96 ANNUAL KECOKD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



summary of his results is too lono: to be given here. We 

 need only endorse his expression of the importance of obser- 

 vations immediately above and below the earth's surface, 

 and of hourly observations at a number of stations in Amer- 

 ica, as well as other parts of the world. 



In connection with the subject in the previous paragraph, 

 we call attention to a novel application of our knowledge of 

 earth temperatures, to be found in the recent report of the 

 U. S. Entomological Commission, p. 431, where Mr. Abbe at- 

 tempts to estimate beforehand the amount of heat received 

 up to any given date by the eggs of the Rocky Mountain 

 locust, which are usually deposited in a warm, dry, soft soil 

 from 1 inch to i an inch below the surface. In executing this 

 work, which was published before receiving the above-men- 

 tioned memoir of Wild, Mr. Abbe made a large collection of 

 data relating to the diurnal variation of the earth's tempera- 

 tures, and by assuming a mean value appropriate to the dry 

 soil of the West, has prepared a table of predicted dates, which 

 agrees well with the observed dates of the hatching of the 



grasshoppers. 



VULCANOLOGY. 



Under the title of "Vulcanologische Studien" (Wien, 1878) 

 Dr. Edward Reyer has published a memoir in which he dis- 

 cusses the nature of the materials which remain in a volcan- 

 ic vent after the eruptive action has ceased, and the features 

 presented by those volcanic cones which are formed by the 

 quiet outwelling of liquid lava. 



The same author in his " Beitrage zur Physik der Eruption- 

 en," published in 1877, discussed the part which the demon- 

 strated capacity of various substances in a state of igneous 

 fusion for absorbing certain gases may have in accounting 

 for many of the phenomena of volcanoes. 



A. II. Everett shows (Nature, xvii., p. 200) that the im- 

 pression is erroneous which regards the island of Borneo as 

 having for ages represented an area of entire quiescence, near- 

 ly encircled by an active volcanic belt. Four recent earth- 

 quakes in the island are noted one in 1874 and three in 1876. 

 And the existence of thermal springs, in association witli ba- 

 saltic rocks, and the frequent occurrence of igneous rocks are 

 thought to indicate an outbreak of volcanic activity in com- 

 paratively recent geologic ages. 



