February io, 191 6] 



NATURE 



657 



The State Geological Survey of Connecticut, U.S.A., | 

 has published a useful illustrated summary of the j 

 fossils of the well-known Triassic formation of the 

 Connecticut Valley, by Prof. R. S. Lull, of Yale 

 University. It is now generally agreed that the rocks 

 themselves are deposits formea on continental land, \ 

 either in lakes or streams, or accumulated by winds, "^ 

 and their chief interest consists in the large areas 

 covered with the well-preserved footprints of reptiles 

 and other animals. Prof. Lull devotes attention 

 chiefly to the footprints and to a discussion of the few 

 reptiles already known from the same formation which 

 may have made some of them. The large majority of 

 the footprints are evidently those of dinosaurs, but a 

 few are more satisfactorily ascribed to primitive 

 crocodilians. 



We have received from the Peabody Museum of Yaln 

 University reprints of four papers by Prof. R. S. Lull 

 on the distribution of dinosaurian and mammalian 

 remains in the Cretaceous formations of Wyoming, 

 and on the skeleton of a Pleistocene ground sloth, 

 Mylodon harlaui, from Rock Creek, Texas. With the 

 Mylodon were found a nearly complete skeleton of the 

 extinct horse, Eqtius scptti, and remains of a new 

 species of horse, which are described in another paper 

 by Mr. E. L. Troxell. The Cretaceous and Tertiary 

 remains of birds in the Marsh collection in the Pea- 

 body Museum are catalog^ued and described by Dr. 

 R. W. Shufeldt in a paper reprinted from the Trans- 

 actions of the Connecticut Academy (February, 1915). 

 The fossil cycads in the same collection are still being 

 studied by Dr. G. R. Wieland, with valuable results; 

 and the Palaeozoic fossils are dealt with by the director 

 of the Palaeontological Laboratory, Prof. Charles 

 Schuchert, who is to be cong-ratulated on the activity 

 which the Yale school continues to display. 



The unusual size of the science reports of the 

 Tdhoku Imperial University, Sendai, Japan, is partly , 

 atoned for by the beauty of their photographic 

 illustrations. In No. i of vol. iii. (1915). 

 Hikoshichird Matsumoto describes " Some fossil 

 mammals from Sze-chuan, China," and introduces us 

 for the first time to the contemporaries of Stegodon 

 in China. This Late Pliocene fauna resembles that 

 of India and Java, a new genus, Proboselaphus, 

 representing the Boselaphus of the latter. H. Yabe 

 contributes three papers to No. i, vol. v (1915), the 

 first of which, written in English, should be read in 

 connection with Suess's conclusions as to the tectonics 

 of south-western Japan. The third paper, in German, 

 discusses the genus Halysites. The author, in the 

 classification of the forms of this problematic coral, 

 lays stress on the absence, presence, and stage of 

 development of connecting tubes between the coral- 

 lites, and illustrates this point in photomicrographs 

 of cross-sections of the species. 



The February issue of the Monthly Meteorological 

 Charts of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 

 issued by the authority of the Meteorological Com- 

 mittee, includes an instructive graphic summary of the 

 results of the exploration of the atmosphere and of 

 highest flights of kites, aeroplanes, and balloons. It 

 NO. 2415, VOL. 96] 



shows that the greatest height reached by a ballon 

 sonde was some 22 miles, where an absolute tempera- 

 ture of 221° was recorded. The average height 

 reached by ballons sondes is about 10 miles. The 

 highest ascent of a manned balloon was made in 

 Berlin in 190 1, when a height of more than 10 kilo- 

 metres was reached, and a temperature of 231° abso- 

 lute was registered. It is noted on the diagram that 

 above 10 kilometres no clouds occur, and that from 

 this height to about 37 kilometres the temperature is 

 almost the same. Above a height of two kilometres 

 the temperature is, on the average, below the freezing 

 point of water. Above a height of nine kilometres 

 mercury freezes, and at about seven kilometres the 

 average temperature is equal to the lowest ever re- 

 corded in the British Isles. The illustration shows 

 also the heights of certain mountains and the tem- 

 peratures recorded at their summits, and the general 

 levels at which the chief types of cloud occur. 



In the annual number of the Journal of the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society Dr. A. Crichton Mitchell gives 

 a summary of some important investigations carried 

 out by Dr. G. W. Walker, the head of the Indian 

 Meteorological Department. In his search for trust- 

 worthy factors upon which might be based a possible 

 forecast of the Indian monsoon rains, Dr. Walker 

 has subjected the suggestions of various authorities 

 to critical statistical analysis. He finds that a definite 

 relationship involving a variation in the opposite direc- 

 tion exists between the Indian monsoon rainfall and 

 the snow accumulation on the Himalayas, the pressure 

 at Mauritius, and the rainfall at Zanzibar respectively. 

 Further, a distinct relationship involving a variation 

 in the same direction exists between the Indian mon- 

 soon rainfall and the pressure in the Argentine, and a 

 less definite relationship of the same kind between 

 the monsoon rains and the previous year's pressure in 

 India. Dr. Walker shows how the various factors 

 may be combined in an equation from which the 

 variation from normal of the monsoon rainfall may 

 be calculated, but the results so far obtained, while 

 distinctly encouraging, point to the existence either of 

 errors in the available data or of factors yet unknown. 

 An interesting point is the demonstrated absence of 

 any definite relationship between the Indian monsoon 

 rainfall and the Indian temperature' in May of the same 

 year. If, as is generally held, the Indian monsoon 

 is largely caused by the prevailing high temperature 

 over the low grounds of India itself, one would expect 

 that a year of high temperature would be also a year 

 of high monsoon rainfall. Dr. Walker suggests that 

 the absence of any relationship of the kind may be 

 due to our ignorance of the effect of solar radiation 

 upon the upper layers of the atmosphere, and that a 

 high rainfall may possibly be connected with excessive 

 heating of the upper rather than of the lower air. 



The opening of the Upper Jhelum Canal in the 

 Punjab on December 9 last marks the concluding stage 

 of a series of engineering operations which have ex- 

 tended over a period of ten years, and involved an 

 expenditure of nearly 3,000,000/. It is the last instal- 

 ment of the triple canal srhfnu*. which, in its turn, 



