xxx. 



fhs Review of Reviews, 



February, 



1913- 



PROFESSOR T. BBGBAVOR.TH DAVID, 



President of the Science Congriess. 



the rainfall figures for years, and that sliould 

 such be discovered it will have to vary its applica- 

 tion and period to suit different parts of Australia. 

 "Our history," Mr. Hunt affirms, "proves that 

 we have nothing to fear for the future. Australian 

 droughts are not as bad as they have been pictured. 

 Our losses and disasters have been more largely due 

 to ignorance of the country's climatic peculiarities 

 and unpreparedness for normal dry spell's. These 

 difficulties are gradually being overcome. Our pros- 

 perity is due more to the foreign demand for our 

 prime commodities, our improved methods of pro- 

 duction, and improved transit facilities by rail and 

 sea for getting perishable products to the markets 

 of the world, than from the vagaries of rainfall. 

 Xo kind of a cycle has yet been found to apply 

 generally to Australia." 



Cinderella of 

 the Sciences, 



The address of Professor David as 

 president of the Australasian Sci- 

 ence Congress, which sat in Mel- 

 bourne early in the month, was 

 largely a plea for the development of the science of 

 meteorology, which, he said, instead of remaining 



the Cinderella of the sciences, bade fair to become 

 a princess in the near future. He urged that steps 

 should be taken to establish at least a few obser\ing 

 stations in the heart of the Australian meteorological 

 desert lying between Mullagine, in West Australia, 

 and the MacDonell Ranges. Next there was the 

 question of investigating the upper atmosphere by 

 means of kites and small balloons carrying detach- 

 able self -registering instruments. Further, a proposal 

 had been made by Mr. Hunt that a competent offi- 

 cer be appointed to visit all Au,stralian Universities 

 in turn, spending about one term at each of the six 

 Universities of the Commonwealth. This scheme for 

 providing a peripatetic profes.sor of meteorology, 

 who could be supplied at a minimum cost to the 

 Universities, has already been warmlv approved of- by 

 the Universities. Then there was the important paper 

 dealing with the ocean currents around Australia, 

 as to whether our legislators would some day be im- 

 pressed with the necessity for a complete survey of 

 the coast. The question would have to be seriously 

 considered whether a permanent wireless meteor- 

 ological station should not be established at Mac-' 

 quarie Island, or some other suitable sub-Antarctic 

 island, as already advocated. That would be a 

 stepping-stone towards eventually establishing a 

 meteorological station in Antarctica. 



Pr<.>fessor David painted an allur- 



!f Antarctica ing' picture of what might happen 



Should Dissolve, should Antarctica di.ssolve. " While 



indirectly we probably owe some of 

 our rainfall to Antarctica, we have less, perhaps, to 

 thank her for in the way of the icebergs which she 

 casually launches into the Southern Ocean ; but after 

 all the danger to shipping from these bergs is com- 

 paratively small. Nevertheless the increased rain- 

 fall which Antarctica probablv gives us through 

 the vigorous stirring it imparts to the earth's atmo- 

 sphere enormously outweighs the small disadvantage 

 of icebergs." But if instead of completely founder- 

 ing, Antarctica should dissolve into an archipelago of 

 low-lying islands, what then? According to Pro- 

 fessor David, our summer temperature would be 

 higher than that of Greenland and Grant Land, and 

 like them, the ^\ntarctica islands would be clothed 

 with hardy forms of plants, among which numerous 

 flowers and mosses, as well as trees like the South 

 American tagus, would be included. " With the 

 advent of ^■egetation the islands would Ifi^ome 

 herbivores, and if later they became reunhcd to 

 South America there is no reason why the lama and, 



