148 NATURAL SCIENCE. August. 



Meteorology in Maryland. 

 The Climatology and Physical Features of Maryland. First Biennial Report 

 of the Maryland State Weather Service. Director, William Bullock Clark. 

 8vo. Pp. 140, 5 folding maps. Baltimore, 1893. 



In our February number (vol. iv., p. 146) we reviewed an Outline of 

 the Geology and Physical Features of Maryland, which, it will be 

 remembered, contained much information as to the climate of the 

 State. In the present Report the various meteorological data are 

 given in much more detail, with careful analyses of the weather in 

 different parts of the State during the years 1892 and 1893, ^"'i with 

 tables showing the daily rainfall at 27 stations. The agricultural 

 and practical value of this portion is greatly enhanced by a detailed 

 account of the state of the various crops as dependent on the changing 

 weather during the period in question. The general interest of the 

 work, however, lies in the relations which it establishes between the 

 leading features of the climate and the topography, and therefore also 

 the geology, of the State. There is naturally a great difference between 

 the western part of the State, or Appalachian region, and the lower lying 

 Piedmont Plateau and Coastal Plain (see our previous review). Thus the 

 average annual temperature of the extreme western region is 50° Fahr., 

 that of the eastern border 58°, while even more pronounced variations 

 are seen when the comparison is made by seasons. Similarly 

 the average yearly rainfall of western Maryland is about 38*5 inches, 

 while that of the remainder of the State is nearly 44 inches. A more 

 detailed comparison brings out still more interesting facts. The lie 

 of the isotherms, for instance, both annual and seasonal, is directly 

 traceable to the configuration of the country. Variations of rainfall 

 too can, as a rule, be explained by similar reasons. " Thus the 

 broad Frederick Valley, lying as it does on the eastern flank of the 

 Blue Ridge, receives an abundant rainfall from the moist south- 

 easterly winds." At the same time there are many striking local 

 variations in precipitation that have not yet received their explana- 

 tion, and Professor Clark believes that they cannot be due to 

 topographic differences. 



Of the value of this work, which has only been in progress since 

 May, i8gi, we cannot speak too highly, and we are the more inclined 

 to give good words since so much of the labour is voluntary. It is 

 not merely to the Maryland farmers that these reports will prove of 

 service : their educational value for schools, as showing in a compre- 

 hensible manner so many natural sequences of cause and effect, is 

 not to be exaggerated ; while we have no doubt that their useful- 

 ness to foreign meteorologists as records of fact will fully rival the 

 services they will render to the State itself by attracting immigrants 

 to a country so highly favoured of the clerk of the weather. 



CoNGREs Geologique INTERNATIONAL. Compte Rendu de la 5me Session, 

 Washington, i8gi. 8vo. Pp. x., 530, maps and illustrations. Washington: 

 Imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1893. 



This ponderous volume of the proceedings of the fifth Geological 

 Congress, held at Washington in 1891, reached England on the 23rd 

 June. It contains reports of the various discussions on Pleistocene 

 and other strata, the colouring of geological maps, the international 

 bibliography of geology (which is in the press, and will be distributed 

 by the author, M. de Margerie, as soon as ready), and a full report of 



