134 METEOROLOGY. [Dec. 



The Sky Glow. — The interesting correspondence in NaUire 

 regarding this peculiar phenomenon, with its associated red sunsets, 

 first markedly visible in Kovember last, still continues. The letters 

 date from far-distant quarters, such as Southampton, Smyrna, 

 New Hampshire, Dublin, and Vancouver's Island. A correspondent 

 in Dublin writes that on October 14th the sunset was a ruddy gold, 

 which colour it kept till nothing was left of it but a star-like spot, 

 which turned in the twinkling of an eye into a leaden or watery 

 blue, and vanished. In the early part of July this year, strange 

 white sunsets were seen around Southampton, against which buildings 

 and trees told like black velvet. Last winter, there the twilights 

 increased up to a certain time in strength, tliougli they did not 

 exceed in duration the time allotted to twilight in the almanacs. 

 Have any of our readers been observing these uniquely beautiful 

 phenomena in November ? 



The Cincinnati Floods. — Tlie dictum of the late Charles 

 Marsh that forests affect rainfall, long implicitly received, is being 

 queried in many quarters, and in none more emphatically than in 

 the new issue of the Journal of the Nahiral Hidortj Socidij of 

 Cincinnati. The devastating floods of the Ohio of February last 

 liave awakened scientific inquiry, as well as popular alarm. And 

 it appears that they are but one of a series, happening periodically 

 since 1774. They have been of greater frequency in later years; 

 but it is only when the river has reached a depth of fifty feet or 

 more that destruction to life and property has supervened. Last 

 year the river rose from a depth of 15 feet in January to that of 

 68 feet in February, but it gradually subsided to 25 feet deep at 

 the end of that month. On fifteen occasions from 1779 onwards, 

 there have been parallel sudden rises to such a height as that 

 mentioned above, and these have been usually accompanied with 

 signal destruction, human and otherwise. Dr. Dun, the author of 

 the paper, treats his subject in minute statistical detail. He has 

 further been indulging in European travel, during which he has 

 seen the great floods of the Ehine and Danube, as well as of the 

 Po, in 1882, all occurring in countries where the strictest forest 

 conservancy prevails. He holds, then, tliat the mere planting of the 

 headlands of the Ohio would not prevent floods. The Ohio vaUey 

 is the track of both warm and cold storms, one setting coming from 

 the Mexican Gulf, the other from the North- West. Hence the 

 snows and rains causing flood. Of course it is not proved that 

 forests might not ameliorate such climatal conditions. Only the 

 natural configuration of a country must be taken as the main factor 

 in aridity or rainfall, however these may be modified by secondary 

 influences. 



