same general description as that built in 1916, which is described in the SIERRA CLUB BULLETIN of January, 1917.

NEW RECREATION MAPS

During the past year the Forest Service has issued new recreation maps of the Angeles, California, Cleveland, Inyo and Mono National Forests, and a highway map of California showing the National forests. These can be obtained free from the District Forester, U. S. Forest Service, 114 Sansome Street, San Francisco.

THE LUMBER INDUSTRY IN CALIFORNIA

"Probably the most important point of contact between the pine lumber industry in California and the Government in the present crisis is the manufacture of box shooks. California is so situated that many of its food products are marketed thousands of miles away from where they are produced. In most cases wooden boxes are essential for proper transportation. The National Food Administration is urging the most complete utilization of food products, and the lumber industry is being called upon to produce the box shooks. 1918 presents a problem that cannot be fully appreciated at the present time-the volume of crop production, demands upon the industry for men for the army, labor unrest, supply of cars for shipment, cost of raw materials and many other factors." (Comment by C. Stowell Smith.)

In spite of labor shortage, the cut of California timber was apparently greater in 1917 than in 1916. Taking seven mills in the pine region as an example, the season's cut in 1916 up to September I was 259 million board feet; in 1917, up to September 1, it was 270 million.

The Diamond Match Company has recently undertaken to cut its timber conservatively in order to keep its lands productive for future operations. Only trees above a certain diameter are cut, the smaller trees being left to grow to larger sizes; all merchantable timber is utilized well into the tops; the slashings are systematically burned after the first heavy rains and all dead snags on the logged lands are felled. A timber cruise of about 170,000 acres of timberland in Butte and Tehama counties, owned by this company, was completed last summer by the company's forest adviser, Frederick E. Olmsted.

Several lumbermen owning timber in the Sierra made strong efforts during the past summer to induce the Federal Government to make large appropriations for controlling the ravages of pine beetles.

CALIFORNIA WHITE AND SUGAR PINE MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION An important step in the development of the lumber industry of California was taken on July 1, 1917, when the scope of the California

White and Sugar Pine Manufacturers' Association was greatly enlarged and C. Stowell Smith was appointed secretary-manager. Mr. Smith was formerly in charge of the branch of forest products in the San Francisco office of the Forest Service. The Association, which was formed on May 15, 1916, now includes twenty-two pine lumber manufacturers.

There is great potential significance for the future of California forests in the formation of a strong lumbermen's organization such as this. Under unscrupulous management, it could be a powerful agent for unnecessary forest destruction. In good hands it can be one of the most effective of agents for perpetuating forests by proper use. Such an association increases the opportunity for the effective execution of a “gettogether" policy between the lumbermen, the stockmen, the United States Forest Service, the United States National Park Service, the State Forester's office, the Sierra Club and all other agencies having vital interests in California's forests.

At present the association is concentrating most of its effort on one important point-the standardizing of the grades of soft pine lumber, which is a benefit to the consumer of lumber as well as to the producer. A book of rules describing the grades has been published and widely distributed to both manufacturers and consumers, and a traveling force of inspectors is employed.

The association is directly helping the government in the organization of forestry troops, having been authorized to select officers for the Twentieth Reserve Engineers (Forest) and to enlist privates for that regiment. Up to November 1, about 1000 men from the Pacific Coast had been selected, of which about 800 are from California. Orders have been issued to increase the regiment by about 6000 additional men.

THE DIVISION OF FORESTRY OF THE UNIVERSITY of CalifornIA In July, 1917, the Division of Forestry of the University of California moved into the newly completed Hilgard Hall, and thereby took its place among the well equipped forest schools of the country. The building houses seven divisions of the College of Agriculture. The forestry quarters include a classroom, a large general laboratory for all undergraduate courses, three special research laboratories for forest utilization and wood technology, three small special laboratories for advanced students in other branches of forestry, a large logging engineering laboratory, drafting room, blue print room, instrument room, herbarium room, lecture demonstration materials room, store room, club room and six offices.

The students of the Forestry Club of the University of California have issued seven numbers (May to November, 1917, inclusive) of a new magazine, "California Forestry." Its aim is "to unify the forest interests of the West." As American war plans developed, all the mem

bers of the editorial and managerial staff joined the colors. An entirely new second staff was then chosen. Not only this entire second staff, but also, with a single exception, every other forestry student at Berkeley above the sophomore year joined the army. It was therefore necessary to suspend publication.

FOREST INDUSTRY COMMITTEE

An encouraging sign of the increasing desire of the various California forestry interests to pull together for the good of all is seen in the recent formation of a Forest Industry Committee. The members are: G. M. Homans, State Forester, chairman; Roy Headley, Acting District Forester, representing the United States Forest Service; R. E. Danaher, president of the R. E. Danaher Pine Co., representing the lumberman's viewpoint; C. Stowell Smith, secretary-manager of the California White and Sugar Pine Manufacturers' Association; and Woodbridge Metcalf, representing the Division of Forestry of the University of California. The committee was formed on October 13, 1917, at a forestry meeting at the new quarters of the Division of Forestry at Berkeley, which were being formally dedicated on that day. The committee holds regular monthly meetings. Originally planned to assist in meeting the fire situation in the forests, the grain fields and the grazing ranges, the scope of the activities was at once widened as indicated in the name "Forest Industry Committee."

FOREST FIRES

A forest fire bill again failed to become law at the 1917 session of the California legislature. In 1915 two forest fire bills were presented to the legislature. At a loss to choose between them, the two committees of the legislature to whom the bills were referred requested Henry S. Graves, chief forester of the United States Forest Service, to outline a bill for them. Mr. Graves was in California at the time and, although hard pressed by other duties, he devoted a week to study of the problem and the drafting of definite suggestions. The committees then drafted a bill following Mr. Graves' suggestions. The bill passed the legislature, but was vetoed by the governor. In 1917 the bill which had passed in 1915 was again introduced, with a few modifications, and passed the legislature with almost no discussion. It was again vetoed by the governor. In fire protection outside the national forests and national parks, California is sadly behind her sister States with equal interests at stake, and it is to be hoped that a fire bill fairly satisfactory to all parties can become law in 1919.

The summer of 1917 was the worst fire season in California since 1910. It is estimated that there were about 1500 fires reported on the California National Forests during the summer, of which about 150 were

severe. About 15,000 to 18,000 acres of timberland were burned over (this does not include brush land). The two largest fires were on the Santa Barbara National Forest in June, burning over 48,000 acres of brush land, and destroying human life, farm buildings, orchards and cattle. Lightning was responsible for about 500 of the fires.

In the Pacific Northwest during the 1917 season, 7688 forest fires were reported. In that region about $1,825,000 were spent for fire prevention and fighting in 1917 by the lumbermen, the Government and other agents.

The California Forest Protective Association conducted a publicity campaign in April, 1917, against forest, field and brush fires.

TAMALPAIS FIRE ASSOCIATION

The Tamalpais Fire Association, which controlled matters connected with fire prevention on and about Mt. Tamalpais from 1914 to 1917, turned over its work to the recently formed Marin Municipal Water District in March, 1917.

FORESTRY IN THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB

The Commonwealth Club of California has recently organized a Committee on Forestry and Wild Life. Everyone who would like to work on this committee is requested to write to the secretary, Commonwealth Club, 153 Kearny Street, San Francisco.

OF THE

CORWIN"*

BOOK REVIEWS

Edited by MARION RANDALL PARSONS

"THE CRUISE In the summer of 1881 Mr. Muir accompanied his friend, Captain Calvin Hooper, on a long Arctic cruise in search of the Jeannette and Captain De Long's exploring party. Captain De Long had sailed into the Arctic in the summer of 1879, and grave fears were entertained for his safety. As a matter of fact, at the very time that the Corwin was beginning her search the Jeannette sank, crushed in the ice, a thousand miles to northwestward. Her captain and twenty of her men never returned. The Corwin was also searching for traces of two missing whaling ships. Coasting along the Siberian and Alaskan shores, making enquiry at all the Chukchi and Esquimo villages, gave Mr. Muir a wonderful opportunity to study the glaciation and plant life of the Arctic. The young Mr. Nelson, whose enthusiastic pursuit of birds and "other game"-such as the dead natives in the cemeteries and the "ivory spears, arrows, stone hammers . . . which formed the least ghastly of his spoils"-so amused Mr. Muir, is now the director of the U. S. Biological Survey.

The book is based upon a series of letters written during the cruise for the San Francisco "Bulletin." Certain passages from his journal containing material omitted from the letters have been included in chronological order to complete the record. Mr. Muir's valuable and interesting report on the "Glaciation of the Arctic and Subartic regions visited during the cruise," and his “Botanical Notes," published in 1883 as a part of Treasury Document No. 429, likewise have been included in an appendix. The botanical report on the flora of Herald Island and Wrangell Land, says the editor, "still remains, after thirty-six years, the only one ever made on the vegetation of these remote Arctic regions." The editor's work throughout is admirable. An interesting introduction completes the story of the Jeannette, and gives a brief account of subsequent exploration in that region.

The narrative of the voyage dwells not alone on the features which were Mr. Muir's especial object of study, but on the characters and customs of the natives as well. The voyage was not without its danger. More than once they risked being crushed by the ice, narrowly escaping, indeed, the fate of the lost Jeannette. Mr. Muir was a member of the first party ever to land on the ice-bound shores of Wrangell Land. He also made the first ascent of Herald Island. "The midnight hour," he says, "I spent alone on the highest summit-one of the most impressive *The Cruise of the Corwin. Journal of the Arctic Expedition of 1881 in search of De Long and the Jeannette. By JOHN MUIR. Edited by WILLIAM FREDERIC BADE. Illustrated with photographs and sketches by MR. MUIR. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York. 1917. Pages, 272. Price, $2.50.