50 



NATURE 



[Nov. 9, 



and Nicolaieff barometers, by means of two barometers which he 

 carried from Tiflis to Nicolaieff, and back again to Tiflis, with 

 the result that the difference between the two barometers by 

 which so many barometers are controlled, is only a tenth part of 

 the difference as given by Prof. Wild, or the difference instead 

 of being 0-028 inch, is only 0-003 ii^ch. The comparison of 

 station barometers is a laborious and delicate operation. If 

 the instrument be a Board of Trade barometer, having an 

 air-trap, any air lodged in it renders the comparison worthless ; 

 if not furnished with an air-trap, any air admitted into the tube 

 vitiates the comparison ; and if care be not taken in ha nging the 

 barometers or in timing the observations so as to secure that each 

 attached thermometer truly gives the temperature of the whole 

 instrument with its contained mercury, the comparison is not 

 satisfactory. 



The Fall of Temperature in End of October. — 

 The weather maps of Europe of October 27 and following 

 days show remarkable changes in the distribution of the atmo- 

 spheric pressure and changes of temperature consequent thereon. 

 On the 27 th pressures were much higher in the east than in the 

 west of the continent, accompanied with south winds and tempe- 

 ratures considerably above the average of the season in Great 

 Britain ; in other words the meteorological conditions were 

 analogous to those described in a recent number of Nature 

 (vol. xiv. p. 536), as characterising the warm weather from 

 October 4 to 7. On the 28th, however, barometers began to 

 fall in the extreme north of Norway. This depression and a 

 general lowering of the barometer was propagated southwards 

 over Eastern Europe, while at the same time barometers rose to 

 a considerable height over Western Europe. The necessary 

 result, as regards the British Islands, of this altered distribution 

 of pressure was a change of wind from south to north and a fall 

 of temperature from about 5° above the average on October 27 

 and 28, to about 5° below it on October 31 and November i. 

 In addition to the interest of this illustration from its bearing on 

 the importance of a knowledge of the weather in the extreme 

 north of Europe in connection with weather forecasts for Great 

 Britain, it is also interesting as a type of those meteorological 

 conditions to which some of our severe winter weather is due. 

 Indeed, some of our severest winter storms of wind and snow 

 have occurred with barometric depressions which have advanced 

 from the Arctic Sea southwards over Europe ; and they are 

 peculiarly severe in these islands when the centre of the depres- 

 sion takes a course more to westward than that of last week, or 

 when it passes to the south-eastward over the North Sea or over 

 Denmark. 



NOTES 



We publish this week the complete Report of Capt. Nares on 

 the Arctic Expedition, along with a new map showing in detail 

 the various geographical discoveries made by the expedition, our 

 map of last week being necessarily very general. We congratu- 

 late the Admiralty on the rapidity of the publication, and arejglad 

 to be able thus to place on permanent record the general report of 

 the Commander of the expedition, both as to its work and its re- 

 sults. As we said last week, these results will be fully appreciated 

 only when the various scientific reports are published. Of course 

 various schemes havebeen proposed to accomplish the minor object 

 in attempting to attain which our fearless men were baffled — the 

 attainment of the Pole. A correspondent writes to us suggesting 

 the use of a balloon to be inflated at the coal-bed in Discovery 

 Bay, and crossing right over the Pole, about 1,000 miles, obtain 

 a bird's-eye view of what is below. A correspondent in one of 

 the daily papers advocates the use of steam, and that something 

 like a tramway should be made to the Pole, the floe-bergs being 

 tunnelled if necessary. Another of our correspondents endeavours 

 to show that the ice-masses met with must have been pushed 



over rom the Siberian coast, though this seems somew: 

 consistent with the fact of the destruction of the I 

 Strait whaling fleet by ice. But what do all these j 

 ideas point to but the adoption of Weyprecht's schen 

 vocated by the German Government, and curiously 

 only now finding its way into the daily papers, as son 

 before quite unknown here, though we pubKshed 

 detail a year ago. If we are not mistaken we shal 

 to thank both the successes and the failures of this 

 dition for opening up a new era in Arctic exploration, 

 following promotions for services rendered in con 

 with the Arctic Expedition have been made : — Comi 



A. H. Markham to be Captain ; Lieutenants Pelham A 

 L. A. Beaumont, and A. A. C. Parr to be Commanders 

 Lieutenant C. J. M. Conybeare to be Lieutenant ; Staff- S 



B. Ninnis, M.D., to be Fleet Surgeon ; Surgeons E. L. 

 M.D., and R. W. Coppinger, M.D., to be Staff Sui 

 Engineers D. Cartmel and James Wootton, to be Ch; 

 gineers; Assistant Paymaster Thomas Mitchell to b 

 master. 



As we announced last week, Capt. Allen Young has v 

 with the Pandora. He was so beset with ice in about ' 

 that he was able to accomplish little, though he man£ 

 deposit the letters and despatches which he took out 

 expedition. Capt. Young found some Eskimo at th 

 latitude of 77° 12' N., who conducted themselves ver 

 They offered Capt. Young's party everything they ha 

 when asked what they would like to receive, the chief \ 

 to the ship and selected a 15-foot ash oar and some gimlet 

 wanted the oar for spear shafts, and the gimlets to bore iv 

 bone in order to cut it. Some other uselul presents wer 

 them, and they gave in exchange some narwhal's horns 

 mens of their pot stone cooking kettles, and of the iron 

 used for striking fire. Capt. Adams, the well-known m; 

 the whaler Arctic, has brought home with him to Dun 

 Eskimo "Chief" named Alnack, thirty-eight years ol 

 has for years begged to be taken to England. His ol 

 coming to Dundee is that he may get during the winter, 

 ledge that might be of much importance to the tribe ol 

 he is chief. We hope he will take more kindly to our 

 and habits than previous Eskimo visitors. 



The following is the award of medals for the present 3 

 the Council of the Royal Society : — The Copley Medal t 

 Claude Bernard, For. Mem. R.S., for his numerous cc 

 tions to the science of physiology; a Royal Medal to Mr. A 

 Froude, F.R.S., for his researches, both theoretical and 

 mental, on the behaviour of ships, their oscillations, thei: 

 ance, and their propulsion ; a Royal Medal to Sir C. "^ 

 Thomson, F.R.S., for his successful direction of the s( 

 investigations carried on by H. M.S. Challenger ; the R 

 Medal to Mr. Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen, For. Mem. R 

 his numerous and important researches in the radiati 

 absorption of light, carried on chiefly by means of the J 

 scope. The medals will be presented at the anniversary i 

 of the Society on the 30th inst. It is hoped that the two < 

 Frenchmen named in the foregoing list will be able to ap 

 person on the day appointed. 



The store-houses, workshops, and studies of zoolog) 

 Jardin des Plantes, Paris, have been recently removed to 

 and most commodious building in the rue Buffon, when 

 is ample space for scientific work of every kind. Plar 

 likewise been made for the erection of a large new bull 

 front of the " Galerie," in order to give more space 

 exhibition of the general collection of zoology. 



Russian newspapers announce the death of M. Chekai 

 who, exiled in Siberia, has spent more than ten years 



