50 



NATURE 



[March 9, 191 1 



seaboard. The Bill gives the consent of Congress to the 

 States to enter into an agreement among themselves for 

 the purpose of conserving the forests and water supply of 

 each, and grants 40,000/. to enable the Secretar>' of Agri- 

 culture to cooperate with such States in giving fire protec- 

 tion. In addition, the Bill appropriates 200,000/. for one 

 year, and not more than 400,000/. for each year there- 

 after, until 1915, for surveys, examinations, and acquire- 

 ment of lands located at the headwaters of streams which 

 are being or may be developed for navigable purposes. 



A FLIGHT from Paris to the crest of the Puy de D6me 

 was accomplished by M. Eugene Renaux on a Maurice 

 Farman biplane with a passenger on March 7. The 

 distance is 210 miles, and the journey was made to the 

 crest of the Puy de D6me, 4000 feet high, in sh. iim., 

 after one landing. This is the fourth noteworthy aeroplane 

 flight of the present year, the others being : — January 30, 

 Mr. McCurdy, the Canadian aviator, flew over-sea from 

 Key West (Florida) to within ten miles of Havana, in the 

 island of Cuba; February i and February 2, Captain 

 Bellanger flew from Paris to Pau, via Bordeaux, a distance 

 of nearly 500 miles ; March 5, Lieut. Bague flew 140 miles 

 over-sea from Nice almost to the Italian coast. Referring 

 to these flights, The Morning Post says : — " These flying 

 achievements, viewed in regard to the lengthy periods over 

 which they were sustained, the precision with which they 

 were executed, and the fact that in each case the aviator 

 had a definite goal which he succeeded — or all but 

 succeeded — in reaching, place the art of aviation in a posi- 

 tion, as concerns its practical usefulness, which it would 

 have been all but impossible to have foreseen only a year 

 ago." 



The following are among the lecture arrangements at 

 the Royal Institution after Easter : — Prof. F. W. Mott, 

 two lectures on the brain and the hand ; Prof. W. W. 

 Watts, two lectures on (i) the ancient volcano of Charn- 

 wood Forest (Leicestershire), (2) Charnwood Forest and 

 its fossil landscape ; Prof. R. W. Wood, three lectures on 

 the optical properties of metallic vapours; Dr. W. N. 

 Shaw, two lectures on air and the flying machine : (i) the 

 structure of the atmosphere and the texture of air currents, 

 (2) conditions of safety for floaters and fliers ; Mr. T. 

 Thorne-Baker, two lectures on (1) changes effected by 

 light, (2) practical progress in wireless telegraphy ; Mr. 

 W. P. Pycraft, two lectures on phases of bird life : 

 (i) flight, (2) migration. The Friday evening meetings 

 will be resumed on April 28, when a discourse will be 

 given by Prof. W. >L Flinders Petrie on the revolutions 

 of civilisation. Succeeding discourses will probably be 

 given by Prof. Martin O. Forster, Prof. W. Stirling, Prof. 

 R. W. Wood, Prof. Gilbert Murray, Commendatore G. 

 Marconi, and Prof. Svante Arrhenius, among others. 



The first Universal Races Congress will be held on 

 July 26-29 in the central building of the University of 

 London. The object of the congress will be to discuss, in 

 the light of modern knowledge and the modern conscience, 

 the general relations subsisting between the peoples of the 

 West and those of the East, between so-called white and 

 so-called coloured peoples, with the view of encouraging 

 between them a fuller understanding, the most friendly 

 feelings, and a heartier cooperation. The following is the 

 programme for the eight half-day sessions : — (i) funda- 

 mental considerations — meaning of race, tribe, nation ; 

 (2-3) general conditions of progress ; (^a) peaceful contact 

 between civilisations ; (4) special problems in inter-racial 

 economics ; (5-6) the modern conscience in relation to 

 racial questions ; {7-8) positive suggestions for promoting 



NO. 2158, VOL. 86] 



inter-racial friendliness. It is proposed to hold in connec- 

 tion with the congress an exhibition of books, document-, 

 photographs of the highest human types, skulU, chart>. 

 SiC. The exhibition is under the direction of Dr. A. C. 

 Haddon, F.R.S., and promises to be of wide interest. .\ 

 prospectus will be sent free of charge on application to 

 the honorary secretary of the congress, Mr. G. SpilU-r, 

 63 South Hill Park, Hampstead, London, 



Mr. L. Pearsall Smith writes to The Times to sugg*-: 

 that another term, such as " halcyon " — used as a su!)- 

 stitute — should be adopted in the place of *' anti-cyclone," 

 as this word is said not to convey the connotation of calm 

 and pleasant weather conditions. ** While popular 

 speech," he remarks, "has been able to adopt 'cyclone.' 

 it has found, as we might expect from its form, ' anti- 

 cyclone ' unsuited for its purpose." The unfortunate thin;^ 

 is that popular speech, as expressed in the daily Pre-», 

 calls a storm or any unusual atmospheric disturbance a 

 cyclone, whereas it is nothing of the kind. What Mr. 

 Smith proposes, therefore, is that the exact terms of 

 meteorological science shall be modified to adapt them to 

 the indefinite and often incorrect expressions of popular 

 language. For the sake of the preservation of precision 

 in scientific nomenclature, it is worth while to give in thi- 

 connection a quotation from a publication of the U.S. 

 Weather Bureau, issued many years ago : — " The terms 

 ' cyclone ' and ' anti-cyclone ' do not describe phenomena 

 that can be observed by one observer at a single station ; 

 they should, therefore, not be used in the description of 

 local phenomena ; they represent generalisations based upon 

 the charting and study of winds and clouds observed at 

 many stations, and should only be used when the natiir- 

 of the rotation of the wind has been clearly demonstrated 

 or can be safely inferred." 



A SUM.VIARY of the temperature, rainfall, and bright sun- 

 shine in the United Kingdom for the past winter is given 

 by the Meteorological Oflice in its last issue of the Weekly 

 Weather Report. The mean temperature was slightly in 

 excess of the average over the entire kingdom, but the 

 difference was nowhere large. At Greenwich the mean 

 for the three winter months, December to Februar}, was 

 1-7° below the normal, but December is the only month 

 where the departure from the average was considerable, 

 amounting to an excess of 5°. The Midland counties is 

 the only district in which the sheltered thermometer 

 touched 60°, whilst the minima in the several districts fell 

 below 20° everywhere except in the Channel Islands. The 

 aggregate winter rainfall was deficient except in the north 

 and west of Scotland and in the east and north-west of 

 England. The greatest deficiency is 2-64 inches in the 

 south of Ireland, and 2-22 inches m the Channel Islands. 

 The largest aggregate rainfall for the three months is 

 17-37 inches in the north of Scotland, and the least 430 

 inches in the north-east of England. There was an excess 

 of rain during the winter at Greenwich, due entirely to the 

 heavy rains in December. The rain\' days were in fair 

 agreement with the average, the maximum number being 

 73 in the north of Scotland, and the minimum 46 in the 

 north-east of England. The duration of bright sunshine 

 was generally in fair agreement with the average over the 

 whole kingdom, the records for England showing a slight 

 excess. The maximum duration of sunshine is 209 hours 

 in the Channel Islands, the minimum 103 in the north of 

 Scotland. 



We learn from the Wellington (N.Z.) Evening Post of 

 December 7, 19 10, that the New Zealand Government has 

 voted 50/. or 100/. towards the cost of explosives for rain- 



