December 23, 1920] 



NATURE 



527 



people of Derby for the provision of funds for 

 instruments and to the other members of the ex- 

 pedition for indisp>ensable assistance in maintain- 

 ing the records ; the author proceeds modestly to 

 disclaim ability or interest in statistical meteor- 

 olog-y ; nevertheless, the book abounds in means 

 and averages, frequency curves and Fourier co- 

 cflicients, correlations and probable errors, and 

 dispels, by its completeness, the suspicion en- 

 gendered by pp. vi and vii of the preface that 

 the author was approaching- his task under the 

 impression that the function of meteorology was 

 to "attempt" the questions of a Saturday morn- 

 ing problem paper rather than to record facts 

 and to set them in order for the information of 

 mankind. 



The observations on which the discussion is 

 based were made at the base stations Cape Evans 

 and Cape Adare, at Framheim (.Amundsen), and 

 for shorter periods at different places on the 

 Barrier and the plateau by the various parties. 

 '1 wo very instructive maps in the introductory 

 chapter show the surroundings of Cape Evans 

 and Cape .Adare, and indicate that the situation of 

 neither station was very good from the meteor- 

 nlogical point of view: an indication which is 

 supported by the records of wind. At Cape 

 Evans 43 per cent, of the winds were below ten 

 miles per hour, and the direction of the wind 

 bore so little relation to the general distribution 

 of pressure that on a large number of occasions 

 it appeared to be blowing out of the centre of 

 low pressure. .\t Cape .\dare, the northern ex- 

 tremity of a promontory twenty miles long, 72 

 per cent, of the winds were below five miles per 

 hour, whereas at a well-exposed station in the 

 British Isles only about 10 per cent, of the winds 

 come into this category ; and in a similar situa- 

 tion further west in the Antarctic Mawson found 

 an average wind speed for the year of fifty miles 

 per hour. 



The main discussion is divided into nine 

 chapters dealing with temperature, wind, cloud 

 ana precipitation, pressure and its relation to 

 winds and weather, general circulation, the upper 



lir, the height of the Barrier and the plateau, and 

 .itmospheric electricity. Each chapter contains 

 not merely a discussion of the results of the ob- 

 .servations and a rational explanation of the facts 

 revealed, but also some new contribution (such 

 as, for example, a study of the gustincss of the 

 wind) which was rendered possible only by the 

 tiew instruments and methods not previously 



ivaiiable in Antarctic work. 



The annual and diurnal variations of tempera- 

 ture are shown to be, on the whole, due to in- 

 solation, but two features present difficulty. There 

 NO. 2669, VOL. 106] 



is a diurnal variation of temperature during the 

 months when the sun is completely below the 

 horizon, and the "day" hours are, on the whole, 

 warmer than the " night " hours. No rational ex- 

 planation is given of this effect. The suggestion 

 that it arises from scattered radiation from the 

 upper layers of the atmosphere which come into 

 the sunshine during the "day" hours is not men- 

 tioned, and it appears to be excluded by the 

 fact that the effect is more marked on cloudy 

 than on clear days, and by the further fact that 

 on clear days there are two maxima at about 

 4 a.m. and 4 p.m., the time of minimum pressure 

 in the semi-diurnal barometer oscillation. The 

 unusual feature in the annual variation is roughly 

 this : on the Barrier the amplitude of the variation 

 is "oceanic" and the phase "continental," while 

 in the Arctic the amplitude is "continental" and 

 the phase "oceanic." The explanation put for- 

 ward is, roughly, that the continents of Asia and 

 .America control the amplitude in the .Arctic 

 Ocean, and the Antarctic Ocean controls the 

 amplitude on the Barrier; the argument is well 

 stated, but it is not entirely convincing. 



The records from the Dines pressure tube 

 anemometer, many of which are reproduced, add 

 greatly to the interest of the chapter on wind, 

 and, indeed, to that on temperature, too, by the 

 light they throw on blizzards and other sudden 

 changes. The winds at Cape Evans were found 

 to be about 50 per cent, more gusty than the 

 winds at Scilly and Holyhead ; but the gustiness 

 decreased as the speed of the wind increased, 

 indicating, according to Dr. Simpson, that the 

 high value was due, not to the exposure, but to the 

 interaction between a warm upper current and a 

 cold surface layer which are co-existent in the 

 Antarctic more frequently than in England. 



Fressure-waves travelling outwards from the 

 centre of the continent are Dr. Simpson's contribu- 

 tion to the explanation of the synoptic charts of 

 the Antarctic. He rejects Lockyer's scheme of 

 travelling cyclones, and pours scorn on the sug- 

 gestion that the motion of the air in a blizzard 

 is part of a very large cyclonic system. "A de- 

 pression with its centre in 60° S. able to produce 

 a blizzard of 40-60 miles per hour in 78° S. is of 

 course quite inconceivable. Whatever blizzards 

 may be due to, they arc certainly not part of the 

 circulation around a cyclone the centre of which 

 is more than 1000 miles away." He appears here 

 to be doing less than justice to Lockyer's scheme, 

 which may represent the broad features of the 

 pressure distribution, even although all the 

 cyclones do not .-idhcTo rigidly to the <>oth parallel 

 of latitude. 



The theory of pressure- waves will undoubtedly 



