May 19, 1910J 



NATURE 



00 



the remarkable progress of Canada since the visit of 

 British Association in 1884. Lord Rayleigh had, in 



usion to that visit, described Winnipeg as the only city 

 he knew where they ploughed up their streets to make 

 them level. To-day Winnipeg had streets as good as those 

 in London, and was thoroughly equipped in up-to-date 

 institutions and modern conveniences of every kind. It 

 was perfectly useless, he continued, for the unemployable, 

 who could not or would not work, to go to Canada. There 

 they would be absolutely lost, because everyone in Canada 

 was a worker, but they gladly welcomed the genuine and 

 willing worker in Canada, which was really as much 

 England as was the Mother-country. 



Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S., also responded, and 

 said that in dealing with science and its application to 

 practical affairs, there was not the least doubt that the 

 temperament of men of science had been somewhat of a 

 drawback in forcing scientific facts and principles upon 

 the attention of mankind generally, as the man of science 

 was apt to think he had done all he could do when he 

 had found out scientific truths. He seemed to require 

 something to aid him in forcing upon unwilling Govern- 

 ments that information which they were too ignorant to 

 apply to national needs. 



" The Guests " was proposed bv Sir Frederick Pollock, 

 Bart., and responded to by Mr. Roger W. Wallace, K.C., 

 after which Sir Aston Webb, C.B., R.A.. gave the toast 

 of " The Chairman," to which the latter gracefully 

 responded, thus concluding the proceedings. 



17 7 

 32"7 

 VIII 



13 2 13-4 



31-0 32-9 



VI VII 



41 4"3 



CLIMATOLOGICAL REPORTS. 



'T'HE director of Chemulpo Observatory (Dr. Y. Wada) 

 has issued the mean annual results of the valuable 

 meteorological observations made at the Japanese stations in 

 Corea in 1906-7 (see Nature, April i, 1909). The follow- 

 ing are some of the results of air-temperature and rainfall 

 for 1907 : — 



Station. Chemu'po Fu«an Wonsan Moltpo Sons-chin Yongamp 



La itude. V ... 37° 29' 35° 6' 39° o' 34° 47' 40*40' 39° 56' 



Longitude, E. ... laS" 32' 129* 3' 127*26' 126*22' 19^° 11' 124*22' 



Mean max I5'i° i7'5° i6'8' 



Absolute max. ... 34"6 32*5 37*5 



Month VIII VIII V 



Mean min. ... 7'2 O"? 6'o 



Absolute min. ...-14-5 -8-4 -i8-i — S-j — 2i-4 -24*3 



Month ... .« XII II II II ill XII 



Adopted mean ... io'8' I3'6' io"3* ij'i* " 8-2* S^fi* 

 Total Rainfall ... 667*3 ioji'2 x.=!76'5 8n'6 627'3 1029 6 



The instruments and method of observation are the same 

 as those at meteorological stations in Japan ; temperatures 

 are given in centigrade degrees and rainfall in millimetres. 

 The mean temperature was practically normal, but the 

 rainfall fluctuated considerably ; the data for the normals 

 for these stations only go back to March, 1904. 



The report of the Mauritius Observatory for 1908 shows 

 that the mean annual temperature, 736°, was prac- 

 tically normal; the absolute maximum was 891°, mini- 

 "}""! 53-8°, maximum in the sun's rays 166-2°, on 

 November 12. The rainfall, 6243 inches, was 14-5 inches 

 above the average of 1875-1908, but for the whole of the 

 island, obtained from reports from sixty-five stations, the 

 rnean was 90 inches, being 7I inches above the average. 

 Six cyclones occurred over the South Indian Ocean ; during 

 one, between February 28 and March 4, very heavy rain- 

 fall occurred over the whole island, ranging from above 

 45 inches at Curepipe to 9 inches at Port Louis ; the tracks 

 of three of the cyclones have been determined. Ninety- 

 four photographs of the sun were sent to the Solar Physics 

 Committee, and particulars of fifty-four earthquakes were 

 sent to the seismological committee of the British 

 Association. 



The report by Mr. Iyengar of meteorology in Mysore 

 for 1908 embodies the daily and monthly means for the 

 second-order stations at Bangalore and Mysore, and the 

 Sh. a.m. observations, with their monthly means, at the 

 third-class stations at Hassan and Chitaldrug. Over the 

 province, as a whole, the temperature of the vear was 

 practically normal ; April was the warmest, and December 

 the coldest, month. The absolute maxima and minima 

 were 102 1° at Chitaldrug (in May) and 50 1° at Hassan 



NO. 2 II 6, VOL. 83I 



(in December). The rainfall was deficient and very un- 

 equally distributed, the defect varying from 13 to 43 per 

 cent. ; in November and December there was practica'ly 

 no rainfall. 



The report issued by the Egyptian Sur\'ey Department, 

 on the rains of the Nile Basin and the Nile flood of 1908 

 states that during that year rainfall was measured at 

 eighty-eight stations in the Nile Basin, while that recorded 

 at 118 other stations in neighbouring regions was studied 

 in connection with the meteorological conditions of north- 

 eastern Atiica. On the whole, rainfall was deficient to 

 the south of the equator, and the country- between the 

 Victoria and Albert lakes seems also to have received less 

 rain than usual. On the Bahr el Jebel the annual fall 

 was usually in excess, and in the plains of the Blue Nile 

 some months were wetter than usual. The tables show 

 the monthly and annual rainfall for 1908, and the means 

 for other years so far as data are available. We have 

 previously referred to the flood of 190S, which again 

 reached its normal value after a series of nine low floods. 

 An interesting chapter on earth movements at Lake 

 V'ictoria is added to the report. 



The report of the chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau for 

 the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, shows that the 

 important work of that department has been carried on 

 with great activity. The tables, which extend over some 

 390 pages, include, inter alia, observations made twice 

 daily during 1907 at twenty-nine stations selected to cover 

 as nearly as possible all sections of the United States 

 showing distinctive climatic features, monthly and annual 

 summaries at 188 stations, and records of excessive rain- 

 fall in short periods at stations furnished with self-register- 

 ing gauges. In our issue of October 21, 1909, we directed 

 attention to several matters referred to in the adminis- 

 trative report, from an advance copy published in the 

 annual summary of the Monthly Weather Review for 

 1908. We may add that this report states that the 

 officials of the Bureau are encouraged in giving popular 

 lectures with the view of eradicating superstitions prevail- 

 ing with regard to the weather, and that instruments and 

 charts are now exposed in kiosks at various suitable places. 

 The instruments comprise special forms of maximum and' 

 minimum thermometers, air thermometer, hair hygrometer, 

 thermograph, and a special type of rain-gauge with diaF 

 indicator. 



The " Meteorological Year-book " of the Deutsche 

 .Seewarte for 1908, which has recently been published, con- 

 tains the results of observations at ten stations of the 

 second order, hourly observations at Hamburg, Wustrow, 

 Memel, and Borkum, and storm statistics at fifty-seven 

 signal stations in the North Sea and Baltic whenever a 

 gale was experienced over a considerable area, embracing 

 not fewer than three of the stations. The appendices include 

 the hourly means of wind velocity at Pillau (a seaport in 

 eastern Prussia) for the period 1899-190S. The mean 

 monthly values exhibit a minimum in July (400 m.p.s.), 

 rising gradually to a maximum (6-29 m.p.s.) in December, 

 and gradually decreasing again to the minimum. 



From an excerpt from the '' Bavarian Meteorological 

 Year-book " for IQ09 we learn that registering balloon- 

 ascents made at Munich in connection with the inter- 

 national scheme for the investigation of the upper air were 

 not so successful as in some previous years, owing to un- 

 favourable weather conditions and loss of the instruments 

 used. Nevertheless, eighteen successful ascents were made, 

 and the results have been ver>- carefully discussed, .^mong 

 the several interesting features shown by a preliminary 

 summary of the results for the years 1906-9 we may refer 

 to the mean altitude and temperature at the beginning of 

 the upper inversion, arranged according to seasons, which 

 were found to be as follows : — winter, 10,650 metres, 



— 61-5° C. ; spring, 9870 m., —54-9°; summer, 11,770 m., 



— H7-2°: autumn, 11,790 m., —58-2°. The mean monthlv 

 tables show that the lowest altitude of the " stratosphere " 

 was in March and the highest in .\ugust. An extra- 

 ordinary increase in altitude, oractically without change of 

 temperature, occurs from .April to May, viz. from 9470 to 

 11,050 metres: but owing to the few and unequal number 

 of cases available, the results deduced can only be accepted 

 with caution. 



The first part of a series of valuable contributions to the 



