July 25, 1918] 



NATURE 



415 



all our railways. The power stations need to be placed 

 in the best positions for civil and military needs, and 

 all main and local lines should be properly co-ordinated. 

 .\t present our railways are being electrified in a piece- 

 meal and desultory way. A comparison is made be- 

 tween manufacturing conditions in this country and in 

 Germany. The conclusions, with some of which we 

 do not agree, are altogether in favour of the German 

 methods. The Committee was impressed by the fact 

 that the balance-sheets of the Allgemeine Elektricitats 

 Gesellschaft showed a cash' balance of more than six 

 million pounds in 1915. Another flourishing firm, the 

 Siemens-Schiickert Co., has stated that its large cash 

 balance will shortly be depleted bv the manufacture of 

 '■peace products" for stock for disposal at the end of 

 the war. 



At least, up to the present time, German manufac- 

 turing firms have had little to pfiy in the way of extra 

 taxation or excess profits duty, and so English firms 

 are naturally getting anxious. The Committee recom- 

 mends that the import of enemy goods should be pro- 

 hibited for three years after the conclusion of peace. 

 Other recommendations are the imposition of import 

 duties (in other words, Protection), combination 

 between manufacturers, the provision of extended 

 banking facilities, and. most important of all, the pro- 

 motion of a better understanding between employers 

 and employed and the provision of better housing and 

 working conditions. A supplementarv report is pro- 

 mised which will deal, inter alia, with education, re- 

 search, the decimal system, and the consular service. 

 .As .Sir Charles Parsons and Sir John Snell are on the 

 Committee, their educational proposals will be looked 

 forward to with keen interest. 



ITALIAN METEOROLOGY.^ 

 A NUMBER of interesting papers dealing with 

 '^~*' various aspects of meteorology in Italy, includ- 

 ing results from a new station in the colony of Gebel 

 Bengasi, have recently been issued by Prof. Eredia, 

 director of the service. The first (i) contains the results 

 of observations made at Nalut during the two years 

 ending Mav, 19 15. The co-ordinates of the station 

 are lat. 31^ 53' N., long. 8° 45' E., and the height 

 600 m. The mean temperature is 657° F. ; that of 

 the warmest month, July, 846°, and of January, the 

 coldest month, 444°, showing the large variation of 

 more than 40°. The mean daily maxima vary from 

 98° in July to 525° in January. The corresponding 

 mean minima are 706° and 36°, so that the amplitude 

 in the day values is 10° in excess of the night values. 

 The mean daily range is 21-5°, and the absolute ex- 

 tremes of temperature are 111° and 23°. Compared 

 with Tripoli, on the coast, the mean temperature is 

 1-6° lower. In summer (May to August) Nalut is 5° 

 warmer than Tripoli, in winter 10° colder, the extreme 

 differences being -1-6° in June and —11° in January. 

 The annual rainfall is 194 mm. (7-63 in.), which almost 

 all falls between December and April. The average 

 number of days with rain in the year is nineteen. 

 The rain falls in heavy showers of short duration, 

 which, as a rule, do not exceed thirty minutes. Only 

 on three occasions did the duration of a shower exceed 

 five hours, although one rainstorm lasted two days. 

 The heaviest fall was i^ in. in two and a half hours, 

 on April 4, 1915. December, 1914, was the wettest 

 month, with 5- 16 in., falling on four days during an 

 aggregate of twelve hours, although in the same month 



1 (i) Prof. F. Eredia, " Contributo .ilia Clim.ntologia del Gebel," 

 Itiblioteca Agrari'X Coloniale. (2) Prof. F. Eredia, " La Frequenza dei 

 Tempor.ili in Val Padana," Rend. liellaR. Acad, dei I.incei. (3) Prof. F. 

 Eredia." Le Piene dell' Uadi di Derna " (Ministero delle Colonie). 

 (4) " L'Officio Centrale Itali-inodi Meteorologia e Geodinamica," Estr.vto 

 li.i La Scienza per T-utti, No. i, 1° Genraio, 1918. (5) Prof. F. Eredia, 



I avole ad Use degli Osservatorii Meteorologici Italian!." 



of the previous year only 003 in. fell. There are 

 237 cloudless and ^6 overcast days annually. The 

 predominant wind is N. at all seasons, accounting 

 for about half of all the observed winds, while winds 

 from the E. and S.E. rarely occur. 



The second paper (2) is a discussion of thunderstorm 

 frequency over the north plains of Italy, with special 

 reference to the barometric pressure at the time of 

 the occurrence. Data from ten observatories are 

 examined for the months April to October for the ten 

 years ending 19 16, with the general result that ihimder- 

 storms are most frequent with pressure under 755 mm. 

 (29-73 in.), while a secondary maximum occurs between 

 759 mm. and 762 mm. Only in 5 per cent, of the 

 cases was pressure more than 765 mm. The fre- 

 quency is also discussed with reference to the relative 

 humidity at the time of the thunderstormT In summer 

 the air was dry (under 60 per cent.) in one-third of 

 the cases, but in early autumn only one thunderstorm 

 in ten occurs with so dry an atmosphere. 



The pressure conditions associated with two floods 

 on the River Uadi, at Derna, on the coast of Bengasi, 

 are discussed in (3), from which it is shown that in 

 the flood of November 30, 1913, there was an anti- 

 cyclone over Western, and a low-pressure area over 

 Central, Europe. The wind at Derna, and, indeed, 

 throughout Bengasi, changed from S. to N.. indicating 

 the passage of a depression to the north. In the flood 

 of April 12, 1916, pressure was low to the north of 

 Scotland and high in Portugal, with a subsidiary area 

 of low pressure over Algeria. Details of some other 

 rains associated with flooding in various parts of 

 Tripoli and Bengasi are also given. 



The last paper (4) summarises the work of the 

 Italian Meteorological Office since its initiation in 

 1879, The geophysical branch dates from 1887, and 

 upper-air research from 1902. In October, 1917, there 

 were 181 stations provided with direct-reading and 

 automatic registers, and other 341 stations observing 

 rainfall, temperature, wind, and cloud. Of extra rain- 

 fall stations there were 161. Full particulars are given 

 of the special researches carried out by the various 

 sections. 



A new edition of useful tables, such as are available 

 in our own "Computers' Handbook," is given in (5), 

 which include tables for the conversion of millimetres 

 into the new pressure units. R. C. M. 



NO. 2543, VOL. lOl] 



GEOLOGY OF THE BARBERTON GOLD- 

 MINING DISTRICT. 



'7"' HE Geological Survey of the Union of South Africa 

 -*■ has issued an important memoir on the geology 

 of the Barberton gold-mining district. This district is 

 made up essentially of the Older Granite and the 

 Swaziland System, probably of pre-Cambrian age, and 

 underlying the Transvaal System, the latter being of 

 importance mainly as determining the great escarp- 

 ment of the Drakensberg; it may be noted that the 

 latter contains auriferous deposits, both reef and 

 alluvial, that have been worked for some thirty-five 

 years. The tectonics of the Barberton district are 

 very complex, intense folding in various regions, such 

 as the Sheba Hills, having been brought about by the 

 intrusion of the great masses of granite. One of the 

 most interesting features of this report lies in the 

 conclusions reached respecting the genesis of the 

 auriferous deposits of the Barberton district. Apart 

 from the alluvials, auriferous deposits of two types 

 are recognised, namely, pyritic quartz reefs and 

 zones of impregnation. The former occur mainly in 

 t^e granite of the De Kaap valley, and in some of the 

 older rocks, and in many cases the results obtained 

 from their exploitation have been, upon the whole, 



