METEOROLOGY. 447 



reut year (1882) the maximum height of the Nile will be attained some- 

 what late in the season. {Fatnre, xxvi, pp. 448, 449.) 



J. P. O'lieilly says : " So far as I can see there will be a famine in the 

 Niger River valley this year, as there has been a complete failure of the 

 first crop from drought, and there has been no chance of jjutting in the 

 second crop from the same reason. 



" The regimen of the waters of such great rivers as the Nile, the Niger, 

 and the Congo, both as to quantity and periods of rise and fall, must be 

 closely related to the meteorological condition of the highlands of Africa, 

 so little known to us, so extensive, and yet so inaccessible to us for ob- 

 servation. May it not be, therefore, assumed that the comparative and 

 continuous study and observation of those rivers, as regards their vol- 

 umes and periods of rise and fall, would be likely to furnish the most 

 valuable data for the prediction and forecast of weather in Europe! 

 Thinking so, I have suggested to my correspondent the advisability of 

 keeping a systematic record of the rise of the river Niger, and, if possible, 

 of the water, with a view to their utilization for meteorological purposes." 

 {Ifature, xxvi, p. 597.) 



M. Brierley, of Port Said, writes that in looking over data of the 

 rainfall at Bombay and comparing them with the ebb and flow of the 

 Nile for the corresponding years from 1849 to 1880, inclusive, he was so 

 struck by the similarity, almost identity, of magnitudes that he was led to 

 copy them out, side by side. Within a trifling fraction the whole of the an- 

 nual rainfall at Bombay happens in the months of June, July, August, 

 and September, during which months also the rainfalls occur in the 

 head- waters of the Nile. 



The great southwest monsoon which sweeps over the Indian Ocean 

 in summer months produces a like effect in both cases, inducing fertil- 

 ity and plenty alike on the plains of the Concan of India and the Delta 

 of Egypt. It may be mentioned that the lowest ebb of the Nile always 

 happens in June, and the highest flood about the end of September and 

 the beginning of October. Brierley's table includes also Wolf sun-spot 

 numbers and the barometric departures for India. (Nature, October, 

 1881, XXIV, p. 532.) 



b Htpsometry. c Geology, Physical Geography, Glaciers, 



Hydrology. 



M. Faye has lately published in Comptes Rendus a remarkable paper 

 on the physical forces which have produced the present figure of the 

 earth. After remarking on the use of the pendulum in determining the 

 figure of the earth from series of measurements of the intensity and 

 direction of the gravitation force at different parts of the earth's sur- 

 face, he draws attention to the curious fact that while the direction and 

 intensity of gravity are affected perceptibly by the presence of hills, 

 such as Schiehallion and Arthur's Seat, or even by masses as small as 



