270 



NATURE 



\7uly 27, 1876 



author's final results ; after having, to his own satisfaction 

 at least, broken down the old land-marks, he proceeds to 

 establish new ones where, according to his own showing, 

 no hard and fast lines exist ; he classes the group C as 

 Lower Permian, A as Carboniferous, and parallels B 

 with the Ottweil beds of the Saarbruck coal-field, which 

 by the way are distinguished by the absence of Permian 

 forms. It is further a matter for regret that so pains- 

 taking an observer has so little of the gift of lucid arrange- 

 ment, and that he indulges so largely in what De Quincey 

 calls the carpet-bag treatment of sentences. 



But faults like these will not detract from the real value 

 of the work ; when the time comes for a rectification of 

 boundaries on the Permo- Carboniferous frontier, the vast 

 mass of carefully-observed facts which it furnishes will 

 form no unimportant contribution to the body of evidence 

 by which the question must be decided. The author may 

 have been premature in his conclusions, but his industry 

 and application have produced a work that will have a 

 permanent value. A. H. G. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Holidays in Tyrol — Kuf stein, Klobenstein, atidPanvef^gio. 

 By Walter White. (London : Chapman and Hall, 

 1876.) 



This volume may be regarded as the complement to that 

 published a good many years ago by Mr. White, " On 

 Foot through Tyrol," in which the Brenner was the 

 eastern limit. The present one takes us to souch-east 

 Tyrol, occasionally overstepping the boundary that 

 divides Austria from Italy. Mr. White is a leisurely 

 tourist, with no ambition to rival the feats of an Alpine 

 clubbist, but with what may be called an epicurean taste 

 for scenery of all kinds. It is this taste which keeps him 

 to the lower heights, for from such vantage-ground alone 

 it is found can all the varied features of the Alpine 

 scenery be fully appreciated and enjo)ed. The volume 

 contains the results of several summer sojourns in 

 southern Tyrol, and while its main feature is pleasant 

 chat about the principal scenes that are presented 

 throughout its length and breadth, there is much interest- 

 ing gossip about its towns and villages, their antiquities, 

 history, and, above all, about the people, with all sorts 

 and conditions of whom the author came much into 

 contact. He has the faculty of making himself at home 

 and liked wherever he goes a pleasuring, and thus has 

 learned much about the sentiments and ways of the 

 people that an ordinary tourist would never discover. 

 There is no excitement, no sensation, no hair-breadth 

 'scapes in the book ; the chapters are very short, and 

 the reader will feel no difficulty in laying it down at the 

 end of any one of them ; but at the same time Mr. White's 

 pleasant chit-chat never wearies, but keeps the reader in 

 a constant r.tate of placidity and quiet amusement. The 

 region described is out of the way of the ordinary tourist, 

 but we should think Mr. White's volume ought to make 

 it popular. The work will form a useful guide to the 

 Southern Tyrol, and is interspersed with occasional notes 

 on geology, which gives it a claim to be regarded as not 

 altogether unscientific. 



Ane;ling Idylls. By G. Christopher Davies. (London : 



Chapman and Hall, 1876.) 

 Mr. Davies is already favourably known to anglers and 

 natural history amateurs, and many lovers of healthful 

 and refreshing reading, by his " Mountain, Meadow, and 

 Mere," and his " Rambles and Adventures of Our School 

 Field Club." The present volume contains a number of 

 charming pictures of country scenes and country life 

 grouped round angling adventures. The Idylls— prose in 



form we may say — are put together with great art, which 

 seldom makes itself felt, are simply told, and full of the un- 

 mistakable freshness of " out-of-doors," to use the author's 

 synonym for Nature, To a jaded mind they will be found 

 almost as refreshing as a day by a river side with rod and 

 line is to a jaded body. Mr. Davies has a good know- 

 ledge of natural history, and knows how to observe and 

 tell what he sees, and both the botanist and zoologist will 

 find something to interest them in the book. Under the 

 title of " Angling Acquaintances" he describes graphically 

 the habits of the otter, water-vole, heron, and other 

 animals to be found in the neighbourhood of water, and 

 does the same in another chapter for " Waterside Plants." 

 For lovers of the country and especially of ihe gentle 

 craft the book possesses many attractions. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. \ 



Extreme Temperature of Summer 



On Saturday, July 15 last, the temperature (in the shade, four 

 feet from the ground) at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, rose 

 to 93° 'o ; on Monday, July 17, to 94°*o ; and on Saturday, July 

 22, to 90° -2. 



Since the establishment of the Magnetical and Meteorological 

 Observatory in the year 1840, higher readings than 94° 'o have 

 been recorded on two occasions only; 94'"5 in 1858, June 16, 

 which was very early in the year for so high a temperature ; 

 and 96° -6 in 1868, July 22. 



The following further particulars collected from the Green- 

 wich records may interest some of your reader?. 



It appears that the temperature has risen to or above 90°, out 

 of thirty-six years, in twelve years only. The annexed list gives 

 the particular days on which such extreme tempcratute was 

 shown : — 



1842, Aug. 10 



1846, June 20 



,, July 4 



5 



Aug. I 

 1852, July 5 



1857, June 28 



1858, ,, 16 



1859, July 12 



M 13 



„ 18 



,, Aug. 25 



1868, July 16 



The years 1846 

 temperature ; in 1} 



90 '5 

 9I-I 

 91 -8 

 93 '3 

 91 '3 

 92 o 

 903 

 927 

 94 '5 

 92-5 

 92 o 



93 'o 

 9' 3 

 92-0 



1868, July 



Aug. 

 Sept 



1869, July 22 



1870, June 22 

 1872, July 25 



9 

 20 



1874 

 1876 



15 

 22 



90 'O 

 92 2 

 966 

 90- 1 



90-5 

 921 

 909 

 90*2 

 90-9 

 92 o 

 91 -8 



93 'o 

 940 



90 '2 



and 1868 were remarkable for high summer 

 ), 9i°'i was registered as early as June 20, 

 and in 1868 92''*i, as Jate as Sept. 7. 



Throughout the whole period of thirty-six years, the earliest 

 summer maximum occurred in 1862, on May 6, and was 8i°'5. 

 The latest summer maximum occurred in 1875, <^n Aug. i6, and 

 was 85°'4. The year i860 was remaikable tor depressed tfrn- 

 perature ; the highest summer reading having been 75° 'o only, 

 on July 17. The year was one which agiiculturists will well 

 remember. It was in violent contrast to 1859, as the table above 

 given shows. 



Selecting the highest recorded temperature in each year, from 

 1841 to 1876, with the day of its occurrence, it appears, on the 

 average of the thirty-six years, that the mean of such highest 

 readings is 88°'3, the corresponding mean day of occurrence 

 being July II. "William Ellis 



Royal Observatory, Greenvnch, July 24 



Earthquakes in Samoa 



DtJRiNG the months of December and January last there was 

 much local seismic disturbance on the north side of the island of 

 Savaii. Loud underground reports were heard in one particu- 

 lar spot near the coast. They were at irregular intervals, but 



