194 



NA TURE 



\_y21ne 30, 1887 



the Irish land question. Experience has shown that the 

 dimate of a considerable portion of Ireland (especially in 

 the coa5t districts) is not sufficiently favourable to produce 

 crops which will permanently support the cultivator and 

 yield large rents to the owners of the soil. In such cases 

 the afforestation of surplus lands (that is to say, lands not 

 required for agricultural operations) might prove a useful 

 auxiliary in the solution of the Irish land question, by 

 providing additional work which would enable the small 

 cultivator to earn a day's wages whenever his presence 

 was not required on his holding. Instead of sitting idle 

 during a good portion of the winter, he could appreciably 

 augment his income (and capacity to pay rent), without 

 being obliged to leave his home in search of distant work 



However, we must return to Dr. Brown. Our author 

 has in the book under notice placed before the few who 

 may be interested in the question, a fair account of how 

 forest schools are arranged in Germany, the country 

 where forest science has attained its highest development. 

 The arrangement of studies at the several schools is 

 •given in considerable detail, and the book shows the 

 high standard of education of German forest officers. 

 Some of the schools are independent institutions situated 

 in or near extensive forests, while others form part of 

 Universities or technical Colleges. In the former case the 

 education takes generally a more practical turn, while 

 under the latter arrangement a higher standard of general 

 education is likely to be secured. Dr. Brown is in favour 

 of attaching the desired British forest school to a Uni- 

 versity or other similar educational establishment. In 

 our opinion the decision on this point should depend on 

 the class of men who;n it is desired to educate. The 

 ordinary foresters required by British landowners for 

 the management of their woodlands are men who could 

 not be enrolled as members of a University College ; and 

 their education must be of a more simple description, 

 with a strong practical tendency. But men who are to 

 join the general administration of India should attain a 

 high standard of education, and a forest school for their 

 benefit might well be attached to a University or to 

 a high-class College. Unless such men are fit to take 

 their proper place amongst the rest of the governing 

 staff of the country, they will not be able to do justice 

 to the work which will be intrusted to them on their 

 arrival in India. 



Both wants cannot be met by one set of men. The 

 employment of men who have merely had a practical 

 training might be disastrous to the Indian forests. On 

 the other hand, British landowners would decline to 

 receive men who, in consequence of a College edu- 

 cation, would be above the ordinary work of a British 

 forester, not to mention the fact that such men would 

 expect higher rates of pay than the owners of woodlands 

 would be willing to give them. In short, the course 

 of studies to be followed by each of these two classes 

 of men must be arranged on different lines. In either 

 case, however, a tract of well-managed woodlands 

 should be situated close to the seat of the school, To 

 do without such a training-ground would be equivalent 

 to training medical men without a hospital ready at 

 hand. On this point we are decidedly at issue with Dr. 

 Brown, who, in declaring such a school-forest unneces- 

 sary, has, in our opinion, only proved that he has failed 



to grasp the essential requirements of a forester's traini 

 At the sams time, the reader of Dr. Brown's books can 

 help wondering at the marvellous industry employed 

 the venerable author in the compilation of his vari 

 works on Continental forest schools. Such energy ; 

 devotion are deserving of a better reward than they 

 likely to meet with, owing to the apathy on forest qt 

 tions existing in this country. S\^ 



OBSER VA TIONS AT GOD THA A B. 

 Observations Internationales Polaires, 1882-83. "Ex 

 dition Danoise : Observations faites a Godthaab s 

 la direction de Adam Paulsen." (Copenhague, i88' 



THIS part of the publications of the Meteorolog 

 Institute of Denmark deals with the meteorologi 

 tidal, and other observations made in 1882-83 by 

 Danish Arctic Expedition at Godthaab (64° 11' N. 1; 

 51° 44' W. long.). The pages devoted to meteorol 

 present us with detailed tabular views of the hoi 

 observations of atmospheric pressure, temperature, ; 

 humidity, and the direction and velocity of the w 

 These are prefaced by an interesting and full discuss 

 of the atmospheric pressure (illustrated with 186 press 

 and wind charts of Greenland), which includes a valua 

 comparison of the observations of that year with thos( 

 all the stations since 1866. 



In summer the mean lowest temperature, 38°'2, occ 

 at 2 a.m. and the highest, 43°'l, at 2 p.m., the daily ra 

 being thus z^'^). On the other hand, the mean .d; 

 range of temperature is extremely small in winter, ow 

 to the proximity of Godthaab to the Arctic circle. Thus 

 highest and lowest hourly temperatures were respectiv 

 in December, iQ^'S at 10 a.m. and i8^"o at 10 p.m. ; 

 January, I5^'i at 5 p.m. and I4°"i at i a.m. : and 

 February 4° "4 at 6 p.m. and 3°7 at 3 p.m. Thus 

 February the mean warmest and coldest hour of the i 

 show a difference of only o°7, and are only three ho 

 apart from each other. Quite different is the amount 

 the daily range of temperature deduced from the maxi 

 and minima of the month ; in February the mean of 

 the highest was 9°"o and of the lowest o°"3, the differe: 

 being 8°7. In these months the changes of temperat 

 are but little influenced by the sun, being almost a' 

 gether occasioned by the passage of the cyclones i 

 anticyclones. It is this practical elimination of the in 

 ence of the sun which gives a peculiar value to 

 temperature and hygrometric observations of such < 

 tions when any serious attempt is made to assign to th 

 important elements the parts they play in the historj 

 storms. The mean annual temperature calculated fr 

 the twenty-four hourly observations is only about o 

 tenth of a degree lower than that from the daily maxi 

 and minima. In all the months the agreement is clo 

 the greatest difference being o°'5 in February 

 August ; and in seven of the months the differenc 

 not exceed o°'i. 



The results giving the variations in the hourly veT 

 of the wind are interesting as showing that such diur 

 variation as may exist will require a number of ye 

 observations to show it clearly, this periodicity bej 

 masked in an unusual degree by the high winds wl j 

 accompany the low-pressure systems of Greenland. 



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