96 



NATURE 



TSeptember 24, 1914 



The production of amphibolites, rocks rich in horn- 

 blende, felspar, lime-jj;^arnet, etc., through the altera- 

 tion of limestone invaded by a granitic magma, 

 presents features of chemical as well as geological 

 interest. A notable addition to the work done in 

 France, Canada, and elsewhere is made by 

 P. P. Sustschinsky {Trav. Soc. imp. Naturalistes St. 

 Petersboitrg, vol. xxxvi., livr. v.), who illustrates a 

 number of examples of contact-alteration from south- 

 west Finland. A German summary is provided. 



The memoir of the Geological Survey of England 

 and Wales on the geology of the northern part of 

 the Derbyshire coalfield (price 3s.), by W. Gibson, 

 C. B. Wedd, G. W. Lamplugh, and others, will be of 

 interest to many besides professed geologists. The area 

 includes Matlock and the famous Creswell Caves, rich 

 in Pleistocene mammalia, and excellent photographs are 

 given of this land of limestone crags. L. Moysey 

 contributes classified lists of Coal-Measure fossils, 

 occupying twenty-two pages, which will be of service 

 to workers throughout central England. 



The stratigraphy of New Zealand has been so re- 

 tarded, and, it may be added, confused, by the 

 imperfection of the palaeontological data, that we 

 welcome the Palaeontological Bulletin No. i, issued 

 by the New Zealand Geological Survey. In this 

 quarto memoir, J. A. Thomson brings together 

 materials for the palaeontology of New Zealand, in- 

 cluding a list, with references, of all the known pre- 

 Cretaceous fossil species of the country. Plates that 

 have been long in stock are now issued with this 

 publication. We note what is perhaps an appeal to a 

 new group of helpers in national scientific work in the 

 addition of Maori names for the islands, and for New 

 Zealand itself, in the two topographical maps that 

 are so well provided. 



So much interest has been attracted to the antarctic 

 regions that it may be well to mention a paper pub- 

 lished in the Cairo Scientific Journal, vol. viii. (1914), 

 p. 77, by H. T. Ferrar, who accompanied the 

 Discovery in 190 1. The summary of geological con- 

 clusions indicates the occurrence of both "Atlantic" 

 and "Pacific" types of crust-structure in the antarctic 

 continent. The author urges that the shrinkage of 

 the glaciers is due to decreased precipitation on the 

 higher ground, and that the cause of this is "a 

 general lowering of the temperature of the polar 

 atmosphere." It must be remembered, on the other 

 hand, that ice-sheets may be nourished by small 

 annual precipitation, provided that the conditions are 

 cold enough to reduce the loss by evaporation and 

 ablation. ^Geographers may overlook this paper in 

 an Egyptian journal, and may also be glad of a 

 reference to a description by W. Bellows, accom- 

 panied by a good panoramic photograph, of the rarely 

 seen arctic island of Jan Mayen. This appeared in 

 the Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field 

 Club, vol. xvii., p. 333. 



Within less than a year seismology has lost two 



of its leading students. Prof. Milne died on July 31, 



1913, and Prof. G. Mercalli, through fire in his house 



at Naples, on March 19, 19x4. Born on May 21, 



NO. 2343, VOL. 94] 



1S50, and therefore only a few months older than 

 Milne, Mercalli's attention was concentrated at an 

 early age on the study of volcanoes and earthquakes. 

 His first important work was that on the "Vulcani e 

 fenomeni vulcanici in Italia" (1883), which formed 

 the third part of the " Geologia d'ltalia" by G. Negri, 

 A. Stoppani, and G. Mercalli. In partnership with 

 Prof. T. Taramelli, who contributed the geological 

 parts of the reports, he studied the Andalusian earth- 

 quake of 1884 and the Riviera (Ligurian) earthquake 

 of 1887. In 1902, he proposed the modification of the 

 Rossi-Forel scale of seismic intensity which now bears 

 his name, and is widely, almost universally, 

 used throughout Italy. As a seismologist, Mercalli 

 will perhaps be remembered chiefly for his contribu- 

 tions to the physiographic side of his science. He 

 prepared a general catalogue of Italian earthquakes 

 from 225 B.C. to A.D. 1859, ^nd the generosity of his 

 disposition is shown by the help which he gave to Dr. 

 Baratta in the work by which this catalogue has now 

 been superseded. One of his earliest detailed studies 

 of earthquakes was that on the destructive Ischian 

 earthquake of 1883; and he has since (1897) published 

 important memoirs on the earthquakes of Liguria 

 and Calabria. Few, if any, of the Italian volcanoes 

 have escaped the attention of Mercalli, but to the 

 Vesuvian phenomena he devoted unremitting study 

 for a period of about twenty years. An admirable 

 summary of his scientific work by Dr. E. Oddone 

 appears in the last Bollettino of the Italian Seismo- 

 logical Society (vol. xvii., pp. 245-262). 



In view of the unfortunate interruption to the useful 

 work of the international exploration of the upper air, 

 owing to the war now raging over Europe, it is satis- 

 factory to note that there are several stations in the 

 British Isles at which such observations are regularly 

 made. The annual supplement of the Geophysical 

 Journal, 1912, recently published by the Meteorological 

 Office, contains a summary of the records of register- 

 ing balloon ascents at six stations, and additional data 

 not included in the monthly issues. The results of 

 fifty-two successful ascents were published during the 

 year in question, and it is stated that there was 

 scarcely a single failure in obtaining a trustworthy 

 record up to at least 10 km., but that the year was an 

 unfortunate one in the matter of finding the balloons. 

 The more salient features of each ascent are brought 

 together in one table and expressed in international 

 units, from which, among other interesting results, 

 it is seen that the mean height of the base of the 

 stratosphere was 10 km., and the corresponding tem- 

 perature 2185° A. (273° A.=o° C); temperature at 

 the mean maximum height reached (14-7 km.) 221°; 

 mean temperature of the air column between i and 

 9 km., 251-8° It should be noted that most of the 

 ascents were made in the summer season. Out of the 

 falling points of the balloons there were twenty-two 

 in the S.E. and fourteen in the S.W. quadrant; the 

 preponderance of falls in the former quadrant agrees 

 with continental observations. 



In the Memoirs of the Indian Meteorological De- 

 partment (vol. xxi., part ix.), Dr. G. T. Walker pub- 

 lishes a short note on the criterion for the reality of 



