B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 29 



FREEZING OF WATER. 



In a recent communication to the Academy of Sciences of 

 Paris, M. Boussingault described some experiments showing 

 that water is not liable to freeze, irrespective of the degree 

 of cold to which it is submitted, as long as it is not allowed 

 to expand in order to change into ice. In one instance, wa- 

 ter inclosed in a strong steel tube was exposed to a temper* 

 ature of 8.60 Fahr. without congelation. This, however, oc- 

 curred instantaneously on unscrewing the steel end of the 

 tube. The fluidity of the w r ater was made manifest by small 

 steel spheres which moved freely inside of the tubes during 

 the w T hole process, and would have been stopped by conge- 

 lation. 12 A, July 20, 1871, 236. 



DECREASE IX THE LEVEL OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE. 



It is well knowm that within a few years past the condition 

 of the Great Basin in the interior of North America, in regard 

 to rain-fall, has varied materially, and that the percentage has 

 been much more than heretofore ; this fact being well estab- 

 lished by the greater increase of the depth in Great Salt Lake, 

 Pyramid Lake, and other localities. Regions which twenty 

 years ago were dry, and occupied by dwellings or roads, are 

 now many feet below the water. At the meeting of the Cali- 

 fornia Academy of Science, held on the 7th of August last, 

 Professor Whitney presented a communication, stating that 

 this rise had been arrested, and that the level of the water 

 was actually descending. Whether this be a permanent 

 change, or whether another alternation will occur, can not, of 

 course, be foretold. It is, however, well established by geol- 

 ogists that the Great Salt Lake at one time occupied its en- 

 tire valley, and thus was of vastly greater extent than at 

 present. 



SMITHSONIAN METEOROLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 



Among current works likely to constitute a new era in the 

 history of American meteorology maybe mentioned a paper 

 by Mr. C A. Schott, of the Coast Survey, upon the rain-fall in 

 the United States, as prepared and published under the direc- 

 tion of the Smithsonian Institution. These embrace observa- 

 tions for many years past, and constitute, in a measure, the cul- 



