OcTOUER I r, 1894J 



NA TURE 



=sr 



Mr. II. J. Macki.nder commenced a course of lectures on 

 the History of Geography and Geographical Discovery, at 

 Gresham College, on Monday evening. The course, which 

 will consist of twenty-five lectures, has been arranged for jointly 

 by the Geographical Society and the London Society for the 

 Extension of University Teaching. 



Prof. Richter, of Graz, has been engaged for sometime in 

 making a careful bathymetrical survey of the Lake of Garda. 

 By the use of an unusually light and compact wire-sounding 

 machine he has been able to obtain rapid soundings, even in the 

 greatest depths (364 metres) with a lead weighing only Soo 

 grammes, and he is preparing a contoured map of the lake- 

 basin. 



Effokts were made this summer by several expeditions to 

 ascertain the fate of the Swedish naturalists, Hjurling and Kals- 

 lennius, but no information has yet been received. The Falcon 

 called at the Carey Islands, Clarence Head, and Cape Faraday, 

 but found no trace of the unfortunate young men, while the 

 most careful inquiries amongst the Eskimos of the Greenland 

 coast elicited no news. There is no farther probability of their 

 survival. 



The Arctic exploring parties at work during the season just 

 past have not been by any means so successful ai might have 

 been expected. The weather seems to have been exceptionally 

 unfavourable, and to have greatly hampered the movements of 

 even the best equipped and most experienced Arctic travellers. 

 Lieut. Peary has not felt justified in returning to America, 

 although Mrs. Peary and her baby came back in the ship sent 

 for their relief. Mr. Peary started on his main journey, after 

 wintering at Bowdoin Bay, on March 6, with eight men, 

 twelve sledges, and a large number of dogs. The cold en- 

 countered was very great, the thermometer falling to - 60° F. , 

 and very high wind was occasionally experienced. The ex- 

 pedition pushed on for twenty-seven days in the direction of 

 Independence Bay, but only succeeded in travelling 220 mil»s 

 when the death of most of the dogs from cold, and the disable- 

 ment of some of the men, made it necessary to return, and 

 Bowdoin Bay was regained on April 18. Thus Peary was 

 unable even to reach the starting-point he had fixed upon as the 

 base whence to push northward, and he had to content himself 

 with making a detailed survey of Bowdoin B.iy and the neigh- 

 bouring coast of Inglefield Gulf during the summer. The 

 Falcon arrived to his relief on August 20, and after landing a 

 year's provisions, left him determined to make another resolute 

 attempt to reach the new land beyond Independence Bay next 

 spring. 



The Report of the .Vustralian Museum, .Sydney, for the year 

 1893, shows that the Government retrenchment scheme has caused 

 the museum to suffer severely. There have been no funds 10 

 purchase specimens, nor to publish the results of investigation. 

 At the commencement of the year there were thirty three officers 

 and workmen on the staff, but owing to the necessity for re- 

 trenchment twelve of these were discharged, and the salaries of 

 most of the others were reiluced by amounts varying from ^"5 to 

 .^5°- The amount voted for theordinary service of the museum in 

 1892 was jf 7150, while in 1S93 it was reduced to ^^3862. The 

 trustees point out that it will be difficult to carry on the institution 

 efficiently out of the reduced vote. It appears that in the parts 

 of the museum open to the public, there are not hands enough 

 now to keep the outside of the cases free from dusi, although 

 he specimens in them are duly cared for, and are in good 

 order ; the windows have not been properly cleaned for 

 months, and the gr'^unds are being overrun with weeds. Dr. 

 E. P. Ramsay has recently retired from the directorshi]), owing 

 to ill-health, and has been succeeded by Mr. R. Eilieridge, jun. 



NO. 1302, VOL. 50] 



Prof. A. Klossovsky, director of the observatory at Odessa, 

 has published an interesting paper on the annual distribution of 

 thunderstorms over the globe, accompanied by a coloured map 

 showing their intensity in different localities. The question has 

 hitherto been but little studied, as it is necessary to have a long 

 series of observations in order to arrive at satisfactory mean 

 values. He points out that a high temperature, a certain 

 degree of humidity, and a considerable amount of rainfall, are 

 the principal agents which favour the development of thunder- 

 storms. The map shows that a zone of electric activity of 

 great intensity exists on both sides of the equator, and this is 

 also the zone of greatest rain.all. Tnis zone is divided into 

 three sections : (i) That embracing Asia and Oceania, Indo- 

 China and the Sunda Isles to New Guinea, the yearly average 

 amounting to ninety or one hundred storms. (2) The zone 

 starling from the west coast of Africa, between 5° and 10' N. 

 latitude, and 10° to 15' S. latitude. (3) Tne tropical regio.is of 

 America, where the mean annual number of storms exceeds 

 one hundred between 20' and 22° N. latitude. To the north 

 of the zone which he terms the electric equator the number of 

 storms decreases, we reach the deserts of Africi, E^ypt, 

 Persia, and Central Asia, where rainfall is scanty. To the 

 north of the zone of deserts, especially over the continents of 

 Europe and Asia, the electric activity is somewhat increased. 

 For the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere, the principal 

 data refer to the Falkland Islands, where the average number 

 of storms is four. The sketch is necessarily very imperfect, 

 but the subject is worthy of consideration and further investi- 

 gation ; and the author points out that, in his opinion, the 

 solution of many meteorological phenomena is connected with 

 atmospherical electricity. 



A BRIEF account of the great Constantinople earthquake of 

 July 10 has been already written by M. D. Egiuitis, director 

 of the Observatory of Athens {Comptiis RenJus, vol. cxix. 

 pp. 4S0-483). It occurred at I2h. 24m. p.m. Constanti- 

 nople mean time. The earthquake consisted of three violent 

 shocks, separated by very short intervals, and lastin;' altogether 

 seventeen to eighteen seconds. The first and slightest was 

 horizontal ; the second, by which most of the damage was 

 done, vertical and rotatory ; and the third, undulatory and 

 towards the end horizontal. The epicentral area, that of 

 greatest damage, is in the form of an elongated ellipse; the major 

 axis is 17s km. long, and extends from Tchataliza to Ada-bazar 

 along the Gulf of Ismed ; the minor axis is situated between 

 the villages of Katirly and Mallepe, at the mouth of the gulf, 

 and is 39 km. in length. At all parts of the epicentre the 

 three shocks had approximately the same direction, nearly per- 

 pendicular to the major axis. The intensity was greatest in the 

 islands of Halki and .\ntigoni. The fissures are few in 

 number, the most important being at Ambarly, a village built 

 on alluvial soil. This one is 3 km. long, 008 m. in maximum 

 breadth, and runs east and west, I'.e-. parallel to the neighbouring 

 sea-coast, which is 300 m. distant. Tne Kartal-Dardanelles 

 cable was cut in several places, as if by a knife. The sea was 

 greatly agitated along the epicentral coast. In tsome parts, it 

 was observed to retreat for about 200 m., and after some oscilla- 

 tions to return to its normal condition. The depth of the 

 seismic focus was found by Dutton and llayden's method to 

 be 34 km., and this agrees closely with the v.ilue obtained by 

 M. Lacome from the observed times of the shock at different 

 places. The shock travelled to Paris, Pavlovsk and Bucharest, 

 with velocitiesof 3, 35 and 36 km. per second, respectively 

 (see Nature, vol. 1. pp. 450-451). 



The Zeilschrifl fiir InilriimeiiUnkunJe contains some par- 

 ticulars of the new method, adopted by Signor G. Guglielmo, 

 for the exact measurement of differences of pressure. Instead 



