June lo, 1875] 



NATURE 



103 



sidered as contributions to a scientific inquiry into the 

 climate of these islands. 



The Council of the Scottish Meteorological Society, in a 

 report dated 3rd July, 1872, drew attention to the positions 

 of the thermometers, particularly those at Aberdeen which 

 are forty-one feet above the ground and surrounded with 

 buildings ; giving it as their opinion that " observations so 

 made were not comparable with each other, nor with other 

 observations." * The publication since, by the Committee, 

 of the hourly readings, enables us to examine the point 

 from the observations themselves. One of the best marked 

 phases of the daily temperature, as well as one of the 

 most important, both for scientific and practical purposes 

 is the increase which takes place from 9 A.M. to 

 3 P.^r. At Kew the mean increase between these two 

 hours for January and February 1874 was 4°-8, and 

 for June and July 6°7— the greater increase in the 

 summer months being in accordance with the climatic 

 facts. But at Aberdeen the thermometers indicated 

 between the same hours a mean increase of 3°- 7 for 

 January and February, and i°-8 for June and'July ; thus, 

 instead of being larger in summer, the recorded^difference 

 was only half that recorded jn winter. It is needless 

 to remark that these results for Aberdeen cannot re- 

 present the temperature of this part of her Majesty's 

 dominions, and that for the supplying of data for tem- 

 perature " constants " for that part of North Britain, the 

 observations made there are worse than useless. The 

 arrangements for the thermometers at the seven Observa- 

 tories, both as regards height above the ground, and 

 exposure, call for reorganisation. 



In Part I. of the Quarterly Weather Report for 1870 

 (App. pp. 8-10) appears a valuable Table of the mean 

 monthly readings of the barometer at the Committee's 

 telegraphic stations. If we were sure that the method 

 of annual inspection of these stations is a sound one, 

 the results for Holyhead might suggest an inquiry into 

 the influence of the sea on the state of the barometer. 

 The position of the rain-gauges above the ground at 

 these stations, which varies from five inches to 23 feet 

 (Q. W. Report for 1873, Part III., p. 44), calls also for 

 revision. 



In all the Reports issued by the Office it will be ob- 

 served that no monthly mean temperatures for the tele- 

 graphic stations have yet been published by the Com- 

 mittee. With reference to these stations, Mr. Symons, 

 in December 1869, remarked: "Various facts brought 

 under our notice convince us that more remains to be 

 done than has yet been effected, and that in many 

 respects these stations [telegraphic] are unworthy of the 

 nation of which they are to a certain extent representa- 

 tive."! We have no means of knowing how far matters 

 have been rectified. It may therefore be doubted, if the 

 Office were asked to furnish meteorological information 

 for the use of the Registrar-General, whether they possess 

 in their own stations the means of supplying it. 



We deeply regret the position we have been forced to 

 assume in reviewing the work of the Meteorological 

 Office, but our duty as public journalists leaves us no 

 choice in drawing attention to the work done in return 

 for the annual grant by Parliament of 10,000/. 



* Journal Scot. Met. Soc-, vol. iii. p. 290. 

 t Meteorological Magazitte, vol. iv. p. 177. 



ARCTIC GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY 

 A Selection 0/ Papers on Arctic Geography and Ethno- 

 Itgy, reprinted and presented to the Arctic Expedition 

 of 1875, bv the President, Council, and Fellows of the 

 Royal Geographical Society. (London : John Murray 

 1875.) 



VXTHILE in absolute value the Admiralty Arctic 

 V V Manual must be regarded as considerably supe- 

 rior to the one before us, still the latter contains a 

 great deal of matter interesting in itself and of high 

 value as adding to our knowledge of the Arctic regions. 

 The Geographical Society deserves thanks for the present 

 it has made to the Arctic Expedition, and we have no 

 doubt that the explorers will find the Selection of real 

 service in enabling them to add to our knowledge in the 

 directions pointed out therein. The editing of the work 

 has been well done by Mr. Clements R. Markham. 



The papers in the Geographical Society's " Collection " 

 are arranged under the two main divisions of Geography 

 and Ethnology, although under the former there is much 

 that might be more properly classed under the head of 

 Geology. The first series of papers in the geographical 

 section, occupying about one-half of the space allotted to 

 that section, and about one-fourth of the entire volume, 

 is by Dr. Robert Brown. These papers consist mostly of 

 reprints and condensations of papers by Dr. Brown, which 

 have already appeared in various scientific publications. 

 It seems to us that the value of these papers would have 

 been much enhanced had the author carried condensation 

 much further than he has done. Dr. Brown's style is 

 often painfully slipshod ; he frequently indulges in a great 

 waste of words with inadequate result, and it would only 

 have been courteous to those for whose behoof this com- 

 pilation was made to have revised his papers most 

 thoroughly, stating all the facts as briefly and clearly as 

 possible. 



It is unnecessary to enter here in detail into the subjects 

 treated of by Dr. Brown, especially as most of the geolo- 

 gical facts have recently been given in Nature in the 

 series of papers by Mr. De Ranee (vol. xi. p. 447, et seq.) 

 After describing all that is at present known of the 

 Greenland coast-line, both east and west, Dr. Brown 

 gives a brief account of the few journeys that have 

 been attempted into the interior of Greenland. The 

 country has never hitherto been crossed ; if judiciously 

 gone about the feat might very possibly be accom- 

 plished. He beUeves Greenland to be "only a circlet 

 of islands separated from one another by deep fjords 

 or straits, and bound together on the landward side 

 by the great ice-covering which overlies the whole 

 interior, and which is pouring its outflow into the sea in 

 the shape of glaciers and icebergs." The general opinion 

 undoubtedly is, as one of the greatest glacial authorities, 

 Mr. James Geikie, puts it, that " the whole interior of the 

 country would appear to be buried underneath a great 

 depth of snow and ice, which levels up the valleys and 

 sweeps over the hills," though Dr. Brown believes there 

 are no mountains of any extent in the interior. The 

 statement of Dr. Rink, in his paper, reprinted here, " On 

 the Discoveries of Dr. E. K. Kane," seems to us, how- 

 ever, to be more philosophical. " The reality is," Dr. 

 Rink says, " that wherever one attempts to proceed up 



