420 



NATURE 



{Mar. 28, 1872 



by an assiduous observer for twenty-seven years. It is 

 this, however, and much more ; and Mr. Prince must be 

 congratulated upon having written a very interesting and 

 readable book upon what we fear would, in the hands of 

 most men, be a very dry subject. The observations he 

 has collected show what valuable information might be 

 stored up by many country surgeons, clergymen, and 

 farmers, at little cost of time or money, by adopting a regu- 

 lar system. The parish of Uckfield, Mr. Prince tells us, 

 lies upon an undulatory tract of country situated about 

 midway between the South Downs and the highest point 

 of Ashdown Forest. The upper portion of the town is 

 200 feet, and the lower 66 feet, above the level of the sea. 

 It is situated on the Horsted beds of the Hastings Sands. 

 The instruments were read every morning at nine o'clock. 

 The annual mean height of the barometer at Uckfield, as 

 deduced from observations extending over seventeen years, 

 was 2g'982 in. Mr. Prince gives the mean temperature of 

 winter at Uckfield from all his observations at 38°'96 Fahr. ; 

 of spring at 47''66 ; of summer at 6i"'34, and of autumn at 

 5o°'45. The coldest winter was that of 1845 ; the warmest 

 that of i86g; the difference being lo-'gg. The coldest 

 spring was that of 1845 ; the warmest that of 1S48 ; the 

 difference, 5°'84. The coldest summer was that of i860 ; 

 the warmest that of 1859 ; the difference being 6"74. The 

 coldest autumn was that of 1S67; the warmest that of 

 1S57 ; the difference being 6''22. 



Mr. Prince points out that "the mean annual tempera- 

 ture varies 5''3,viz. ; from 5 i'''93 in 1S57 to46°'62 in 1845, 

 and although at first sight this difference may not appear 

 considerable, yet it is sufficient to exert an enormous in- 

 fluence upon the general character of the seasons, the 

 produce of the soil, and the health of the population. The 

 Registrar- Oeneral's interesting returns have fully estab- 

 lished the important fact that there is a very intimate 

 connection between temper.ature and mortality. Whenever 

 the mean temperature falls to 45°, or thereabouts, the 

 number of deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs 

 increases, and should it fall below 40', death-rate from 

 such diseases is still higher. When a period of intense 

 cold prevails, so that the temperature scarcely rises above 

 the freezing point for two or three weeks, the number of 

 deaths will be found to exceed what takes place during an 

 epidemic of cholera or scarlet fever. But when the mean 

 tempe'-ature rises to 55°, there will be an increase in the 

 number of deaths from diseases of the abdominal viscera, 

 and this number will fluctuate as the temperature fluctuates 

 between 55° and 65°. Hence we are informed that the 

 mortality from all causes is least when the temperature is 

 about 50°, which is very little above our mean annual 

 temperature." In this way Mr. Prince deduces important 

 conclusions from statistics, and renders his book much 

 lighter reading than might have been anticipated. He 

 devotes a chapter to the general characters of the months, 

 and then inserts a series of monthly remarks respecting 

 atmospheric phenomena from the year 1S43 to 1870, both 

 inclusive. His fifth chapter treats of prognostics of atmo- 

 spheric changes, and includes a translation of the poet 

 Aratus' " Uiosemeia." He remarks very sensibly that with 

 reference to prognostics of seasons, there are very few 

 upon which any reliance can be placed. But the following, 

 of which we can only quote a few, need not, he thinks, be 

 altogether discarded. 



From whatever quarter the wind blows at 'the quarter 

 days, there is a probability of its being the prevalent wind 

 during the ensuing quarter. Whenever the latter part of 

 February and beginning of March are dry, there will be a 

 deficiency of rain up to Midsummer-day. When the 

 foliage of the ash appears before that of the oak, we shall 

 probably h.ave much rain the first half of the summer ; but 

 there will be a good harvest-time. When during the 

 spring more swifts than swallows arrive, expect a hot and 

 dry summer. Many other prognostics of change of 

 weather are given, drawn from the habits of mammals, 



birds, insects, and plants, some of which are very 

 curious. 



The last chapter gives some vital statistics in regard to 

 the population of the country ; from which it appears that 

 Sussex is one of the most salubrious counties in England, 

 its death-rate being r82 per cent., in which it is surpassed 

 only by the extra-Metropolitan portion of Surrey, the 

 mortality of which is only 178 ; whilst that of Lancashire 

 is 2 78 per cent. Upon the whole we warmly recommend 

 Mr. Prince's book to our readers, and trust that some of 

 them may be induced to commence a similar series of 

 observations. A flora of the district, with the times of 

 flowering .of the plants, would, we think, be an interesting 

 addition to Mr. Prince's work. H. P. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 

 communications. ] 



Circumpolar Land 



In a previous letter* I have endeavoured to show that the land 

 surrounding the North Pole is rising in a continuous and definite 

 area. I find that what I there said about the land north of 

 America is very scanty and unsatisfactory, and before proceed- 

 ing to the next part of my subject, I wish to strengthen it some- 

 what. Speaking of the eastern part of Melville Island, Captain 

 Parry says one of the I/aia^s men brought to the boat a narwhal 

 horn, which he found on a hill more than a mile from the sea. 

 Sergeant Martin and Captain Sabine's servant brought down 

 to the beach several pieces of fir tree, which they found nearly 

 buried in the sand, at the distance of 300 or 400 yards from the 

 present high- water mark, and not less than thirty feet above the 

 sea level (Parry's Voyage, 1819, 1S20, p. 6S). Again, " in the 

 north of Melville Island, two pieces of drift wood were found, 

 ten or twenty feet above the present sea level, and both 

 partly buried in the sand " (p. 193). Again, speaking of west 

 of the same island, " Tlie land gains upon the sea, as it is called, 

 in process of time, as it has certainly done here, from the situation 

 in which we found the drift wood and the skeletons of whales" 

 (P- 235)- 



In Franklin's voyage in 1S19, 20, and 21, he mentions having 

 found much drift wood in the estuary of the Copper Mine River. 

 He also picked up "some decayed wood far out of reach of the 

 water " (see his narrative, p. 357). In his second voy.ige along 

 the Arctic Sea, he describes the coast from the Mackenzie River 

 to the Rocky Mountains as very shallow, and full of shoals and 

 reefs. Inside some of the latter was brackish water, as was also 

 the water in pools at some distance inland ; piles of wood were 

 also thrown up far from the coast (see p. 134). While Fr.anklin 

 surveyed the coast westward, Dr. Richardson did the same to the 

 east. lie says, " On the coast from Cape Lyon to Point Keats, 

 there is a line of large drift timber, evidently thrown up by the 

 waves, about twelve feet in perpendicular height above the or- 

 dinary spring tides." He shortly afterwards mentions that in the 

 Polar Sea, when cumbered with ice, such waves are impossible, 

 and as his journey was in the hottest season, and the sea was then 

 crowded with hummocks, the inference that the drift wood was 

 thrown up by the waves is inadmissible ; and the line of drift 

 wood twelve feet above the sea level is only a parallel to the 

 numerous cases we have mentioned. The vast sheet of shallow 

 and brackish water, 140 miles long and 150 broad, which is 

 separated from the Polar Sea by low banks and spits of sand, 

 and is called by Dr. Richardson Esquimaux Lake, formed, there 

 can be little doubt, very recently, as that traveller suggested, a 

 bay of the Polar Sea, and is an example of the formation of huge 

 brackish lakes by a sea which is constantly contracting, such as 

 are so familiar in the eastern borders of the Caspian. 



It would be Impossible, in the short space at my command, to 

 collect the many instances of the same kind that are found in the 

 later Arctic voyages ; but I would especi.aUy commend the pages 

 of Captain Maclure's and of Sir Edward Belcher's narratives, as 

 containing very striking ones. 



The orthodox school of physical geographers generally speak 

 * See Nature, vol. v., p; 163. 



