j04 



NATURE 



[July 25, 1S95 



fi)r showing the absorption bands, and this accounts for their 

 absence when the sun is high in the heavens. But as the sun 

 sets, the thickness of air traversed by its rays increases, and .it 

 an altitude of 4° the conditions are the same as those in the 

 60 m. tube at 6 atmospheres pressure. At this altitude they do 

 in fact appear, and the excessive dr)Tiess of the desert air pre- 

 cludes the possibility of their being due to water vapour. Thus 

 tx)th the terrestrial origin of these oxygen bands, and also the 

 validity of Janssen's law of absorption, have received a striking 

 confirmation. 



The fifth volume of the Geosraphital Journal , comprising the 

 numbers Usued during the first sbc months of this year, has just 

 been published. 



We have received the Report for the year 1894-95 "f ^^^ 

 Ko)-al Garden, Calcutta, by the Curator, Dr. G. King, issued by 

 the authority of the Ciovemment of Bengal. It reports a con- 

 si<lerable amount of work done in the improvement of the 

 (hardens, and especially in the increase and arrangement of the 

 Herbarium. 



The numlH;r of [X'riodicals, both in Europe and ,\merica, deal- 

 n^ with electrical matters is considerable, the last addition to 

 the list being the EUdriial Journal, a new monthly published 

 in San Francisco. The first number contains a long account of 

 the " Express " system of telephone switchboard. Other articles 

 appearing deal with the efficiency of electric plants, the 

 electrical installation on I card the cruiser Ofympia, and the 

 field of operations of an electrica' engineer. 



The volume containing the Proceedings of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the .Vdvancement of Science at the forty-third meeting, | 

 held at Brooklyn List .-Vugust, has lately been issued. .As we gave | 

 •It the time a report of the work of the Sections, and jirinted some 

 of the presidential addresses in full, it is only necessary for us 

 now to say that the volume is very well produced, and contains 

 many very valuable papers. 



The fourth and apparently concluding volume of the Seis- 

 mological Journal of Japan h.is recently been published. It 

 consists of a very valuable ixijier of nearly 400 pages, by Prof. 

 Milne, ".A Ctlalogue of 8331 Earthquakes recorded in Japan 

 l>etween 1885 and 1892." The materials were obtained from 

 968 stations, distributed over the whole empire, the total number 

 of documents being perhajis not less than eighty or a hundred 

 thousand. In the first catalogue are given for each shock the 

 time of its occurrence, the land-area shaken, and data by which 

 the position of the epicenter and the boundar}- of the disturbed 

 area arc approximately determined. The second catalogue states 

 the seismic district to which each shock belongs, the lengths of 

 Ihc axes of the disturbed area in tens of miles, from which the 

 loul area can be roughly a.sccrlained, and, when the shock is 

 submarine, the distance of the epicenter from the shore. The 

 chief object of the japer is to provide tnistworthy materials for 

 fu;urc investigations, but some results have been already obtained 

 .-ind are briefly <lescril>ed. Prof. Omori's work on aflcr-shf>cks 

 Ilis been referred to in a previous number (vol. li. p. 423). 

 The distribution of earth(|uakcs in Japan forms jx-Thaps the 

 most ini|xirtant section. I':arthquakes, it apiicars, are singularly 

 rare in the central iiarls of the countrj-, which includes the 

 mountainous districts where active volcanoes are numerous. The 

 m.ijorily of sli'.cks originates along the eastern coast of the 

 empire, and many are of submarine origin. A large number 

 seem to start from the face of the sleep monoclinal slope which 

 Japan presenH lt>war<l» the Pacific Ocean. ICarthquakes arc 

 numerous where the slope is steep, and rare where it is com- 

 imralively gentle (see pp. 201-2). They are frequent in those 

 districts where movemenls of secular clev.ition or depression are 



NO. 1 343- ^OL. 52] 



now taking place. Earthquake-sounds are often heard, but more 

 so in the rocky mountainous districts than on alluvial plains. .Ai 

 the close of the paper is given a list of 301 seismic disturbances 

 observed from 1SS9 to 1S93 in Europe and at Tenerifte 

 with the horizontal pendulum of Dr. von Rebeur-Paschwitz. 

 Seven of these disturbances, and possibly five others, corresixmd 

 to earthquakes in Japan. 



The flora of the Caucasus lias lately been the subject of 

 several interesting explorations and speculations by Russian 

 bot.anists. The old data, contained in the works of Boissier and 

 Ledebour, are now of little value, on account of the too broad 

 remarks concerning the distribution of the different S]iecies, such 

 as Caucasus, pro^'inci,c Caucasicit, and so on, which one finds 

 in these otherwise classical works. On the other hand, such 

 recent explorers as X. KuznelsofT and .V. KrasnotT, who have 

 paid great attention to the comjiosition of the floras of ilifterent 

 parts of Caucasia, and their probable origin, have rather raised a 

 series of most important geo-botanical questions than solved 

 them definitively; while MM. Lipsky, .Mbofl", and .\kinficff have 

 devoted their chief attention to the collection of positive 

 systematic data, with exact indications relative to the distribution 

 of difl'erent species. We have now in the " .Memoirs (Trudy) of 

 the Kharkoft" Naturalists" (vol. xxvii.) a first instalment, by the 

 last-named botanist, of a detailed list of plants in the middle 

 p.arts of the Caucasus main ridge, with full indications concern- 

 ing their vertical and horizontal distribution. Considering the 

 generalis-ations of M. Kuznetsoft" and M. Krasnoflas premature 

 under our yet imperfect knowledge of the orography and geology 

 of Caucasia, M. .\kinfielf only ventures to formulate a few con- 

 clusions ; namely, that the flora of Colchida is the youngest in 

 Caucasia, as it has the least number of S])ecies, and especially of 

 endemic forms, and that it contains but a small jxirt of what 

 constitutes the Mediterranean flora, as well as very little of what 

 I is found in other parts of Caucasia. The flora of Daghestan, 

 .\siatic in its origin, has, on the contrary, in its steppe, sub- 

 Alpine and Alpine representatives, a wide distribution over all 

 Caucasia, with the exception of Colchida ; fouv-fiflhs of the 

 surface of Caucasia are thus genetically connected for their flora 

 with Asia, and one-fifth only with Europe, the boundary between 

 the two being, not the main ridge, but a broken line running 

 aijproximately from Stavropol, or rather north of this town, along 

 the water-ixarting between the Kuban and the Terek, to the 

 Elbonis, along the main ridge to the .Vdaikhokh, and further 

 to the Mesques Mountains and the Suram Pass. It should be said 

 that this conclusion seems to .agree very well with what we now 

 learn about the orgraphical structure of Caucasia, from which it 

 appears more and more that the Mesques Mountains must be 

 considered as a continuation of the border-ridge of the .Vsia 

 Minor plateau, which ridge runs along the south-eastern coast of 

 the Black Sea, and is continued north-east 10 meet llio mam 

 ridge. 



Wic have received from Dr. Dobcrck, Government .Vstrononier 

 of Hong Kong, the report of that observatory for 1894, contain- 

 ing inter alia an account of nineteen typhoons w liich occurred 

 during the year, and the paths of which have been laid down on 

 two pliites. Information regarding storms is regularly exhibited 

 and telegraphed whenever they can be justified by the oljserva- 

 tions received, but the work is apparently much interfered wi'tb 

 by the lardy arrival of telegrams from the outlying stations. Vox 

 the purpose of elucidating the behaviour of typhoons and other 

 meteorological features, observations are regularly extracted 

 from the logs of ships which visit the China seas, and tabulated 

 for future use : in addition to these, observations are received 

 from about forty land stations. The astronomical and magnetical 

 work of the observatory has been regularly carri.-.l on, as m 

 former years. 



