36 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



and Minnesota, the growing season begins on the western 

 side of the state thirteen days earlier in the spring than it 

 does at Milwaukee, nearly opposite, and continues from five 

 to eight days later in the autumn ; a still greater contrast be- 

 ing appreciable if localities in the interior of Wisconsin be se- 

 lected. The extreme cold of Grand Haven, Michigan, too, is 

 14 higher than that of Milwaukee, the difference, according 

 to Professor Winchell, being all that distinguishes between a 

 fruit-bearing region and one in which fruits fail. 



DOES THE MOON EXERCISE ANY INFLUENCE OX THE 



WEATHER ? 



A paper has been recently published by Streintz upon the 

 question whether the moon exercises any appreciable influ- 

 ence upon meteorological phenomena, based upon a discus- 

 sion of twenty years' observation at the Greenwich Observa- 

 tory. He gives it as the result of his investigations that the 

 moon, in our latitude, exercises no influence upon the barom- 

 eter, upon rains, nor upon the wind, which can be appreciated 

 by the most careful observation within the last twenty years; 

 and that if any such influence occur, it must be extremely 

 slight. 18 C, xxxm., August 16,1871,513. 



SALT AND PYRITES IN HAIL-STONES. 



The transportation of sand from Africa to Italy, France, 

 and the Canaries by means of hurricanes has frequently been 

 observed and referred to in scientific journals ; but a transfer 

 of salt, as recently reported to have taken place in Switzer- 

 land, is perhaps a more unusual phenomenon. According to 

 Professor Kenngott, of Zurich, a hail-storm lasting five min- 

 utes occurred at eleven o'clock in the morning of the 20th of 

 August, 1870, the stones from which were found to possess a 

 salty taste. Some of them weighed twelve grains. They 

 were found to consist essentially of true salt, such as occurs 

 in Northern Africa on the surface of the plains, mainly in 

 hexaedric crystals or their fragments, of a white color, with 

 partly sharp and partly rounded grains and edges. None 

 of the crystals were entirely perfect, but appeared as if they 

 had been roughly developed on some surface. There seems 

 little doubt but that their source was precisely the same as 

 that of the sand, having been taken up and brought over the 

 Mediterranean Sea from some part of Africa. 



