70 



NATURE 



{Nov. 25, 1875 



expect the most notable displays in the evenings about 

 the vernal equinox having thus been by no means justified 

 in the result. The light was perceptible for a short time 

 last Sunday evening, without any yellowish tinge, and the 

 position of axis somewhat doubtful from the indifferent 

 state of the fky. Prof. Heis's observations in December 

 from 1 85 1 to 1870, place the mean position of the apex on 

 the equator in R.A. 349°, or with about 82° elongation 

 from the sun : this refers to the eastern arm of the phe- 

 nomenon. 



THE RAINFALL 



'T'HE extraordinary rainfall of the past year will make 

 -■- 1875 memorable in the annals of meteorology. With 

 scarcely an exception every part of Great Britain has 

 suffered from a plague of rain ; from the Continent and 

 from North America there come the same tidings of in- 

 cessant rain and vast inundations. Even in a country so 

 far distant as China we hear of unprecedented rains. 

 The following statistics concerning a rainfall that occurred 

 in China between last August 31st and September ist 

 will be read with astonishment. Our information is 

 derived from the bulletins of the Meteorological Obser- 

 vatory of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Sikawei, 

 on whose accuracy of observation we may doubtless 

 depend. The readings show that between four and seven 

 o'clock in the morning of September ist the mean rain- 

 fall per hour was 327 millimetres, which makes the 

 astonishing rate of i"287 inch for each of those three 

 hours. Well may the compiler remark, " We think 

 there are few examples of such a figure, except in the 

 case of waterspouts." 



The total quantity that fell in the garden of the Jesuit 

 Observatory during the twenty-four hours that elapsed 

 between four o'clock on Tuesday, 31st August, and the 

 same hour in the afternoon of Wednesday, ist September, 

 was 218 millimetres, or no less than 8*59 inches for the 

 rainfall of a single day ! After this the records of rainfall 

 in Great Britain look insignificant. Nevertheless the fall 

 has far exceeded the ordinary statistics. At Balbriggan, 

 a town a few miles north of Dublin, the rainfall from 

 9 A.M. on the 13th inst. to 9 a.m. on the 14th inst. was 

 two inches. This is the greatest fall in twenty-four 

 hours which occurred in that town for the last ten years. 



It is important to obtain statistics from the southern 

 hemisphere. It is probable a vast drought must some- 

 where compensate for the floods of water poured over a 

 large part of the northern hemisphere. 



THE WORK OF THE CHALLENGER * 



THIS report is dated from Hilo Hawaii, August 18, 

 and describes the cruise of the Challenger from Yo- 

 kohama to the Sandwich Islands. The Challenger left 

 Yokohama on the i6th of June, and ran an easterly course 

 between the parallels of 35"^ and 40° north latitude, as far 

 as the meridians of 155° east. She then turned nearly 

 directly southwards and reached Honolulu on the 27tli of 

 July. Twenty-four observing stations were established, at 

 each of which most of the desired observations were made. 

 On the 17th of June, Prof. Thomson's Report goes on, 

 •we sounded in 1,875 fathoms with a bottom of bluish-grey 

 clay and a bottom-temperature of i°"j C, forty miles to 

 the south-east of No Sima Lighthouse. The trawl was 

 put over, and it brought up a large quantity of the 

 bottom, which showed the clay was in a peculiar concre- 

 tionary state, run together into coherent lumps, which 

 were bored in all directions by an Annelid of the 

 Aphroditacean group. In many cases the Annelids 



* Abstract of " Report to the Hydrographer of the Admiralty on the 

 Cruise of H.M.S. Challenger from June to August 1875," by Prof. Wy- 

 ville Thomson, F.R.S., Director of the Civilian Scientific Staff on Board. 

 Read at the Royal Society Nov. 18. 



were still in the burrows. Among the clay there were 

 large lumps of grey pumice. The hyoid zoophytes were 

 represented by a very remarkable species, apparently 

 referable to the genus Monocaulon of Sars, a Corymor- 

 pha-like solitary polyp with adelocodonic gonophores ; 

 but instead of being of the proportions usual in its group, 

 the stem in one of our specimens measured upwards of 

 seven feet in height, while the polyp-head was nine inches 

 in diameter across the proximal row of tentacles. We 

 afterwards got another fine example of the same species 

 at a depth of 2,900 fathoms (Station 248). The tempe- 

 rature of the surface of the sea stood during the day at 

 nearly 23° C, considerably above the temperature of the 

 air ; and a serial sounding gave the isotherm of 10° C. at 

 a depth of little more than 200 fathoms. We were there- 

 fore evidently under the thermic influence of the Japan 

 current, which was found by observation to be running in 

 an easterly direction at a rate of i^ knots an hour. The 

 thermometers registered a uniform temperature of i^ 7 C. 

 from a depth of 1,000 fathoms to the bottom. About 

 twenty Albatrosses of a nearly uniform brown plumage 

 with whitish heads, probably the young of the common 

 North-Pacific species in their second year's plumage, fol- 

 lowed the ship. 



On the following day there was a stiff breeze from the 

 southward, and with a heavy sea. We sounded, however, 

 successfully in 3,950 fathoms, our deepest sounding in the 

 North Pacific position by dead reckoning lat. 34° 43' N., 

 long. 144° 2' E., with a bottom of "red clay." The high 

 surface-temperature continued to be maintained ; and the 

 position of the isotherm of 10° C, at station 239 at a 

 depth of nearly 300 fathoms, indicates that up to this 

 point, at all events, there was no diminution in the in- 

 fluence of the " Kuro-Siwa." 



On the 21 St the temperature-observations gave a sin- 

 gular result. The surface-temperature had fallen to 

 i8°'2 C, and the belt of water above 10° C. was reduced 

 in depth to considerably below 100 fathoms, while all the 

 isotherms, at all events to a depth of 400 fathoms, rose in 

 proportion. There seems to be little doubt, from a com- 

 parison of the American temperature-results with our 

 own, that this sudden diminution of temperature is due to 

 a cold surface-flow from the Sea of Okhotsk, probably 

 through Pico Channel or Vries Strait. Very likely its 

 effect may not be found to be constant ; and at this season 

 it possibly attains its maximum from the melting of the 

 snow over the vast region drained by the Amoor and tlie 

 Udi and Siberian rivers with a southern outflow. 



On the 26th of June we sounded in 2,800 fathoms. 

 Several forms were met with which apparently do not 

 occur on the surface, particularly a number of species of 

 a group which is so far as we know entirely undescribed. 

 It seems to be intermediate between the Radiolarians and 

 the Foraminiferas, resembling the former in the con- 

 dition and appearance of the sarcode and in the siliceous 

 composition of the test, and the latter in external form. 

 The broken tests of these organisms are extremely abun- 

 dant in the "red clay" soundings; a sufficient number 

 of observations has not yet been made to enable us to 

 say with certainty what is their bathymetrical distri- 

 bution. From a zoological point of view the haul of the 

 28th was remarkably successful ; there were one or two 

 fishes, a Scalpellum, a. number of annelids, particularly a 

 prominent aphroditacean; Echinoderms of the genera 

 Pourtalesia, Ar chaster, B rising a, and Ante do 11 ; a fine 

 species of Cornularia, several examples of Fungia sym- 

 tnetrica, and some Actinia. The general distribution 

 temperature remained much the same, the isotherm 

 10° C. retaining its position near the 200-fathom line. 



We trawled on the 2nd of July in 2,050 fathoms wit 

 a bottom of light brownish ooze with many Globigerittd 

 shells. The bag brought up a number of lumps of pumice, 

 and among them a very characteristic assemblage of 

 deep-sea animals, the most interesting an undescribed 



