184 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



regularly in the Monthly "Weather Review, constituting a running 

 bibliography of meteorology, climatology, and seismology. 



The following is a retrospect of the more ini])ortant literary events 

 of the year in meteorology, as reflected in the growth of the library : 



The only general treatise on meteorology that has appeared in 

 America for several years was " Descriptive Meteorology," written 

 by the Chief of this Bureau and published early in the spring. The 

 Smithsonian Institution brought out Prof. Cleveland Abbe's "Me- 

 chanics of the Earth's Atmosphere — Third Collection," compris- 

 ing translations and reprints of most of the substantial contributions 

 to this subject in recent years, together with a few earlier memoirs of 

 great interest. The British Meteorological Office published an Eng- 

 lish version of Hildebrandsson&IIellmann's "Codex of Resolutions 

 Adopted at International Meteorological Meetings, 1872-1907," which 

 places in compendious form the results of international cooperation 

 extending over the past thirty-five years. 



One of the most noteworthy publications of the year was the con- 

 cluding installment of the only large modern treatise on atmospheric 

 optics, viz, " Meteorologische Optik," begun by the late J. M. Pernter 

 and completed by F. M. Exner. 



Dr. J. Hann published the second part of the much enlarged third 

 edition of his " Handbuch cler Klimatologie." Important climato- 

 graphic works included many additional parts of the United States 

 Weather Bureau's " Summary of the Climatological Data for the 

 United States, by Sections." Two large works dealing with the cli- 

 matography of whole countries were G. Roster's " Climatologia dell' 

 Italia," and the text volume of " Das Klima der Schweiz," by Dr. J. 

 Maurer and his official colleagues. Two more parts of the " Kli- 

 matographie von Osterreich," dealing, respectively, with Styria 

 and with the Tyrol and Vorarlberg. were issued by the K. K. 

 Zentralanstalt fiir Meteorologie at Vienna. The winds of two coun- 

 tries were discussed, especially with a view to the requirements of 

 aeronauts, in F. Eredia's " I venti in Italia " and R. Assmann's " Die 

 Winde in Deutschland." A valuable contribution to the clima- 

 tography of South Africa was published by E. Goetz in his " Rainfall 

 of Rhodesia." 



The rapid growth of aerology — the exploration of the free atmos- 

 phere—was represented by several notable works, including Gold & 

 Harwood's report on " The Present State of our Knowledge of the 

 Upper Atmosphere," presented at the Winnipeg meeting of the Brit- 

 ish As'jociation ; A. Wagner's " Temperaturverhiiltnisse in der freien 

 Atmosphare," issued as a double number of Beitriige zur Physik der 

 freien Atmosphare; a publication of the British Meteorological Office 

 entitled "The Free Atmosphere in the Region of the British Isles;" 

 and A. Berson's " Bericht iiber die nerologische Expedition des 

 Koniglichen Aeronautischen Observatoriums nach Ostafrika." 



A work on weather forecasting that aroused much controversy was 

 G. Guilbert's " Nouvelle methode de prevision du temps." A new 

 method of long-range forecasting was described by S. D. Griboiedov 

 in a memoir published in Russian and presented at the National 

 Congress of Meteorologists held last year in St. Petersburg. Of 

 great interest to students of the history of meteorology Avas the trans- 

 lation of Seneca's " Quaestiones naturales," by J. Clarke, published 

 under the title "Physical Science in the Time of Nero." A most 



