206 



NA TURE 



[December 29, 1892 



Prof. E. A. Andrews, Johns Hopkins University ; the marine 

 laboratories of Europe, by Dr. D. Bashford Dean, Columbia 

 College ; and the outlook for a marine observatory at Woods 

 Holl, by Prof C. O. Whitman, University of Chicago. In the 

 evening the annual dinner of the society was to be held, and the 

 president's address was to be delivered. The following are the 

 principal arrangements for to-day (Thursday) : — A paper is to be 

 read by Dr. C. W, Stiles, Agricultural Bureau, Washington, 

 on the endowment of the American table at Naples ; and 

 reports are to be read on botanical explorations in Florida, by 

 Prof. W. P. Wilson, University of Pennsylvania ; the summer 

 work of the U. S. Fish-Commission Schooner Grampus, by 

 Prof William Libbey, Junr., Princeton College ; and expedi- 

 tions of the American Museum of Natural History into New 

 Mexico, Wyoming, and Dakota, by Dr. J. L. Wortman, 

 American Museum Natural History. Then will come the annual 

 discussion, the subject being. What were the former areas and 

 relations of the American Continent, as determined by faunal 

 and floral distribution ? The following papers will be read : — 

 Introduction, and evidences from past and present distribu- 

 tion of mammals, by Prof. W. B. Scott, Princeton College ; 

 evidence from past and present distribution of reptiles, by Dr. 

 George Baur, University of Chicago ; evidence from the dis- 

 tribution of birds, by Prof J. A. Allen, American Museum of 

 Natural History ; and evidence from the distribution of plants, 

 by Dr. N. L. Britton, Columbia College. Special meetings 

 have been held by the American Societies of Anatomists, 

 Morphologists, and Physiologists. 



We learn, from the Oesterreichische Boianische Zeitschrift, of 

 the death, at Vienna, of the veteran palaeontologist, Dr. D. Stur, 

 Director of the Imperial Geological Institute in that city, and 

 author of several finely illustrated works on palseo-phytology. 



Dr. Volkens, Privatdocent at the University of Berlin, 

 and Dr. Lent are about to start for East Africa, where they pro- 

 pose to carry on scientific investigations. The former has received 

 a grant from the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and will devote 

 himself especially to botanical study. Dr. Lent has received 

 aid from the German Colonial Society, and will give especial 

 attention to geology. 



Dr. F. Buchanan White has presented his fine collection 

 of lepidoptera to the Museum of the Perthshire Society 

 of Natural Science, which is in process of being greatly 

 enlarged. The collection contains twelve thousand specimens, 

 which have been collected by Dr. White in many parts of 

 Europe, though mainly in Great Britain and largely in Perth- 

 shire. Many are type specimens, which have been described and 

 figured by the collector in his numerous descriptive papers, and 

 several represent species that have now become extinct. 



During the latter part of last week an area of low pressure 

 lay to the south-westward of our islands, causing south-easterly 

 gales on our western coasts. This dibturbance, however, 

 although it advanced from off the Atlantic, remained com- 

 paratively stationary for two or three days, during which time 

 the weather continued fine and dry over England. At the close 

 of the week the low pressure area gave place to an area of high 

 barometer readings, which gradually spread over the United 

 Kingdom from the continent, bringing dry weather and severe 

 frost, with fog in many places. The thermometer in the shade 

 fell to 9° in Leicestershire, and to 17" in London in the night of 

 the 26ih, and in many places the day temperature continued 

 much below the freezing point during both Monday and Tuesday. 

 At this time the anticyclone had become thoroughly established, 

 and the area of cold was increasing both in size and intensity, 

 although the conditions in the extreme north indicated a possible 

 change. The Weekly Weather Report for the period ending 

 NO. 1209, VOL. 47I 



the 24th inst. shows that temperature was above the mean 

 in all districts, being as much as 5° or 6° over Ireland. During 

 the early part of the week the night minima w ere very high for 

 the time of year. Rainfall was less than the mean in all dis- 

 tricts, the deficiency being most considerable in Scotland and 

 in the south-west of England. Bright sunshine was also very 

 deficient ; in Scotland and Ireland there was only from 2 to 3 

 per cent, of the possible amount. 



The Weather Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture has published some valuable "Observations and Experi- 

 ments on the Fluctuations in the Level and Rate of Movement 

 of Ground-water on the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment 

 Station Farm, and at Whitewater, Wisconsin," by Franklin 

 H. King. The author holds that a careful and detailed study 

 of the movements of ground- water ought to supply very import- 

 ant knowledge bearing upon the contamination of drinking 

 waters and the spreading of certain classes of contagious di- 

 seases, and thus help to place the water-supply for both urban 

 and rural purposes under better sanitary conditions. Every 

 advance which is made towards the increase of yield per acre 

 necessarily means an increased demand for water, so that market 

 gardeners even in Wisconsin and Illinois, where both the annual 

 and summer rainfall is relatively large, are turning their attention, 

 Mr. King says, to the question as to the best means for pro- 

 viding irrigation. A rapid and economical advance in this 

 direction demands, bethinks, a much more thorough knowledge 

 of the movements of underground water than we at present 

 possess. He also urges that in the utilization of natural sub- 

 irrigation, and in the reclaiming of swamp lands for agricul- 

 ! tural purposes, there is imminent need for new knowledge in the 

 j same direction. Mr. King does not overrate the importance of 

 his own researches. He regards them simply as preliminary 

 I studies. 



H. Habenicht, of Gotha, has contributed a paper to 

 I Ausland (No. 49) on the frequency of icebergs in the Gulf 

 I Stream and variations of climate, based upon the reports of ice- 

 bergs published since 1883 in the pilot charts of the North 

 Atlantic Ocean. He gives a table showing the number of bergs 

 reported in each year in the Gulf Stream, with a summary of the 

 temperature conditions experienced in Europe during each of the 

 four seasons. The number of icebergs varied considerably in 

 different years, from ten in the year 1888 to 674 in the year 

 1890. The table shows some unmistakable coincidences 

 between the frequency of the bergs and the character of subse- 

 quent weather about six months afterwards. The extremely 

 low minimum of iceberg frequency in 1888 was followed by the 

 warmest year of the series ; all the seasons of 1889 were warm 

 over Europe. There was another less marked minimum of 

 icebergs in 1889, and this was followed by a relatively warm 

 year in 1890. The remarkable maximum of bergs in 1890 was 

 followed in 1891 by the coldest winter that had occurred for 

 twenty years, and the cold winter was followed by an abnormally 

 cold spring and summer. The table also shows that the coin- 

 cidences are more marked with iceberg maxima than with 

 minima. Two of the latter in two successive years were 

 followed by only one warm summer, while in the case of the 

 maxima the decrease of temperature occurred in the next year. 

 Mr. D. T. Macdougal contributes to Science, December 2, 

 an interesting account of some explorations recently made by a 

 botanical expedition in Idaho. Tbe work of the expedition was 

 planned by Dr. G. Z. Vasey, chief botanist of the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The results are summarized thus : — 

 The basins of Lakes Coeur d'Alene and Pend d' Oreille and of 

 the Clearwater and Palouse rivers were explored ; the botani- 

 cally unknown area in Central Idaho now being limited on the 

 south by the Snake River basin, on the west by the Snake River 



