452 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1382. 



Europe is due to tlie regular movements of the ice in the polar area, so 

 ■we may reasonably conclude that abnormal movements of ice, especially 

 in the Spitzbergen area, are likely to i3roduce periods of abnormal cool- 

 ness, such as that which at present prevails. In any case the moral to 

 be drawn, if we really do intend to solve the weather problem, is by 

 all means, to have a meteorological station in Iceland, and endeavor 

 to study the map, as we are fortunately able to do in India, on a large 

 scale, instead of merely confining our attention to the minute range 

 of conditions we are able to observe within the limited area of these 

 islands." {Nature, xxvi, p. 198.) 



In a second paper Mr. Archibald states that the cold spring winds 

 usually come from the east and north, whereby the movable ice causes 

 a high i)ressure and a low temperature. [Nature, xxvi, p. 222.) 



Mr. James B. Francis, i)resident of the American Society of Civil 

 Engineers, gave the results of his observations, during forty years, of 

 anchor ice. " A frequent inconvenience in the use of water-power in cold 

 climates is that peculiar form of ice called anchor or ground ice. I^; ad- 

 heres to stones, gravel, wood, and other substances forming the beds of 

 streams, the channels of conduits, and orifices through which water is 

 drawn, sometimes raising the level of water-courses many feet by its ac- 

 cumulation on the bed, and entirely closing small orifices through which 

 water is drawn for industrial purposes. I have been for many years in 

 a position to observe its effects, and the conditions under which it is 

 formed. The essential conditions are that the temperature of the water 

 is at its freezing point, and that of the air below that point; the surface 

 of the water must be exposed to the air, and there must be a current of 

 water. 



" The ice is formed in small needles on the surface, which would remain 

 there and form a sheet, if the surface were not so much agitated that 

 the water at the top and bottom are continually interchanging their 

 places, and intermixing. When resting at the bottom the crystals 

 unite by regelation, and anchor ice is formed a considerable distance 

 down stream below where the ice needles first form." {Nature, July, 

 1881, XXIV, p. 302.) 



E. Gordon, the executive engineer of the embankment works of the 

 Irrawaddy, has published a valuable monograph on the hydrography of 

 that river, and the hydraulic works. The book is, of course, mainly 

 occupied with the subject of connection between height of water or 

 total discharge and the peculiarities of the river, and the rainfall. Es- 

 pecially interesting is the series of seventy or eighty consecutive days 

 of complete measurements of the discharge at three sites in the delta. 

 Records of the floods of the Irrawaddy for past years are insufficient 

 to deduce anything like periodic regularity that has been proven in 

 some other rivers. {Nature, xxvi, p. 172.) 



Professor Harlacher has constructed a current meter, which gives 

 the velocities at any depth in the shortest possible time, making a con- 



