. Each court has its own lighting scheme. No where is there present the familiar glare of exposition lights flashed upon white surfaces. A unified color scheme has been planned and adopted under the direction of Jules Guerin, the famous colorist. He has marked out a goal of achievement which no other affair of its kind has ever reached. Eight colors are used to decorate the ivory tinted color of the buildings, all of which are finished to represent Travertine stone. The garden lattices are French green, the flag pole, a characteristic Guerin orange-pink, the colonnades have a back ground of pinkish red and brown, the vaulted ceilings and recessed panels are deep cruelean blue, the small domes and mouldings are golden burnt orange, while urns are verde-antique and statuary gold. The flower gardens, twenty-four in number, are planned to conform to the general color scheme. Each six weeks the entire plantings are changed and flowers of another color come into bloom, with a back-ground of forest trees and palms. A radical move in the world of art was made in the installing of exterior mural paintings. There are nineteen of these, each distinctive in design but uniform in the use of color. They are distributed; one in the Court of Abundance by Frank Brangwyn, six in the Court of the Four Seasons by H. Milton Bancroft, two in the Arch of the Court of the Universe by Edward Simmons, two in the Tower of Jewels by William de Leftwich Dodge, two in the Court of the Universe, the western by Frank Du Mond, the eastern by Edward Simmons, two in the Court of Palms, Fruit and Flowers, by Childe Hassam; the Pursuit of Pleasure by Charles Halloway, and four in the Rotunda of the Palace of Fine Arts, by Robert Reid. The sculpture of the Exposition has been gathered together by the work of 42 people, three women and thirty-nine men. There are nine fountains, each an aquatic triumph. The Fountain of Energy by A. Sterling Calder, the Fountain of Earth by Robert I. Aitken, the Fountains of Rising Sun and Setting Sun by Adolph A. Weiman, the Fountain of Youth by E. B. Longman, the Fountain of El Dorado by Mrs. Harry Paine Whitney, the Fountain of Ceres by E. B. Longman, the Fountain of the Four Seasons by Furio Piccirille, the Fountain of Beauty and the Beast by Edgar Walter. Of the equestian statues Cortez by Cary Rumsey, the End of the Trail by James Earl Fraser, and the Pioneer by Solon Borglum, will stand out in one's mind with wonderful clearness. Nothing, however, will carry the spirit of life and strength to one as the two heroic groups on the arches of the Court of the Universe-the Nations of the West and the Nations of the East by A. Sterling Calder. There are more than 500 pieces of sculpture throughout the grounds, from the majestic figures to bas relief and each one is perfection in itself. The exterior of the main group of buildings is decorated to mark the various epochs in architecture. The south wall in Renaissance of Italy and Spain, the west wall in the same style up to the time of Spanish distinctive architecture, the water-facing side of the group with California decorations of early explorers and historical figures of importance. The Palaces of Machinery and Fine Arts are of Roman style, the Horticulture building of Saracenic origin and Festival Hall resembles the Parisian Theater of Beaux Arts. Nor is the beauty kept to the exterior of the buildings and grounds, nor even inside the fence, or more properly speaking the wall that encloses the ground. This wall is some twenty feet high, a mass of growing plants that bloom throughout the year. Inside the buildings the greatest efforts have been made to secure pleasing and unique features. The old idea of the most in the least space has given way to tasteful arrangement and gratifying presentation. With all it is a dream city, color, light, sculpture, flowers, and architecture, all combined with California hospitality and climate in offering to the world the twelfth international exposition, the third ever held in the United States and by far the greatest display of beauty and advancement that has ever been presented.-[Ardee Parsons in April Sierra Educational News]. THE WEATHER FACTOR IN THE GREAT WAR; LATE WINTER AND SPRING* IN By Robert DeC. Ward N the eastern zone the Germans seem to have been especially quick to take advantage of hard roads and frozen marshes for making their advances, during cold spells, probably because, last autumn, they lost many men in a sudden thaw which made retreat difficult. The heavy German armored motors have given endless trouble, while the lighter Russian motors, weighing about one-fifth as much, have proved far more serviceable on the muddy roads. While the ground was snow-covered, the German officers' automobiles in Poland were provided with snow plows. Von Hindenburg's great advance in East Prussia, early in February, which resulted in the capture of large numbers of Russians between the "jaws" of a German "trap", failed of being more completely successful by reason of a change in the weather. The advance began over hard ground and frozen swamps. A sudden thaw turned vast lowland areas into seas of mud and of icy water. The northern "jaw" of the German "trap," being delayed because of these handicaps and its longer march, failed to meet the southern "jaw" on time, and through this gap *In a previous article in this Journal, Vol. xiii, 1915, Feb. and Mar., pp. 169-171, 209-216, the writer considered the period Nov. 1 to Feb. 1. The present paper covers the most important events from Feb. 1 to May 1. |