METEOROLOGY. 269 



northwest winds tliat sweep clown over Manitoba and the United States, 

 we shall have to suspect that these epidemics are due to minute organ- 

 isms carried by the air, possibly in its upper currents, from some equa- 

 torial region, some such mass of air as is throw^n by a hurricane out of 

 its normal route, or is carried up over the Pacific and thrown against 

 the Alaska coast only to come down upon the east slope of the Rockies 

 as a dry wind, or such as is sometimes drawn from Northern Eussia 

 over the Polar Sea, only to flow southward as a cold norther over Brit- 

 ish America. Thus epidemics and spores, insects, seeds, migratory 

 birds, volcanic dust, &c., are distributed over the world by the wands 

 obedient to a complication of rigid laws that invite human energy to 

 unravel them.] 



39. Among the scientific results noted in his preliminary report to 

 the Royal Society, Capt. H. P. Dawson states that Fort Rae is located 

 at the southwest extremity of a peninsula that juts out from the north- 

 east shore of a long gulf running in a northwest direction for more than 

 100 miles from t^e northern shore of the Great Slave Lakej it is there- 

 fore almost entirely surrounded by water. The greatest magnetic dis- 

 turbance occurred I^ovember 17, 1882. Whenever an aurora occurred 

 in the zenith there was a rapid decrease in vertical and horizontal mag- 

 netic force. Auroras suitable for measurement of altitude were rare 

 and lasted only a few seconds; the wind was usually in a sontheast or 

 northwest direction ; when the former prevailed the upper clouds showed 

 a northwest current. {Nature., xxix, p. 247.) 



40. A. S. Steen gives a preliminary account, in Nature, of the activity 

 at the Norwegian circumpolar station at Bossekop. Auroras were seen 

 every night, and accurate measures were taken in conjunction with 

 others by Dr. Tromholt, at Kautokeino. The thermometer shelter con- 

 formed to Professor Wild's model. Psychrometer and dew-point appa- 

 ratus were frequently observed together. The chemical determinations 

 of atmospheric moisture were not satisfactory. {Nature, xxviii, p. 5G7.) 



41. The Russian Government decided to maintain a meteorological 

 station for some time at Sagastyr on the Lena. The average tempera- 

 ture of February, 1884, was -33° C, or 8° warmer than 1883. Strong 

 winds were specially frequent during the last year. 



42. A. E. Nordenskiold, in letters to Mr. Dickson, gives an account 

 of his journey into the interior of Greenland, starting from Disco Bay 

 on July 3, 1883. The ascent to an elevation of 800 meters took place quite 

 rapidly ; after that more slowly, until the height 1,492 meters was reached 

 on July 22. From this point his Lapp escort went eastward six days, 

 accomplishing about 115 kilometers, reaching a height of 2,000 meters 

 at a distance about 300 kilometers east of Disco Bay. The whole re- 

 gion was, of course, a uniform glacier of ice and snow, with occasional 

 lakes of melted-snow water. {Nature, xxix, pp. 11-39.) 



43. Dr. H. ]\};iihry, of Gottingen, in reference to the great problems in 

 meteorology, states that he is himself mott impressed with the impor- 



