X NOTES BY THE EDITORS 



winds and currents of the ocean, carried on and reduced under his care. 

 More than 1,000 vessels are daily and hourly engaged in making observa- 

 tions on the winds and currents, rains, calms, storms, electrical phenomena, 

 fogs, clouds, drift, temperature of the air and water, &c. The abstract 

 logs already received make 200 volumes, averaging from 2,000 to 3,000 

 days' observations, and the number is increasing faster than they can be 

 reduced. " Pilot Charts," showing the point of the compass from which 

 the wind blows in all parts of the ocean for any month in the year, have 

 been already published for the North Atlantic and for Brazil, within the 

 trade-wind region. Those for the South Atlantic and the Pacific, from 

 the equator to 60 S., and from 70 to 120 W., are in press, while those 

 for the entire Pacific and for the Indian Ocean are in a forward state of 

 preparation. The object is to procure at least a hundred observations for 

 each month in the year for every square into which the ocean is divided. 

 This Avould require for the three great oceans 1,669.200 observations of the 

 winds alone. In some squares and for some months, over 1,000 observa- 

 tions have been obtained, while for neighbouring squares not a single one 

 has been received. These investigations will shorten the passage to Eu- 

 rope about a day, and that to the equator from two days to two weeks, 

 according to the season. Over 20,000 sheets of the wind charts have been 

 distributed, and the demand is increasing. A thermal chart of the North 

 Atlantic, exhibiting the temperature of the surface-water, in eight sheets, 

 is in press, while a similar one of the South Atlantic is nearly ready. 

 Among other results, they indicate a vibratory motion of the Gulf Stream, 

 varying with the season of the year. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 

 the Patron's or Victoria gold medal was presented to the Hon. Abbott 

 Lawrence, for transmission to Col. Fremont, in token of the appreciation 

 of his contributions to the geography of Western America. 



The Geographical Society of Paris has bestowed its annual prize upon 

 the two brothers D'Abbadie, for their travels and explorations in Abys- 

 sinia, prosecuted for eleven years, from 1837 to 1848. 



Among the prizes awarded by the French Academy are, one of 2,500 

 francs to M. Leclaire, for the application of zinc-white as a paint ; one to 

 M. Eocher for an apparatus for distilling sea-water; one, each, to Drs. 

 Jackson and Morton, for their share in the discovery of the anaesthetic 

 effects of ether ; and to Messrs. Galle, Hencke, Hind, Graham, and Gas- 

 paris, for astronomical discoveries. 



The survey of the coast of the United States is steadily advancing. 

 The trigonometrical portion now extends unbroken from Portland, Me , 

 to within fifty miles of the Capes of the Chesapeake, and, with an interval 

 of about one hundred miles, to a point beyond Cape Hatteras. It has 

 been commenced in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and 

 Texas, while it is complete in Alabama, and nearly so in Mississippi. 



