METEOROLOGY. 119 



The highest temperatures are recorded over the northwestern portion of 

 Western Australia, where the maximum shade temperatures have exceeded 

 100° F. on 64 consecutive days and 90° on 150 consecutive days, the mean tem- 

 perature of tlie hottest mouth beiug 90° and the mean temperature of the 

 coldest being G5°. 



" The coldest portion of Australia is the Australian Alps, situated in north- 

 eastern Victoria and southeastern New South Wales, where the mean shade 

 temperatures range from 65° in January to 40° F. in July. During exception- 

 ally dry summers the temperatures in the interior reach and occasionally 

 exceed 120°, and the same areas during the winter months are subject to ground 

 frosts. 



"Talking Australia as a whole, the extremes of temperature annually, sea- 

 sonally, and daily are less than those experienced in any of the other conti- 

 nents, and the mean temperatures prevailing are generally lower than for 

 corresponding latitudes in the other continental land areas of the globe. These 

 features are due mainly to insularity and the comparative absence of physio- 

 graphical extremes. . . . 



" Brisbane experiences the highest annual mean maximum temperature with 

 78° ; Adelaide and Perth follow with 73° ; Sydney, 70° ; Melbourne, 67° ; and 

 Hobart, 62°. But the extremes take a different order. Adelaide comes first 

 with a maximum of 116° ; Melbourne, 111° ; Brisbane, 109° ; Sydney and Perth, 

 108° ; and Hobart, 105°. 



"The lowest shade temperatures recorded are as follows: Melbourne, 27°; 

 Hobart, 27° ; Adelaide, 32° ; Perth, 35° ; Sydney and Brisbane, 36°. . . . 



"Australia and Tasmania cover 2,974,581 square miles. Of this total area 

 1,045,073 square miles have less than 10 In. [of rainfall] per annum on the aver- 

 age; 651,961 square miles have from 10 to 15 in.; 416,135 from 15 to 20 in.; 

 502,929 square miles from 20 to 30 in. ; 198,608 square miles from 30 to 40 in. ; 

 and 159,875 squai'e miles have an annual average rainfall of over 40 in." 



Ocean currents and topography as controlling factors of climate are 

 discussed. 



The distribution of rainfall in the northeastern United States: Its causes 

 and results, B. C. Wallis {Scot. Geogr. Mag., 30 (19U), No. 11, pp. 582-595, 

 figs. 4; ahs. in Nature [London], 9Jf {1914), No. 2352, p. 345). — The area in- 

 cluded in this study is the triangle roughly bounded by the Atlantic coast, the 

 line of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and a line stretching across 

 country from the southeast corner of Lake Michigan to the coast of North 

 Carolina. Details of rainfall distribution are presented in text, tables, and 

 diagrams, and the distribution is compared with that under similar conditions 

 in England. The varying relations of crop production to rainfall in the two 

 countries are also discussed. 



The maps and diagi'ams show by means of " equipluves," or lines of equal 

 average rainfall coefficients or percentages, the areas and dates of the wettest 

 and driest months, and consequently the districts where the principal crops 

 (corn, cotton, and tobacco) can best be grown. 



" In both districts the oceanic side of the uplands is absolutely wetter than 

 the land beyond the hills, but Britain is warmer in winter, cooler in summer, 

 suffers less variation in actual temperatures, has much less precipitation in the 

 form of snow, and has a much shorter period of permanent frost. In Britain 

 the prevailing wind is from the ocean, and in America the prevailing wind is 

 a land wind. Consequently in Britain the relatively less elevated uplands are 

 the predominant factor, both as regards the total annual precipitation and as 



