ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 381 



ence being due, as I suppose, to the heat conducted from tne sea water, 

 which was at a temperature of +29, the suspended instruments being 

 affected by radiation. On the the 5th of Feb., our thermometers began to 

 show unexampled temperature; they ranged from 60 to 70 below zero, and 

 on very reliable instruments stood upon the taffrail of our brig at 65. The 

 reduced mean of our best spirit standards gave 67 or 99 below the freezing 

 point of water. At these temperatures chloric ether became solid, and care- 

 fully prepared chloroform exhibited a granular pellicle on its surface. Spirit 

 of naphtha froze at 54, and oil of sassafras at 49. The oil of turpentine was 

 in a flocculent state at 56, and solid at 63 and at 65. Kane's Second 

 Expedition. 



INFLUENCE OF ARCTIC TEMPERATURES UPON ICE. 



The changes of ice at temperatures far below the freezing point confirm the 

 views I formed upon my last cruise as to the limited influence of a direct 

 thaw. I am convinced that the expansion of the ice after the contraction of 

 low temperatures, and the infiltrative or endosmometric changes thus induced ; 

 the differing temperatures of sea- water and ice, and their chemical relations ; 

 the mechanical action of pressure, collapse, fracture, and disruption ; the 

 effects of sun-heated snow surfaces, falls of warm snow currents, wind drifts, 

 and wave action, all these leave the great mass of the polar ice surfaces so 

 broken, disintegrated, and reduced, when the extreme cold abates, and so 

 changed in structure and molecular character, that the few weeks of summer 

 thaw have but a subsidiary office to perform in completing their destruction. 

 Dr. Kane. 



NEW METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN ALGERIA. 



The French government has recently determined to establislrnot fewer than 

 twelve meteorological observatories in Algeria ; and at the request of the 

 government, the Academy of Sciences at Paris has drawn up a series of instruc- 

 tions as to the observations to be taken, and the time and manner of taking 

 them, in these new establishments. For the present the observations will be 

 limited to, 1. Temperature and distribution of heat; 2. Atmospheric pressure; 

 3. Humidity of the air ; 4. Ram, snow, and hail ; 5. Direction and intensity 

 of the wind ; and 6. The state of the sky, reserving observations on magnet- 

 ism, electricity, &c., until a sufficiently numerous and experienced personnel 

 shall have been formed. As to the time of taking the observations, the 

 Academy desires that it shall not be merely every three hours during the day, 

 as in most observatories, but that it shall be every hour, day and night. The 

 Academy is of opinion that the taking of meteorological observations in 

 Africa, the only part of the world in which they have heretofore been almost 

 completely neglected, will be of great scientific importance. 



CYCLONIC HURRICANES. 



A curious and interesting table of Cyclonic hurricanes, which have occurred 

 in the "West Indies and the Atlantic Ocean, has been recently published by 



