Dec, 26, 1878] 



NATURE 



177 



the great Papuan subregion, that has hitherto appeared. 

 At the same time the authors have not attempted to make 

 a perfect faunistic work of it. Only such species as are 

 represented in the collections made by the Italian travel- 

 lers, Beccari and D'Albertis, on their various joint and 

 several expeditions, and in the collections sent to Genoa, 

 by Herr Bruijn of Ternate are enumerated in the list. On 

 the other hand the mass of these collections is so great — 

 consisting of 3,000 examples from 44 different localities, 

 and the series thus brought together is so much more 

 nearly perfect than that which any other authors have had 

 before them — that the result has been to give us an ex- 

 cellent idea of the general character of the reptiles and 

 batrachians of this division of the earth's surface. Let 

 us, therefore, look through the pages of Messrs. Peters and 

 Doria's excellent memoir, and see what general views we 

 can obtain from it as to the peculiarities of this little- 

 known branch of the Papuan fauna. 



In the first place, land-tortoises are few in the Papuan 

 sub-region. Our list contains but two species, one from 

 Amboina and Celebes, the other from the southern ex- 

 tremity of New Guinea, and very doubtfully distinguish- 

 able from an Australian species, 



Crocodilians are also scarce. The series contained ex- 

 amples but of one species — Crocodilus porosus — which 

 extends from India into Northern Australia. 



Of lizards, besides the monitors, of which genus not 

 less than 16 species are contained in the list, the great 

 mass are Skinks, Geekos and Agamids. As in Australia 

 the Skinks are especially numerous, upwards of 30 species 

 being represented in the series, of which 8 are now de- 

 scribed for the first time. 



The ophidians are also well represented in the Papuan 

 fauna, the series examined by our authors affording ex- 

 amples of 54 species. Amongst the Boas Liasis and 

 Chondropython are characteristic Papuan forms, whilst 

 the Australian Morelia also extends into New Guinea. 

 But no greater sign of the essential unity of the Australian 

 and Papuan faunas can be shown than the presence in 

 New Guinea of the three Elapine genera, Diemenia, 

 Pseudechis and Acanthophts, all characteristic forms of the 

 Australian continent. At the same time the presence of 

 an Ophiophagiis in New Guinea, proves that an intruding 

 element from the north has reached thus far. 



About 20 batrachians close the list, amongst which 

 Limtiodytes and Hyla seem to be the most prevalent 

 genera. The Australian Pelodryas carulea is abundant all 

 through the sub-region. A new and very singular form 

 obtained by Beccari in the interior of New Guinea, near 

 the river Wa-Sampson is characterized, as Sphenophrytie 

 cornuta, and a second, obtained, by the same explorer 

 on Mount Corfak as Xetiobairachus ophiodon. The 

 latter shows some points of affinity to the Australian 

 Myobatrachus. 



Seven excellent lithographic plates illustrate some of 

 the rarities described in this memoir, and two maps are 

 added to show the exact localities where the collections 

 were found. The maps we see with great pleasure, as in 

 our opinion no zoological work of a faunistic character 

 can in these days be considered complete without such an 

 appendage. 



THE METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY LECTURES 



A COURSE of six lectures on meteorology was recently 

 ^^- delivered under the auspices of the Meteorological 

 Society at the Institution of Civil Engineers. The purpose 

 of these lectures, we believe, is to spread a knowledge of 

 the known facts and principles of meteorology, and in 

 tliis useful mission we cannot but wish the Society every 

 success. We here give abstracts of two of these lectures, 

 by Mr. J. K, Laughton and the Rev. W. Clement Ley. 

 The subject of Mr. Laughton' s lecture was— 



Air Temperature, its Distribution and Range 



After calling attention to the importance of climatic knowledge 

 the lecturer dwelt on the fact that though all heat as affect- 

 ing climate emanates directly or indirectly from the sun, tem- 

 peratures have but little relation to latitude except when the 

 distances are very great. He illustrated this by reference to 

 isothermal and isabnormal maps, and went on to speak in some 

 detail of the several causes of the disagreement between isotherms 

 and parallels of latitude. Locally there is a very great difference 

 between the temperatures of adjacent localities on account of the 

 sunny aspect or sheltered situation of some as compared to 

 others, as is found in an extreme degree in such places as 

 the Undercliff of the Isle of Wight ; but geographically, a 

 cause of very considerable importance is the nature of the 

 soil. The air over sandy or sterile ground is heated by direct 

 contact and by radiation, to a degree farfin excess of what hap- 

 pens to air resting on grass-grown or verdant plains ; heat pro- 

 ceeding from an obscure source is unable to escape through the 

 air, just as obscure heat-rays may be caught and accumulated 

 in a closed conservatory or in a glass-covered box, so that the 

 air may be raised to a very high temperature : several instances 

 are on record of a temperature of 130° F. being observed under 

 such circumstances. On the other hand, when the solar heat 

 falls on ground, whether grassy or snow-covered, that wiU not 

 easily part with it, the air may remain cool, or even cold ; as is 

 found in our everyday experience in summer of the pleasantness 

 of a field path as compared with a high road j and as is shown 

 more markedly by the great power of the direct rays of the sun 

 in the Arctic, or at elevated stations in the Alps or Himalayas, 

 whilst the snow is Ijnng all around, and the temperature of the 

 air is far below freezing-point. 



But greater far than the effects of differences of soU are the 

 effects of ocean currents, which warm the air to an almost 

 incredible degree. Mr. Croll has calculated that the surface- 

 water of the North Atlantic, if deprived of the Gulf Stream, 

 would be reduced to a temperature very far below freezing- 

 point ; that the heat which the Gulf Stream disperses into the 

 superincumbent air would, if converted into power, be equal to 

 the united force of some 400 millions of ships such as our largest 

 ironclads. This heat, thrown into the air, is wafted by the 

 south-westerly winds over the north-west of Europe, and very 

 largely over our own country. It is this that makes the extreme 

 difference between the climate on this side the Atlantic and that 

 on the other, that gives us green fields and open harbours 

 during the winter, whilst in Labrador or Newfoundland they are 

 buried in snow or choked with ice. 



The carrying power of water is so great as compared with 

 that of air that the climatic effect of winds heated by contact 

 with hot earth is relatively small. The scirocco of the Meditei?- 

 ranean, a wind heated over the great African desert, has often 

 been referred to as the "snow eater" cf Switzerland, This 

 has been proved to be a mistake. The snow-eating wind of 

 Switzerland is a wind from the Atlantic, warmed by the Gulf 

 Stream, and rendered dry and hot by the condensation of its 

 vapour as it passes over the mountains. Similar winds ha%-e 

 been observed in many different parts of the world — in New 

 Zealand, in Nonvay, in Greenland, and in North America, 

 where their peculiar dryness, carrying off all mobtiure, renders 

 the grass so inflammable that the smallest accidental spark lights 

 up a fire which may spread over a coimtry, and is thus the true 

 cause of those immense prairies whicli are a distinctive feature of 

 North American geography. But such hot winds are quite dis- 

 tinct from such winds as blow from the Sahara, or the Stony 

 Desert of Australia, or from many other sterile tracts of country ; 

 winds which are merely the escape of air heated to an extreme 

 degree by contact with the burning soil. These hot winds are 

 for the most part merely disagreeable ; but «old winds are very 

 often dangerous ; in the North- Western States of America a 

 cold wind, ushering in a violent snow-storm, caused the death of 

 more than 300 people in January, 1873 ; and in many other 

 localities, a cold wind bringing in a sudden fall of temperature 

 through 40 or 50 degrees, is always a cause of grave anxiety. Our 

 English " Blackthorn Wmter" in April or May is only one, and 

 a subdued instance of the ill-effects of such cold spells. ■ 



The presence of moisture in the air, by checking radiation 

 firom the ground by night, or diuring the winter, softens the rigour 

 of the seasons, makes the summers less hot, the winters less 

 cold. It is this that constitutes the difference between "msular" 

 and "continental" climates; it is the want of the vapour- 

 screen which causes " excessive " climates such as we read of 



