322 



NATURE 



[February 3, 1898 



-diagram represent inches) The undulations generally 

 vary from three to four inches at intervals of from fourteen 

 to eighteen minutes. The centre of the storm which 

 caused these oscillations was over the State of Florida, 

 1300 miles distant. This storm centre travelled slowly 

 but directly to the lake region, where it caused a severe 

 gale. These lake undulations are found to be of a more 

 sensitive character than the indications of approaching 

 storms given by the barometer. Mr. Denison is of opinion 

 that these oscillations are due to the action of atmo- 

 spheric waves or billows in passing over the surface of the 

 lakes, which tend to form minute undulations upon the 

 surface corresponding in length to these billows, and 

 becoming magnified when they reach narrower and 

 shallower portions, until finally they assume the pro- 

 portions recorded upon the instrument. 



Attention has also recently been directed to the minor 

 -undulations which occur in tidal waters by Mr. W. Bell 

 Dawson, the Government surveyor engaged in the tidal 

 survey of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in a paper pre- 

 sented to the Royal Society of Canada in May 1895, 

 entitled " Notes on secondai-y undulations." These 

 undulatory disturbances in the regular rise and fall of 

 the tides in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are plainly marked 

 on the records of the self-registering tide gauges, their 

 magnitude being in proportion to the amplitude of the 

 tides. Similar undulations have also been observed in 

 •the Mediterranean at Malta. The illustration (Fig. 2, 



men wtrrcm . 7it»t of tide 



BAY 



/920 ftet 



or 



rUNDY. 



LOW mr^TCn 



Jtx** of tide trOS feet. 



Fig. 2. 



taken from Mr. Dawson's paper) shows the character of 

 these undulations at high and low water in part of the 

 Bay of Fundy, on tides having an amplitude of from 17 

 •to 19 feet. W. H. Wheeler. 



NOTES. 



The meeting of the Royal Society on Thursday, February 24, 

 -will be devoted to a discussion of the " scientific advantages of 

 an Antarctic Expedition." The debate will be opened by Dr. 

 John Murray, F.R.S., of the Challenger. 



Prof. L. Cremona, professor of higher mathematics in the 

 University of Rome, has been elected a Correspondant of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences, in succession to the late Prof. 

 Sylvester. 



H.R.H. THE Prince of Wales has been graciously pleased 

 to accept the post of Patron of the fourth International Congress 

 of Zoology, to be held at Cambridge next August. 



A meeting will be held in Manchester on February 16 to 

 take into consideration such steps as may seem desirable to 

 a.ssist the Executive Committee in making the Zoological 

 Congress this year thoroughly successful. The Literary and 

 Philosophical Society have put their rooms at the disposal of 

 the meeting, and Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill will take the chair at 

 5 o'clock on that day. This appears to us to be an excellent 

 .imovement, and one worthy of imitation in other large centres. 



NO. 1475. VOL. 57] 



Zoologists who propose to be present should communicate with 

 Prof. Hickson, F.R.S., at the Owens College, Manchester. 



Mr. Thomas H. Blakesley has resigned his seat at the 

 Council Board of the Physical Society. He is, therefore, no 

 longer hon. .secretary of that Society. 



It has been decided to publish, under the auspices of the 

 Physical Society and the Institution of Electrical Engineers, a 

 series of abstracts of English, American, and foreign papers 

 on physics and electrical engineering. 



The Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., has invited 

 Dr. Hans Reusch, Director of the Norwegian Geological Survey, 

 to give two series of lectures — ooe on " Vulcanism," the other 

 on "the Geology of Scandinxvia." Dr. Reusch will return to 

 Christiania in June. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society on 

 Wednesday, January 19, the President, after reviewing the 

 progress in microscopical science during the past year, gave for 

 his address an account of the manner in which achromatic 

 doublets and triplets were practically calculated. The President 

 explained by drawings on the blackboard the general scope of 

 the paper, which, owing to its mathematical treatment, could 

 not be read verbatim. 



The death is announced of Dr. Samuel Newth, author of 

 "A First Book of Natural Philosophy," which has had a very 

 large sale, and " The Elements of Mathe- 

 matics, including Hydrostatics." In 1855 

 Dr. Newth became professor of mathe- 

 matics and ecclesiastical history in the 

 New College, St. John's Wood, and suc- 

 ceeded Dr. Halley as principal of the 

 College in 1872, retiring from this post in 

 1889. 



We learn from Science that, at the meet- 

 ing of the Corporation of Yale Univer- 

 sity on January 13, Prof. O. C. Marsh, 

 professor of palaeontology, formally pre- 

 sented to the University the valuable 

 scientific collections belonging to him, 

 now deposited in the Peabody Museum. These collections, six in 

 number, are in many respects the most extensive and valuable 

 of any in America, and have been brought together by Prof. 

 Marsh, at great labour and expense, during the last thirty years. 

 They include collections of vertebrate fossils, fossil footprints, 

 invertebrate fossils, recent osteology, American archaeology and 

 ethnology, and minerals. The palseontological collections are 

 well known, and were mainly secured by Prof. Marsh during 

 his explorations in the Rocky Mountains. They include most 

 of the type specimens he has described in his various publica- 

 tions. The collection of osteology and that of American 

 archaeology are also extensive and of great interest. The present 

 value of all these collections makes this the most important 

 gift to natural science that Yale has yet received. The President 

 and Fellows of Yale accepted Prof. Marsh's gift by a unanimous 

 vote, and expressed their high appreciation of his generosity to 

 the University. 



Among the papers to be read at forthcoming meetings of 

 the Society of Arts are the following :— Ordinary meetings 

 (Wednesday evenings, at eight o'clock) : February 23, children's 

 sight, by Mr. R. Brudenell Carter ; March 2, kites, their 

 theory and practice, by Captain B. F. S. Baden-Powell ; 

 March 9, Linde's method of producing extreme cold and 

 liquefying air, by Prof J. A. Ewing, F.R.S. ; March 16, the 

 recent history of paper-making, by Mr. Clayton Beadle ; March 

 23, the preparation of meat extracts, by Mr. C. R. Valentine ; 

 March 30, telegraphy across space, by Prof. Silvanus P. Thomp- 



