January 5, 191 1] 



NATURE 



323 



grains and coups de vent which would inform the airman 

 of the approach of grave risks should he attempt an ascent 

 until the squall has passed, bo far back as 1892 M. 

 Durand-Gr^viile made the suggestion to meteorologists in 

 a memoir entitled " Les Grains et les Orages," which 

 appeared in the Annales du Bureau central meteorologique 

 de France. This memoir showed that the isochronic lines 

 marking the commencement of storms corresponded with 

 much longer isochrones of squalls. The name ruban de 

 grain was attached to a more or less sinuous band extend- 

 •■iC from near the centre to the circumference of a 

 uression. This band is often 1000-1500 km. (625-940 

 les) long, and in its interior the wind is very strong, 

 d often accompanied by precipitation. The advent of 

 squall is generally marked by a gentle south-west 

 id veering with startling suddenness and violence to the 

 rth-west, masses of cloud come up rapidly from the 

 -t, and frequently heavy thunder is heard. All these 

 nomena occur suddenly and practically simultaneously, 

 that the passing of the squall is easily and definitely 

 -erved. 



-M. Durand-Gr^ville's proposal is that from those 

 rions first passed over, telegraphic warnings should be 

 :Tiediately dispatched to centres lying eastwards in the 

 ■sequent path of the disturbance. Numerous experi- 

 nts have demonstrated the feasibility and utility of the 

 erne. Stations west of Paris have sent messages 

 louncing squalls which have subsequently passed over 

 It city at the predicted time. 



On the occasion of the great Aeronautical Congress at 



Frankfort during 1909, the plan was tried by M. Linke, 



' -■•:K:tor of the meteorological station there. Fiftv-five 



-ervers within a radius of 150 km., were asked to notify 



director of any squall which passed over their separate 



-r.Ttions, and M. Durand-Greville states that, " save in 



• I- or two cases, all the storms which visited Frankfort 



ring this period were known to M. Linke more than 



hour in advance." 



M. Durand-Greville points out that the expense to anv 



dy which undertook the organisation of the warnings 



•lild be almost negligible as compared with the money 



ii-^'ndpd in prizes awarded to aviators, not to mention the 



ch greater cost of machines, &c.. and the lamentable 



rifice of human life which might, at least to some 



•^nt, be obviated. The ordinary forecasts and warnings 



-ued by the various national meteorological offices are 



too general to be of use in this regard, but special 



vices might be instituted, as a trial, by some of the 



ietjes especially interested in aeronautical matters. 



TEMPERATURE OF THE UPPER .AIR. 

 "yj M. RVK.\CHEF has worked out the results of 



' balloon ascents at Pavlovsk, Kuchino near Moscow, 

 1 Nizhni Olchedaief. There were sixty-three flights at 

 vlovsk, thirty-two at Kuchino, and twelve at Olchedaief, 

 ne of which attained a height of 12 kilometres. With 

 ,ard to the yearly means, the temperature at Pavlovsk 

 - up to 9 km. lower than at Kuchino, the differences 

 reading up to 3 to 35 km., and then diminishing. At 

 km. they change sign, increasing up to a maximum of 

 >ut 4^ C. between 105 and 12 km. The difference of 

 nperature between Pavlovsk and Nizhni Olchedaief is 

 ich greater, diminishes up to 10 km., where it changes 

 n, and attains a maximum of 1° between 11 and 12 km. 

 marked diminution in the fall of temperature takes 

 ice^ at a lower height in Pavlovsk than in Kuchino, and 



Kuchino than at Olchedaief, the heights being 9-5, 

 ". and loS km. respectively. The temperature of the 



hermic layers is highest at Pavlovsk and lowest at 

 • chino. These variations may be explained by the 

 lerences of latitude, Pavlovsk being situated at about 

 . Kuchino 56°, and Nizhni Olchedaief 48=', while 

 vlovsk is more exposed to the mild influence of a sea 

 mate than the other two places. 



At Nizhni Olchedaief the ascents were too few to deduce 

 > satisfactory conclusions with regard to seasonal varia- 

 ns. At Pavlovsk the temperature at all seasons from 

 ' ground up to 85 to 9 km. was lower than at Kurchino, 

 ept that in winter the temperature up to 500 metres 

 <s higher, which result accords with the readings taken 



the ground for a series of vears. The difference of 



NO. 2149, VOL. 85] 



temperature in winter, spring, and autumn shows a 

 marked increase at about 2-5 to 3 km., changes sign at 

 85 to 9 km., and rapidly increases to the isothermic layers, 

 where the temperature is lower at Kuchino than at 

 Pavlovsk. In summer the difference decreases continually 

 up to 95 km., and then changes sign and increases. The 

 height where the fall in the temperature becomes in- 

 significant is lower in all seasons at Pavlovsk than at 

 Kuchino, except in spring, when it is about 10 km. at 

 both stations. 



The temperature of the isothermal region is markedly 

 lower at Kuchino. In the curve of monthly means is seen 

 a retardation of the maximum in the higher layers of air. 

 In the lower atmosphere the maximum occurs in July 

 both at Pavlovsk and Kuchino, but at greater heights it 

 occurs in August, the change taking place at a height of 

 2-5 km. at Kuchino and at 4-5 km. at Pavlovsk. At 9 km. 

 the maximum returns to July. The minimum exhibits 

 somewhat similar variations. Amplitudes and gradients, 

 mean changes of temperature with elevation in cyclones 

 and anticyclones, &c., are also discussed, with numerous 

 tables and diagrams, in an article published in the Bulletin 

 of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, 

 No. 7, 1910. 



THE IXCEXSE-ALTAR OF APHRODITE AT 

 PAPHOS. 



A N interesting article by Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter 

 ■^^ appears in Globus of November 17 (xcviii., pp. 

 293-7), •" which he brings forward data to prove his 

 earlier supposition that the first site of Paphos was in the 

 neighbourhood of Randi, in Cyprus. Certain inscriptions 

 from this vicinity showed that Aphrodite, " the un- 

 conquerable," sender of Spring, was worshipped, and that 

 an ancient incense-altar had existed there. The block 

 containing the most important inscription is held by Prof. 

 Richard Meister, of Leipzig, to belong to an incense-altar, 

 and he adds that the incense-altar of Aphrodite at Paphos 

 (Homer, VIII., 362 ; Homeric Hymns, IV., 59) was 

 famous from earliest times. 



Last .\ugust Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter was able to identify 

 a semi-subterranean side-chamber in the rock connected 

 with this altar, whence had come the inscribed incense- 

 bowls which Prof. Meister has been deciphering. Dr. 

 Zahn's excavations in the chamber have brought to light 

 some half-dozen further inscriptions in the Paphian script, 

 and he has made a number of valuable discoveries on the 

 hill-side below, among them phalli which again played an 

 important part in the Paphian Aphrodite-worship. The 

 cult carried on on the hill consisted in making incense 

 offerings, as described by Homer; in Dr. Zahn's opinion 

 images were not used originally. A clay statue of about 

 life-size was, however, found in the middle of the altar- 

 chamber, the style indicating a date about 600 B.C. The 

 article concludes : — " We must wait to see what Prof. 

 Meister will make of the hundred and more inscriptions 

 discovered. As yet everything supports my surmise that 

 on . the hill of the incense-altar at Randi, not only an 

 incense-altar of Aphrodite Paphia stood, but the most 

 famous, the Homeric, incense-altar of Aphrodite of 

 Paphos." 



Early in the article the writer refers to ten inscribed 

 stones from Randi " from secret, prohibited excavations." 

 which were fortunately purchased by someone who 

 generously presented them to the C\prus Museum. This 

 is additional evidence, if such be required, of the urgent 

 necessity for strong measures by the Government for the 

 repression of iUicit traffic in objects of archaeological 

 interest in this island and elsewhere. A. C. H. 



AIMS OF ASTRONOMY OF PRECISION."^ 



T^HE science of precise physical measurement is one 

 ■*■ which does not readily appeal to those not immedi- 

 ately concerned, either with the methods or results. An 

 authoritative statement that the sun's distance from the 

 earth is 92,880,000 miles may excite wonder, but scarcely 

 more than will the statement that it is approximately 



1 From the presidential address delivered before the Royal Society f 

 South Africa on April 20, 1910, by S. S. Hough, F.R S. Published in th 

 Transactions of the Society, vol. iu, part i. 



