Optical and infrared photometry has shown that IC 348 is a relatively young cluster of age 0.5-2 X 10 years. Star formation has probably taken place over a significant fraction of the cluster age. The ratio of total-to-selective extinction in the dark cloud associated with IC 348 appears to be higher than the value typical of the interstellar medium. This result supports the view that the mean grain size in dense, dark cloud regions is increased as a result of heavy element accretion. The dark cloud contains at least one heavily obscured, luminous star, a result which suggests that the visible cluster may represent only a small fraction of the stars formod in this region.
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Strom et al. (1974) studied this question.