B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 99 



with the four quarters of the mooii in its regular monthly- 

 changes, and has also compared those days with the 23eriods 

 at which the moon is nearest and farthest from the earth. 

 In reference to these phenomena, his conclusions do not differ 

 sensibly from those announced by Bouvard and others, who 

 studied especially the barometric changes or aerial tides. 

 Wierzbicki says that, in consequence of his investigations, he 

 is of the opinion that the suspected influence Avhich the 

 moon might exert upon the weather, if not quite inapprecia- 

 ble, is, at least, so slight that, if it does really^ exist, it must 

 be entirely concealed in the far more powerful local and cos- 

 mic causes that affect the earth, and it merits in ordinary 

 matters of life no consideration whatever. He therefore con- 

 siders it a waste of time to indulge in any further investiga- 

 tions into the influence of the moon on the weather. Jahr- 

 hucher of-theK.K. Central-Anstalt^ Vienna^ 1873. 



OCEANIC CURRENTS, THE CLIMATE AND BOTANY OF NORWAY. 



Dr. Schtibeller has published, as a contribution to the his- 

 tory of the effect of cultivation on Korthern Europe, a very 

 valuable essay on the connection between the climate and 

 flora of Norway. He states that the reason why Norway 

 takes the place that it does among the cultivated lands of 

 Europe is found alone in the presence of the Gulf Stream ; 

 without the Gulf Stream the greatest part of Scandinavia 

 would be only a second Greenland, covered under snow and 

 glaciers. In treating of the influence and direction of the 

 Gulf Stream, as shown by the drift-wood found on the coasts 

 of Iceland and Norway, Schtibeller notices the contents of a 

 note that was found in a flask thrown up on the coast of 

 Findass in September, 1861 : this flask was entirely covered 

 with muscle shells and algse, and had been floating in the sea 

 for twenty-one years, as was shown by the following two no- 

 tices. First: "August 17, 1840, on board the ship Adrian. 

 A terrific gale has damaged the vessel." Second: "August 

 10, 1848. This bottle was found by the ship Jenny Lind, 

 near Brazil. After reading the above note, we return the 

 bottle to the water." It is shown, therefore, that this flask 

 had between the years 1840 and 1848 floated from the 

 North Sea throu2;h the British Channel to Brazil, and durino; 

 the following thirteen years 1848 to 1861 had returned to 



