;o8 



NA TURE 



[January 26, 1905 



Russian, Japanese, British, and Italian — Captain James 

 never found his messages interfered with in any way. 

 This notwithstanding that many of the messages sent 

 were of considerable length, running from 1500 to 2000 

 words. To transmit these long messages under all the 

 attendant difficulties was no mean achievement for wire- 

 less telegraphy and journalism alike. 



Some of the incidents narrated by Captain James are 

 both interesting and amusing. On one occasion, when 

 the Japanese steamed in to attack Port Arthur, the 

 Haimiin telegraphed the news of the firing of the first 

 shot to Wei-hai-wei, whence the message was forwarded 

 express to London, with the result that two hours later 

 the Times received the news, so that, on account of the 

 difference in time, the journal knew that an engagement was 

 taking place si.\ hours before it started. On the occasion 

 of the transmission of their first long message — one of 

 1500 words — which was sent from a distance of 130 miles 

 from Wei-hai-wei, the operator listened anxiously at his 

 telephone receiver, after the first section of 350 words had 

 been transmitted, to know whether it had been satis- 

 factorily received. For five minutes he w"aited ; then his 

 face lighted up, and he remarked, " Captain, we will 

 deliver the goods, Wei-hai-wei says that it is coming in 

 like a drum." It is a remarkable achievement, which 

 journalists and men of science highly appreciate, that 

 wireless telegraphy is capable even in adverse circum- 

 stances of transmitting messages that will " come in like 

 a drum." Wireless telegraphy may still be in its infancy, 

 but the results attained by its use have shown that it is 

 no longer in an experimental stage. M. S. 



FLOODS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



r N our number for July 28 we gave particulars of the 

 great flood that occurred in the Mississippi valley in 

 1903, and of the damage done in Kansas and other places, 

 and also of floods in the Passaic River, the information 

 being obtained from the reports issued by the Geological 

 Department of the United States. We have recently re- 

 ceived a further report on floods in other parts of the 

 States.' 



This report states that the year 1903 will be long remem- 

 bered for its extreme local variations from normal climatic 

 conditions. Besides the floods in the Mississippi valley 

 already referred to, due to heavy and continuous rainfall, 

 a cloud-burst at Heppner, in Oregon, caused the loss 



of 100 lives and of property valued at half a million dollars, 

 one-third of the town being entirely destroyed. This flood 

 was due to a very heavy storm of short duration covering 

 a very small area, such storms being peculiar to this arid 

 region, and locally called a " cloud burst." Such a storm 



Floods in the United States in 1903." By E. C. Murphy. 

 Irrigation Papers, No. 96. (Washington.) 



NO. 1839, VOL. 71] 



1 "Deslruci 

 W.iter Supply 



is almost like a tornado in its suddenness, destruclibility, 

 and limited extent. The duration of this storm was only 

 half an hour, and the resulting flood lasted less than an 

 hour. It was estimated that the storm area was from two 

 to four miles in width and eight to ten miles in length, and 

 affected an area of twenty square miles. 



This storm was accompanied by a very heavy fall of 

 hail ; some of the hailstones measured i\ inches in diameter. 



Five days after the storm some that measured five-eighths 

 by seven-sixteenths inch were removed from a house buried 

 under silt and mud, and bodies were found in drifts of hail 

 in nearly a perfect state of preservation. 



Another destructive flood due to heavy rain occurred in 

 .South Carolina in the district situated on the southern 

 slope of the Saluda .Mountains, which includes the foot- 

 hills and rolling country. .About half of it is covered with 

 timber, the remainder being cultivated and pasture land. 

 The surface slopes are such that the water runs off rapidly, 

 and there is very little storage. 



Rain had occurred daily for some time previously, 

 saturating the ground, and culminating in a fall of from 

 35 to 5 inches in twenty-four hours. 



The greatest destruction caused by the flood due to this 

 rainfall was the wrecking of three large cotton mills 

 situated at Clifton (Figs, i and 2), on the river Pacolet. 

 .\t one mill a chimney stack 137 feet high was washed 

 down, and the mill, with shops, engine and boiler houses, 

 and sixteen cottages, entirely destroyed. At another mill 

 110 feet of the main building and the wheelhouse were 

 totally wrecked, and the machinery of the lower floors 

 severely damaged by water, mud, and drift, and several 

 cottages were destroyed. In another mill fifty-two women 

 and children were drowned. Railway traffic was stopped 

 for a week. The damage to the mills and other property 

 was estimated at 35 millions of dollars. 



SEISMOLOGICAL NOTES. 



'PHE third number of vol. x. of the BoUeiino of the Italian 

 -Seismological Society contains the first instalment of 

 the earthquake record for 1903. This is now in charge of 

 Dr. G. .Agamennone, and follows the same lines as in 

 previous volumes, except that it has been found impossible 

 10 continue the attempt to reproduce all the records of 

 earthquakes registered in Italy. This change is a con- 

 sequence of the great increase in the number of stations 

 where instruments devoted to the new seismology have been 

 set up, and the consequent impracticability of collecting in 

 one periodical all the records of even the limited number 

 of great world-shaking earthquakes. Italy will, therefore, 

 be content with publishing its own records, and at most 

 a few lines will indicate those earthquakes which have also 

 been recorded out of Italy. 



