METEOROLOGY. 845 



Maritime Provinces, by B. C. Webber; Annual Wind Resultants (illus.), by T. H. 

 Davis; and The Climatology and Water Power of Porto Rico, by W. H. Alexander; 

 and notes on Tromholt's catalogue of Norwegian auroras, INIarylaml climatology, 

 Samuel B. Pfanner, Australian droughts and the moon, shadow bands — scintillation- 

 interference bands, meteorological stations in Africa, and analogous storms. 



No. 12. — Special contributions on Studies on the Meteorological Effects of the 

 Solar and Terrestrial Physical Processes (illus.), by F. H. Bigelow; Cloud Bursts, ])y 

 II. II. Ten Broeck; An Elxplanation of Wireless Telegraphy (illus.), by A. H. Thies- 

 sen; and Radioactivity of Freshly Fallen Snow, by S. J.Allan; and note* on meteor- 

 (ilcigy at the American Association, the Becquerel rays in meteorology, and H. H. 

 ^loore. 



Some peculiarities in frost formation over the coast region of South 

 Carolina, L. N. Jesunofsky {Mo. Weather Rev., 30 {1903), No. 10, j,j>. 470-4S1).— 

 The article records and discusses observations extending over a nunil)cr of years on 

 the occurrence of spring and autumn and winter frosts on the truck farms in the 

 vicinity of Charleston. Injury done by frost in this locality varies widely in adjoin- 

 ing fields and even in different parts of the same field. Various explanations of this 

 plienomenon have been offered, viz, difference in air drainage, excessive use of fer- 

 tilizers, variations in ground water, warm air, currents, and salt air, are discussed, but 

 none is shown to be satisfactory. 



Cycles of precipitation, L. H. Murdoch {Mo. Weather Rev., 30 {1903), No. 10, 

 j>j). 4SJ-485, Jig. i).— This article deals with cycles of precipitation at Salt Lake City 

 and at other places in the United States. The author fijids for Salt Lake City a dry 

 cycle between 1827 and 1864, during which the average annual rainfall was about 15 

 in.; a wet cycle from 1865 to 1886, with an average annual precipitation of 18.42 in.; 

 and from 1887 to 1901 a dry cycle during which the average annual precipitation was 

 15 in. From records for San Francisco, Sacramento, Denver, Omaha, St. Louis, 

 Cincinnati, and Baltimore, it appears that the country west of the Rocky Mountains 

 had its wettest cycle from 1866 to 1887, while the Middle Mississippi and Ohio val- 

 leys had the heaviest precipitation from 1840 to 1859. The present dry cycle is gen- 

 eral from San Francisco to Baltimore. The author finds no relation between his 

 rainfall curves and Wolfer's sun-spot tables, and concludes "that there is no known 

 natural law by which we can predict the length of the present dry cycle." 



Meteorology, J. B. Harrison {Rpt. Agr. Work Bot. Gard. [British Guiana'], 

 189G-1901, pp. 4-12). — Summaries are given of observations on the amount and com- 

 position (chlorin, ammonia, and nitrates) of the rainfall, on sunshine, and on the 

 effects of the seasons on crop growth during the years 1896-1901. The mean rainfall 

 for the period was 83.6 in. 



"The weather during the years 1896-1901 . . . varied greatly from year to year, 

 and while in no year was it consistently throughout the year favorable for either 

 work in the field or for continued active growth or maturation of the sugar cane, in 

 some of them, as in 1898, 1899, and 1900, serious interruptions to the growth and 

 welfare of the sugar cane, as well as of all other crops, were caused by the occurrence 

 (if long-continued periods of drought. In the report last issued it was recorded that 

 during a period of five years, of which 1893 was the climax, there had been a succes- 

 sion of yeara marked by exceedingly heavy rainfalls, averaging an annual fall of 

 124.47 in., and that during the years 1894 and 1895 the rain had been more nearly 

 normal, amounting approximately to 84 in. per annum, as compared with a mean 

 annual recorded fall of 94.35 in." 



Arranging the data so as to show the distribution of rainfall over the wet seasons 

 (December and January, May-August), the dry seasons (February, March, and 

 April; September, October, and November), and the period of growth (December- 

 September) it is found "that the best results with regard to sugar products have 

 been as a rule . . . obtained with rainfalls of from 65 to 70 in. during the [period of 



