Jan. 24, 1878] 



NA TURE 



249 



taken under the auspices of the university, and it is 

 not intended that it supersede, as regards this State, the 

 work of the central office at Washington (D.C), but to 

 supplement that work in collecting data for a more satis- 

 factory treatment of the climatology and storms of that 

 state. We strongly commend this scheme, and earnestly 

 hope that Prof. Nipher will succeed in extending his 

 network of stations till all parts of the state be adequately 

 represented, especially since telegraphic stations every- 

 where are by far too few to meet the requirements of 

 the more important and pressing problems of meteoro- 

 logy. We have the further satisfaction in learning that 

 a similar weather service is contemplated in the State of 

 Kentucky. 



High Temperature of November Last.— M. 

 Brounoff, of the St. Petersburg Physical Observatory, 

 publishes in the Russian Golos, December 10, an interest- 

 ing note as to the unusually high temperature of St. 

 Petersburg during November last. The mean tempera- 

 ture of that month was as high as 39°*4, or io°"3 higher 

 thzm the mean temperature deduced from ninety years' 

 observations, and 4°'9 above the very high mean tempera- 

 ture of November observed at St. Petersburg in 1851. 

 Throughout the month the thermometer never fell below 

 32°*o. It is worthy of notice that during all the other 

 months of this year the temperature was lower than the 

 means deduced from ninety years' observations. An 

 unusually high temperature prevailed in November over 

 nearly the whole of Europe and Western Siberia, except 

 North Scotland, Southern Italy, the middle Danube, and 

 the two shores of the Caspian. The highest above the 

 average, 1 5°7, was observed at Archangel, and the line 

 of9°'o runs from the Upper Volga to Stockholm, and 

 thence straight north. The proximate cause of such un- 

 usually high temperature was the abnormal predominance 

 of barometrical!minima with south-westerly winds, which 

 passed over Europe during November last. Thus, the 

 number of these minima in November has been forty-two 

 during the last five years, whereas there occurred thirteen 

 during November last, the one thus following the other 

 almost without interruption. 



Temperature of Vienna. — Among other points 

 treated in a recent paper by Dr. Hann to the Vienna 

 Academy, " On the Temperature of Vienna, according to 

 a Hundred Years' Observations," is the influence of the 

 frequency of sun-spots on the mean temperature of 

 summer, winter, and the year. Neither in the tempera- 

 tures arranged according to the separate cycles of sun- 

 spot frequency, nor in the averages of these from all the 

 nine cycles (1775 to 1876) is there recognisable a distinct 

 periodicity of the heat variations, which can be connected 

 with the period of sun-spot frequency. Placing in the 

 individual cycles the averages of every three years' tem- 

 peratures, corresponding to the minimum and maximum 

 of the spots, opposite each other, it is found that in five 

 cycles out of nine the minimum years have indeed a con- 

 siderably greater heat than the corresponding maximum 

 years. But in three cycles precisely the opposite is the 

 case, and in one cycle the difference is almost tiil. Dr. 

 Hann further inquires whether one may with any proba- 

 bility draw inferences from the temperature character of 

 one season with regard to that of the next, and the next 

 again. He finds that if the temperature-anomaly of one 

 season reach a considerable amount (a divergence of 1° C. 

 or upwards), the probability that the following season will 

 diverge in the same sense from the average value is o'68 ; 

 the probability that a very cold or warm winter will be 

 followed by a cold or hot summer respectively, is even 

 070. On the other hand, the probability of an agreement 

 of the temperature-anomaly of a winter with that of the 

 previous summer is only o'45. In his paper Dr. Hann 

 also gives a comparison of the temperatures of the 

 meteorological and astronomical observatories. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



Mr. Stanley. — Mr. Stanley arrived in London on 

 Tuesday. From the time that he emerged at Emboma 

 from his ever-memorable dash into the unknown region 

 west of Nyangwd to his arrival at Folkestone, his journey 

 homewards has been a well-earned ovation. Everyone, 

 from the Governor downwards, at the Cape vied in doing 

 him honour ; at Cairo the Khedive conferred upon him 

 two of the highest orders of merit ; at Rome he received 

 the Victor Emmanuel Gold Medal of Merit, arriving too 

 late, alas ! to receive it from the hands of its donor, 

 though it was accompanied by a sealed letter from the 

 late King, speaking in high terms of Mr. Stanley's dis- 

 coveries and his services to humanity and civilisation ; 

 Turin, Milan, and Naples sent welcomes to him ; at 

 Marseilles the Geographical Society, the Chamber of 

 Commerce, and the Municipality presented him each with 

 a medal ; at Paris the Geographical Society feted him in 

 splendid style, the President of the Republic sending his re- 

 presentative the Minister of Public Instruction presenting 

 him with the high honour of the palms of Officier de I'ln- 

 struction Publique, and the Piesident of the Geographical 

 Society telling him he should be gold medallist of the 

 Society for 1878. We expressed confidence last week 

 that our own Geographical Society would lead the move- 

 ment in this country for giving Mr. Stanley a reception 

 worthy of the great work he has achieved, and we rejoice 

 to see that our confidence has been justified. The Society 

 are to invite Mr. Stanley to dinner, and also to read a 

 paper on his discoveries, " at St. James's Hall or else- 

 where." We feel sure that St. James's Hall will be quite 

 inadequate for the accommodation of all who will wish to 

 see and listen to the story of one of the greatest of pioneer- 

 explorers ; so that, after all, the announcement made in 

 the Times last week, that the Albert Hall was to be taken 

 for the purpose, is likely enough to be correct. There 

 will certainly be no difficulty in filling it. Everyone will 

 wait with impatience the publication of Mr. Stanley's 

 work ; for although a fair idea of what he has done has 

 been obtained from his occasional letters in the Telegraphy 

 there must be many things to tell that could not be set 

 down in the circumstances under which these letters were 

 written. 



The Marquis Antinori. — From another telegram 

 received by the Geographical Society at Rome, it appears 

 that the Marquis Antinori, contrary to his first inten- 

 tion, does not return to Italy, but has started again with 

 his companions on a new tour southward from Shoa. 

 Signor Martini alone comes home with the scientific 

 collections. 



African Exploration. — Reports from Berlin state 

 that in the budget for the current year the sum of 100,000 

 marks (5,000/.) is asked for the continuation of the explo- 

 ration of Central Africa, This is considerably more 

 than in the preceding years ; the rise in the sum demanded 

 is justified by reference to the efforts of German private 

 societies and scientific men. 



The Northern Pamir. — The last number of the 

 Izvestia of the Russian Geographical Society contains 

 some new and valuable information on the little-known 

 tracts of the Northern Pamir, which have hitherto been 

 a blank on our best maps. This information has been 

 compiled from notes taken last summer by M. Koros- 

 tovtseff during his journey to the Alai Valley and the 

 Northern Pamir highlands. The valley of Alai, visited 

 first by M. Fedchenko, runs north-east and south-west for 

 forty-five miles, and is from thirteen to twenty miles wide. 

 It is inclosed between high mountains, the Kaupmann 

 Peak reaching 25,000 feet. Forests are found only in the 

 north-eastern part of the valley (11,000 feet above the 

 sea) which is part of the dominions of the Khan of Kash- 

 gar, while the south-western part (8,000 feet high), 



