756 



NATURE 



[August ii, 192 i 



and hopes to reach the north-western corner of Spits- 

 bergen. The aeroplane will carry four men and fuel 

 for a fifty hours' flight. If conditions permit, several 

 landings will be made on the polar ice, but if this 

 proves impossible the 1800-mile flight will be made 

 without descent. From Spitsbergen Mr. Naulty pro- 

 poses to continue his flight via Norway to London. 

 Provided clear weather is experienced, it will be pos- 

 sible to make valuable observations on the distribu- 

 tion of ice and air-currents. The flight may throw 

 some light on the doubtful existence of land in the 

 eastern part of the Beaufort Sea. 



A TRADING expedition to Siberia via the Kara Sea 

 is on the point of leaving Europe. Two cargo-boats 

 from Liverpool, two from Hamburg, and one from 

 Goteborg are to meet at the Russian port of Mur- 

 mansk, where they will be joined by the ice-breaker 

 Alexandria from Leith. The expedition is carrying 

 about 11,000 tons of cargo, most of which is destined 

 to enter Siberia via the Yenisei River. This route to 

 Siberia has been used from a very early date, but for 

 a long time fell into disrepute owing to the ditticul- 

 ties presented by ice in the Kara Sea. These difficul- 

 ties, however, have been exaggerated, and for some 

 years past one or more vessels have made the passage 

 every summer in August or September. The expedi- 

 tion is being organised by the All-Russian Co-opera- 

 tive Society, Ltd., London. 



A PROGRAMME has been issued of the autumn meet- 

 ing of the Institute of Metals to be held at Birming- 

 ham under the presidency of Eng. Vice-Admiral Sir 

 George Goodwin on September 21-23. There will be 

 a general meeting on the morning of September 21 

 in the hall of the Municipal Technical School, at 

 which the Lord Mayor of Birmingham will deliver 

 an address of welcome. The remainder of the morn- 

 ing and the whole of the morning session of Sep- 

 tember 22 will be devoted to papers dealing with the 

 constitution and properties of various metals and 

 alloys, and, so far as time permits, each paper will 

 be followed by a brief discussion. In addition to the 

 formal meetings, there will be excursions to various 

 works in or near Birmingham, and on the afternoon 

 of Wednesday, September 21, a visit will be paid to 

 the University of Birmingham. The guests will be 

 received by the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Gilbert Barling, 

 Bart., and an address delivered by the Principal, Mr. 

 C. Grant Robertson. Full details of hotel accom- 

 modation, railway arrangements, etc., are given in 

 the programme, which can be obtained from the 

 Secretary, the Institute of Metals, 36 Victoria Street, 

 S.W.I. 



After seven years' cessation (the result of the war) 

 the excavations at the Meare Lake Village, near 

 Glastonbury (Shapwick and Meare are the nearest 

 railway stations), will be resumed by the Somerset- 

 shire Archaeological and Natural History Society on 

 August 29, and continued for three weeks (exclusive 

 of the filling-in). The work will be under the direc- 

 tion of Dr. Arthur Bulleid and Mr. H. St. George 

 Gray, who have worked in double-harness at the lake 

 villages for a number of years. The antiquities dis- 



NO. 2702, VOL. 107] 



covered in past years at Meare are exhibited in the 

 Somerset County Museum at the society's head- 

 quarters, Taunton Castle, while those from the 

 Glastonbury Lake Village (described in two royal 

 quarto volumes) are to be seen, for the most part, 

 in the museum at Glastonbury. There is a good deal 

 of expense attaching to this work besides the labour 

 of about eight men ; the money in hand is quite in- 

 sulTicient for the work contemplated, and donations 

 will gladly be received by Mr. St. George Gray at the 

 Somerset County Museum, Taunton. 



July was exceptionally warm and dry in many 

 parts of England. The Greenwich Observatory 

 records, using the civil-day values published in the 

 Registrar-General's weekly returns, give 685° F. as 

 the mean temperature for the month ; the mean maxi- 

 mum was 81-5° and the mean minimum 555°. In 

 the last eighty years, since 1841, July has been warmer 

 only in two years, 1859 with the mean 695° and 

 1868 with the mean 689°, and in both 1852 and 191 1 

 the mean temperature exceeded 68°. In July this 

 year there were four days with the shade temperature 

 90° or above ; the highest temperature was 94° on 

 July II. In 1868 there were six days in July with 

 the shade temperature 90° or above, and July, 1881 

 and 1900, each had four days with 90° or above. 

 The highest temperature on record in July at Green- 

 wich is 97- 1 ° in 1 88 1. There were four days in July 

 this year with the temperature in the sun's rays 150° 

 or above. The total rainfall at Greenwich for the 

 month which has just closed was 015 in., which is 

 the smallest July measurement for nearly a hundred 

 years ; the only July with a smaller total was in 1825, 

 when the amount was 010 in. The only other years 

 with the July rainfall less than ^ in. are 1835, 1864, 

 1878, 1906, and 191 1. The rainfall has been less than 

 the normal in each of the last twelve months from 

 August, 1920, to July, 192 1, with the exception of 

 September, 1920. In the twelve months the total 

 rainfall at Greenwich is 1498 in., which is 9-43 in. 

 less than the average for the last hundred years, and 

 only 61 per cent, of the normal. The Times for 

 August 5 gives a communication from its weather 

 correspondent, " Driest Twelve Months." It mentions 

 that in the east and south-east of England many 

 places besides London had less than 025 in. of rain 

 in July, whilst the measurements in some of the 

 western districts were well above the normal. The 

 smallest rainfall for the twelve months is 11 in. at 

 Howden, Yorkshire, and this is stated as quite with- 

 out precedent in the United Kingdom, so far as can 

 be seen at present. At Yarmouth the rainfall for the 

 twelve months was 128 in. ; at Benson, Oxon, 



131 in.; Cranwell, Lines, 137 in.; Kew, 150 in.; 

 and Croydon, 153 in. The lowest previous fall for 

 the corresponding period at Kew since 1866 is 1675 in. 

 in 1890-91. 



In the August issue of Man Major R. Burnett 

 describes a remarkable tribe in the neighbourhood of 

 Mosul, popularly known as "Slaveys," which possibly 

 represents the Bedouin Solibala, of which the Russian 

 writer Ponafidina gives an account in his " Life in the 

 Moslem East." The "Slaveys" are a desert tribe 



