February 15, 1894] 



NATURE 



369 



stones in New South Wales, with a description of the 

 deposits in which they are found; on the effect of the 

 Australian climate on the physical development of the 

 Australian-born population. The competition is in no way 

 confined to members of the Society, nor to residenls in 

 Australia, but is open to all without any restriction whatever, 

 excepting that a prize will not be awarded to a member of the 

 Council for the time being ; neither will an award be made for 

 a mere compilation, however meritorious in its way. The com- 

 munication, to be successful, must be either wholly or in part 

 the result of original observation or research on the part of 

 the contributor. The successful papers will be published in the 

 Society's annual volume. Competitors are requested to write 

 upon foolscap paper, on one side only. A motto must be used 

 instead of the writer's name, and each paper must be accom- 

 panied by a sealed envelope bearing the motto outside, and 

 containing the writer's name and address inside. All com- 

 munications to be addressed to the honorary secretaries, Messrs. 

 T. W. E. David and J. H. Maiden, at the Society's House, 

 Sydney. 



A VERY severe gale reached the coast o( Ireland from the 

 Atlantic on the evening of Sunday the iiih instant, the centre 

 of which passed over Scotland ; much snow fell there during 

 the passage of the storm, and the barometer reading was as low 

 as 28'2 inches. The force of the gusts reached lo to ii of the 

 Beaufort wind-scale (o— 12), and owing to the steepness of the 

 barometric gradients the storm was felt over all parts of Eng- 

 land, and caused much damage both at sea and on land. At 

 Greenwich, which was about 300 miles from the centre of the 

 disturbance, the anemometer registered a pressure of more than 

 35 lbs. on the square foot, being equal to an hourly velocity of 

 about 85 miles. In connection with these values it may be 

 interesting to state that in the gale of December 12 the wind at 

 Greenwich attained a pressure of 37 lbs. on the square foot ; 

 but in the great storm of November last it did not there exceed 

 17 lbs. By Monday, the 12th instant, the centre had passed over 

 the Norlh Sea, and the barometer near Christiania had fallen 

 below 28 inches, gales being experienced from the coast of 

 Ireland to the Baltic. In the rear of the disturbance the 

 temperature, which had been unusually high for the time of 

 year, fell considerably, frost occurring in many parts of Great 

 Britain on Monday night. 



With reference to the above gale. Dr. Buchan writes that at 

 Edinburgh a remarkable fall of the barometer commenced at 

 5 a.m. on Sunday last, and 2 a.m. on Monday the low reading 

 of 28'3I9 inches at 32° and sea-level was registered. An un- 

 usually rapid rise then set in, and in the one hour from 4 to 5 

 a.m., pressure rose 0*307 inch, as recorded by Richard's baro- 

 graph, controlled by readings with the mercurial barometer. 

 The traced line of the barograph was clear and distinct, giving 

 little if any indication of "pumping." Consequent on a 

 change of wind from east-south-east to south-west, Richard's 

 thermograph registered a rise of temperature from 37°"5 to 

 48°*o, or io°"5 in the seven minutes ending i.io p.m. on Sun- 

 day. The fluctuations of Richard's hygrograph early in the 

 morning of Monday were equally striking. 



An exceptionally heavy storm was experienced in America 

 from Sunday to Tuesday last. At Chicago the velocity of the 

 wind was estimated at seventy five miles an hour, and the 

 streets were blocked with snow ; while at New York the snow- 



^ fall is reported as the heaviest this season. The Atlantic coast 



i was also swept by a fierce wind. 



j The Meteorological Council have published, as an Appendix 

 i to the Weekly Weather Report for 1893, a summary of rainfall 

 I and mean temperature for twenty-eight years, 1866-1893. The 

 ! values are given for each of twelve districts, together with the 

 NO. 1268, VOL. 49] 



means for the easterly, or principal wheat-producing districts, for 

 the westerly, or principal grazing, &c., districts, and for the 

 whole of the British Islands generally. These summaries have 

 been published regularly since 1868, and, although chiefly 

 intended for sanitary and agricultural purposes, they furnish a 

 very easy and trustworthy means of comparing the climatological 

 statistics of different periods or districts. A glance at the rain- 

 fall values for the year 1893 shows that they were below the 

 average in every district except the north of Scotland, where 

 the rainfall was as much as 13 inches above the normal amount, 

 being higher than in any year since 1868, and chiefly owing to 

 the areas of low barometric pressure taking a somewhat more 

 northerly course than usual. The greatest deficiency — viz. 

 9 "5 inches — was in the south-west of England, while the defi- 

 ciency for the whole of the kingdom was 59 inches, which is 

 greater than in any year since 1866, except the Jubilee year, 

 1887, when the deficiency was 9*2 inches. The temperature 

 was above the mean in all districts ; the excess over the whole 

 kingdom was l"*4, and it was fairly equally distributed over all 

 districts ; the excess has not been equalled since 1868, when it 

 was 2°'o above the normal value available at that date. 



The first sheet of the " Geologic Atlas of the United States " 

 has recently been issued. It is called the " Hawley Sheet," 

 and comprises the north-west part of Massachusetts, with the 

 Green Mountain Region. The geology is by B. K. Emerson. 

 The scale of the map is i : 62,500, or slightly more than one 

 inch to one mile. The complete map of the United States on 

 this scale will be 240 feet long and 180 feet high. Contours 

 j are drawn at twenty feet intervals, reckoned from mean sea- 

 level. Three copies of the map are given: — (i) Topography, 

 with streams in blue, contours in brown. The hundred-feet 

 j contours are deeply engraved, the intermediate lines being only 

 1 faintly marked. This gives the appearance of hill-shading 

 over the mountainous ground, but each contour can be traced 

 with the aid of a pocket lens. (2) Areal geology, in which 

 the formations are coloured over the brown, blue, and black 

 of the topographical map. (3) Economic geology, which 

 appears, so far as this sheet is concerned, to differ from the 

 other geological map only in having the tints less pronounced, 

 and in having a sign for mines and quarries. The fourth sheet 

 is entitled " Structure Sections " : here strips of the map are 

 reproduced, but without contours, and sections along the edge 

 of each strip are drawn on the natural scale. Three sheets of 

 text are given, one, introductory, setting out the purpose and 

 plan of the Atlas, the others descriptive of the geology of the 

 " Hawley Sheet." All the rocks consist of crystalline schists 

 of Cambrian and Silurian age, no igneous rocks which can be 

 recognised as such occur. Probably the Silurian "Hawley 

 schist " is largely composed of eruptive material, but the rock 

 is so much altered that its original character cannot be made 

 out. The drift deposits, which in the south-eastern part greatly 

 obscure the geology, are described, but are not shown on the 

 map. 



The proposals which have lately been made for the renewal 

 of Antarctic research have been very widely echoed, and several 

 geographical journals have given considerable space to the 

 matter. Dr. Neumayer, the greatest continental authority on 

 the subject, devotes the first place in the Annalen der Hydro- 

 graphie to a review of the facts. He translates the abstract of 

 Dr. Murray's paper, given in Natuke for November 30, 1893, 

 and expresses hearty approval of the scheme of an Antarctic 

 expedition there set forth. The Scottish Geographical Magazine 

 for February contains a further account of last year's Dundee 

 Antarctic expedition. 



Authentic information as to the reported high latitude 

 (84° N.) attained by the American whaler N'ewpori \s at last 



