254 



NATURE 



[October 20, 192 1 



into the ston' of this and other towns that have now 

 vanished from the south and east coasts of Holderness. 



The Jahrbuch des Norwegischen Meteorologischen 

 Instituts for 1920 has been issued. As usual, it gives 

 detailed data from Aas and Kristiania, a summary of 

 the daily data from twelve important stations, and 

 monthly means for some 70 stations. The volume 

 also contains data from the Norwegian meteoro- 

 logical station at Green Harbour, Spitsbergen, includ- 

 ing monthly means for 1919, and the daily records 

 from July, 1919, to June, 1920. The Norwegian rain- 

 fall statistics for 1920 are published in " Nedboriakt- 

 tagelser i Norge," and include data from 485 stations. 

 A large-scale rainfall map of Norway is included. 



Some notes on the "rollers " of Ascension and St. 

 Helena are given on the Meteorological Chart of the 

 East Indian Seas for November. As is well known, 

 the leeward shores of these islands frequently expe- 

 rience a heavy swell from the north-west, which, 

 setting in without any warning, produces a heavy 

 surf. At other times, but less frequently, the swell 

 is from the south-west. During the continuance of 

 these rollers, which are heaviest during January and 

 Februar)-, landing is difficult and hazardous. Re- 

 cords for St. Helena show that rollers prevail on 

 about twenty-five days, and heavy swell on rather 

 more than twice as many days in the year. The 

 cause of this phenomenon is not thoroughly under- 

 stood, but it is supposed to be due to distant gales 

 of wind, either in the North or South Atlantic, blow- 

 ing in the direction of the islands. This explanation 

 appears to suit the facts, but further investigations 

 are required. It is probable that the heavy swell on 

 the Gold Coast has a similar origin. 



Col. Sir S. G. Burrard's discussions of gravity 

 anomalies in northern India and of the relation of 

 the Himalayas to the Gangetic trough have been 

 quoted in Nature (vol. 97, p. 391, 19 16, and vol. 103, 

 p. 351, 1919). His review of the evidence in favour 

 of the theory of isostasy appeared in the Journal of 

 the Royal Geographical Society for July, 1920. In 

 1917 Mr. R. D. Oldham published his important 

 memoir on "The Structure of the Himalayas and the 

 Gangetic Plain " (Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. 42, 

 pt. 2), in which he laid stress on the mass of com- 

 paratively light sediment in the great trough stretching 

 southward from the mountains. Lt.-Col. H. McC. 

 , Cowie (Survey of India, Prot. Paper 18, 192 1) now 

 puts forward "A Criticism of Mr. R. D. Oldham's 

 Memoir," in which he reviews the whole series of 

 gravity anomalies in the region as at present known, 

 and concludes that a deficiency of mass, widespread 

 throughout the Gangetic area, is insufficient to explain 

 the "very rapid fall, in a northerly sense, in the 

 value of the residual between Dehra Dun and Kaliana, 

 Birond and Bansgopal, Siliguri and Jalpaiguri." The 

 observed pendulum deflections at thfse and a number 

 of other stations, and those deduced by taking into 

 consideration a Gangetic trough in addition to surface 

 masses, are given in Table VIII. Two series of 



NO. 2712, VOL. 108] 



residuals are obtained by subtracting from the ob- 

 served deflections, first, the calculated deflections pro- 

 duced by the surface-features and their compensation, 

 and, secondly, these deflections as modified by a trough 

 of the dimensions given by Mr. Oldham. Lt.-Col. 

 Cowie finds so little difference between the resulting 

 quantities that the characteristic anomaly on the 

 Himalayan edge remains for him a problem awaiting 

 solution. The large contoured map on the scale of 

 I : 3,000,000 accompanying his paper includes the 

 whole "Himalayan-Tibetan mass," and has many 

 obvious uses. Kaliana is given on it as Kaliana. 



The October issue of the Philosophical Magazine 

 contains a paper on "Escapements and Quanta," 

 which Sir Joseph Larmor communicated to the 

 British Association at Edinburgh, and in which he 

 suggests that the atom may be analogous to a clock. 

 The outer electron system of the atom, on which its 

 chemical and spectroscopic properties depend, and 

 which, has certain definite rates of oscillation, would 

 correspond to the pendulum, or better, to a com- 

 pound pendular system of a clock, and the inner core 

 of the atom to the spring which, by means of the 

 escapement, slowly imparts its energy to the pendu- 

 lum in quanta fashion. Dynamical systems of this 

 type are worth introducing into our theories of atomic 

 constitution, and will, Sir Joseph thinks, well repay 

 investigation. 



The Societe Genevoise d'Instruments de Physique 

 send us an account of their new "universal micro- 

 scope for mineralogical researches," intended for re- 

 search work on the optical characters of microscopic 

 crystals in thin sections of rocks. It can be arranged 

 either so as to have the objective rigidly attached to 

 the rotating stage in the manner devised by Nachet, 

 or with the objective stationary while the stage 

 rotates, and the Fedorov or theodolite stage can then 

 be emploved. There is apparently no mechanism for 

 the simultaneous rotation of the Nicols. The stage 

 can be lowered for use with objectives of long focal 

 length— a circumstance which will be very useful in 

 many cases. Another unusual feature is the use of 

 adjustable adapters which remain fixed to the objec- 

 tives. By means of these the small differences 

 of centring between different objectives may be 

 eliminated. A similar arrangement has been employed 

 in this country. 



The concluding remarks of the chairman, Mr. P. 

 Raghavendra Rao, of the Board of Scientific Advice 

 —to use its new name— at the Mysore Economic Con- 

 ference held at Bangalore in June, dealt with the 

 activities of the Board during the preceding year. The 

 Government has been approached with the view of in- 

 ducing it to instal plant for the production of sulphuric 

 acid at the Bhadravati Iron Works. It is pointed out 

 that as charcoal is the chief fuel used, it would be of 

 considerable economic advantage if the grey acetate 

 of lime, which is obtained from the acetic acid formed 

 during production of charcoal, could be converted into 

 glacial acetic acid on the spot. The Board has also 

 considered the question of the manufacture of tannin 



