November 26, 1914] 



NATURE 



349 



to vears since 1902. In an interesting discussion of 

 the' data in English and Spanish it is explained that 

 owing to the N.-S. extension of the archipelago and 

 to the main trend of the mountain ranges in the same 

 direction there is much variety in the distribution of 

 the rainfall which is quite opposite in some instances 

 in the eastern and western regions. The latter experi- 

 ence a dry winter and spring and a wet summer and 

 autumn, while in the eastern regions rain is prevalent 

 in autumn and winter. February-April are generally 

 the driest months over the whole archipelago, but as 

 soon as the sun reaches the northern hemisphere 

 thunderstorms and heavy showers become more fre- 

 quent. 



The average yearly rainfall over the whole area is 

 2400 mm., the extreme values being 900 mm. at Zam- 

 boanga (south-west Mindanao), and 4500 mm. at 

 Baguio (west-central Luzon). With some exceptions 

 the average for the northern, eastern, and western 

 coasts exceeds 2000 mm. ; it seldom reaches that 

 amount in the valleys, but attains to 2000-3000 mm. in 

 the highlands, and even reaches 4000 mm. in the 

 Baguio plateau at an altitude of 1400 metres. In parts 

 of the east and south-east coasts of Luzon, eastern 

 Samar, and north-east Mindanao, the average is above 

 3000 mm. There are no large, specially dry regions; 

 whenever a relative failure of rainfall occurs it is 

 generally felt throughout the whole archipelago. 



T 



NORTH AMERICAN FROGS AND TOADS. 



HE life-histories of North American frogs and 

 toads form the subject of a memoir entitled 

 ■ North American Anura — Life-histories of the 

 Anura of Ithaca, New^ York," by Mr. A. H. 

 Wright, just received from the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution of Washington. In the introduction to 

 this highly interesting and well-illustrated work 

 the author acknowledges his indebtedness to 

 F Boulenger's " Tailless Batrachians of Europe," pub- 

 ' lished by the Ray Society in 1897-98, which has given 

 the original impetus to and has been taken as the 

 model for his study. The region investigated is at 

 the southern end of Cayaga Lake, and most of the 

 observations were made in the vicinity of Ithaca, New 

 York. The number of Anurous Batrachians included 

 within these limits is small, and only three genera, 

 the widely distributed Bufo, Hyla, and Rana, are 

 represented. The species are the common toad, Bufo 

 lentiginosus americanus, the peeper, Hyla pickeringi, 

 the tree-toad, Hyla versicolor, the leopard- or meadow- 

 frog, Rana pipiens, the pickerel-frog, R. palustris, 

 the green-frog, R. clamata, the bull-frog, R. cates- 

 hiana, and the wood-frog, R. silvatica. 



The life-histories of these eight species are 

 very fully described, and are shown to corre- 

 spond fairly closely with those of their European 

 analogues, on which attention has been be- 

 stowed at a much earlier date. Copious notes 

 are given on their first appearance in spring, on their 

 mating, oviposition, and development. Following the 

 example given in the "Tailless Batrachians of 

 Europe," keys are supplied for the identification of 

 the eggs and of the tadpoles. It is to be regretted 

 that the spermatozoa have not been studied. Com- 

 pared with the European species the tadpole of R. 

 silvatica is shown to correspond with that of R. agilis, 

 R. pipiens and R. palustris with R. arvalis, R. 

 clamata and R. catesbiana with R. esculenta; B. 

 americanus approaches B. calamita, and H. versicolor 

 H. aborea; whilst H. pickeringi suggests Bufo in its 

 mouth-parts. Beautiful photographs from life repre- 

 sent specimens in nuptial embrace, the eggs, the tad- 

 poles at various stages of development, males in the 

 act of croaking, etc. 



NO. 2352, VOL. 94I 



PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY AT THE 

 BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



THE proceedings of Section A of the British Asso- 

 ciation in Australia included many interesting 

 papers, and some valuable discussions. The section 

 was fortunate in having a thoroughly representative 

 attendance of English physicists and astronomers, who 

 had made the journey overseas. Amongst those who 

 were present may be mentioned Sir Oliver J. Lodge, 

 Sir Ernest Rutherford, Prof. W. M. Hicks, Prof. A. 

 Gray, Prof. A. W. Porter, Prof. H. H. Turner, the 

 Astronomer Royal, Prof. E. W. Brown, Prof. J. C. 

 Fields, Prof. H. S. Carslaw, Prof. W. E. Cook, and 

 Dr. G. C. Simpson. Dr. C. G. Abbot and Prof. E. 

 Goldstein attended as foreign guests. The local 

 secretaries were Prof. Lyle at Melbourne, and Prof. 

 Pollock at Sydney. The president of the section. 

 Prof. F. T. Trouton, was prevented by illness from 

 making the journey, and his absence was greatly 

 regretted. His duties thus devolved upon the vice- 

 presidents, and Prof. Porter usually acted in his place 

 and bore the brunt of the work. Public interest in the 

 meetings was naturally affected adversely by the out- 

 break of w-ar, and the attendances at this section were 

 much smaller than has been usual of late years. This 

 was the more unfortunate, because comparatively few 

 papers of a purely specialised and technical character 

 were read, and except on one morning the section was 

 able to meet as a whole. 



The meetings opened on Friday, August 14, at 

 Melbourne, with the president's address, which was 

 read by Prof. Porter (see N.ature, August 20, vol. xciii., 

 p. 642). This was followed by the report of the 

 committee to aid the work of establishing a solar 

 observatory in Australia. Prof. Dulfield communi- 

 cated a letter that had been received from the 

 Commonwealth authorities in which it was stated 

 " that in the scheme for the organisation of services 

 in connection with the seat of Government at Can- 

 berra, provision has been made for the establishment 

 amongst general astronomical studies of a section to 

 be devoted to solar physics in particular." He also 

 announced that the Premier had consented to receive 

 a deputation from the British Association on the sub- 

 ject. (The deputation, led by Sir Oliver Lodge, waited 

 upon the Premier on the following Tuesday ; it was 

 introduced by Mr. Deakin. It was very favourably 

 received,, but in the unfortunate circumstances it was 

 felt to be impossible to press for any definite assur- 

 ances of immediate action.) In this connection a 

 paper on Mount Stromlo Observator}- was read by 

 Mr. P. Baracchi, director of Melbourne Observatory. 

 The paper dealt with the suitabilit)" of the climatic 

 conditions at Canberra for astronomical work. In 

 19 10 a position was selected about six miles from 

 Canberra, and a small observator\' was erected at 

 which observations were made in 1912-13. Evidence 

 was collected which showed that the site was favour- 

 able and suitable for the installation of a modern 

 observatory of the first class. 



Dr. C. G. Abbot, director of the Astrophysical 

 Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution, read a 

 paper on the variability of the sun. He said that 

 from experiments conducted simultaneously at Mount 

 Wilson, in California, and Bassour, in Algeria, it 

 was found that the intensity of solar radiation (out- 

 side the earth's atmosphere) varied through a range 

 of 10 per cent, on different days. The deviations were 

 observed at both stations, so that if, for example, high 

 values were obtained in California, high values were 

 obtained simultaneously in Algeria. The variability- 

 is irregular in amount and period, but the range may 

 be as much as 5 per cent, in the course of a week. 

 A connection between the monthlv mean values of 



