354 



NATURE 



\August 9, ii 



with tlie existing Suez Canal. Under Said Pasha he was ap- 

 pointed head of the Fonts et Chausees department, and chief 

 engineer of the Suez Canal project. In early lite he travelled 

 much in Abyssinia, Kordofan, and Darfur. 



Sir Claude de Crespigny, in company with Mr. Simmons, 

 made a successful balloon voyage from Maldon in Essex across 

 the North Sea to Flushing on Wednesday last week. The start 

 was made at II a.m., and Flushing was reached about 8 p.m. 

 The highest altitude reached was 17,000 feet. 



Waiischaff of Berlin has lately made a piece of apparatus 

 for registering earth currents. It consists of a very delicate 

 galvanometer inclosed in a case with a clockwork arrangement 

 for moving a photographic plate steadily downwards. A fine 

 ray of light is reflected on to the galvanometer mirror by a total 

 reflection prism and is focused on the photographic plate. The 

 speed of the movement of the plate is 80 mm. per hour, thus 

 allowing variations from minute to minute to be observed. 



MM. Lelande and Chaferon have brought out a new 

 battery of very remarkable properties. The battery is a single 

 liquid cell and has a depolarising electrode of oxide of copper, 

 the liquid used is caustic potash, and the other pole is zinc. The 

 battery is made in various forms, its E.M.F. is nearly I volt, 

 whilst it is said to give a steady current through even a low 

 resistance for many hours. Finally it is claimed for this battery 

 that when exhausted it can be restored by driving a current from 

 an accumulator through it. 



A new edition (the fifth) is announced of the ' ' Dictionnaire 

 des Arts et Manufactures et de l'Agriculture," edited by M. Ch. 

 Laboulaye. 



Mr. Browne asks us to say that in his recent article on 

 Glacier Motion, p. 235, by a slip of the pen he stated that the 

 sides of a glacier move faster than the middle, whereas, as every 

 one knows, the reverse is the case. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past « eek include a Grivet Monkey (Crrcopilhecus griseo-viridis 6 ) 

 from West Africa, presented by Lord Hastings; two Black- 

 backed Jackals (Cam's mesomelas), two Triangular Pigeons 

 (Columba guinea) from South Africa, presented by Mr. R. 

 Southey ; two Indian Brush-tailed Porcupines (Atherma fascicu- 

 late) from Ceylon, presented by Mr. A. Dent ; three Puffins 

 (Fralocula arctica), British, presented by Mr. H. Becher; a 

 Common Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), British, presented 

 by Mr. W. R. Temple ; a Common Barn Owl {Strix flammed), 

 British, presented by Mr. H. Hanaeur ; a Common Wombat 

 (Phascolomys wombat i ) from Tasmania, a Common Cormorant 

 (Phalacrocorax carbo), British, a Common Boa (Boa constrictor) 

 from West Indies, deposited ; a White Stork (Ciconia alba), 

 two Common Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia), two Purple Herons 

 (Ardea purpurea), European, purchased ; a Musk Deer (Moschus 

 moschiferus $ ) from Central Asia, received on approval ; a 

 Collared Fruit Bat (Cynonycteris collaris), two Amherst's 

 Pheasants (Thauma/ea amhersticc), two Summer Ducks (Aix 

 sponsa), bred in the Gardens. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF 

 THE TRANSMISSION EASTWARDS ROUND 

 THE GLOBE OF BAROMETRIC ABNORMAL 

 MOVEMENTS 



TN his paper on "Abnormal Variations of Barometric Pressure 

 in the Tropics, and their Relation to Sun-spots, Rainfall, 

 aDd Famines," published in Nature (vol. xxiii. pp. 88 and 

 107), Mr. Fred. Chambers pointed out, when treating of the 

 barometric records of the stations, St. Helena, Mauritius, Bombay, 

 Madras, Calcutta, Batavia, and Zi-ka-wei, that abnormal move- 

 ments which had occurred at a westward station — e.g. Mauritius — 

 reappeared at an eastern station — e.g. Bombay — some time later, 



and then again at a further eastern station, Madras, still later, 

 and so on, until they finally reached the most distant station 

 eastwards. It appeared therefore that there were abnormal 

 movements of the atmospheric pressure which travelled from west 

 to east ; the rate of travel seemed to vary at different times ; and 

 Mr. Chambers summed up his results in the following words : — 

 "It appears then that these atmospheric waves (if such they 

 may be called) travel at a very slow and variable rate round the 

 earth from west to east like the cyclones of extra-tropical 

 latitudes." 



In his " Brief Sketch of the Meteorology of the Bombay Pre- 

 sidency in 1880," Mr. Chambers proceeded to test the validity 

 of 'his conclusions by applying them to an examination of 

 the barometric records of Zanzibar for that year and a portion of 

 the next as compared with the records of Belgaum for the same 

 period; and he again noticed that " there was much similarity 

 in the abnormal movements of barometric pressure at Zanzibar 

 and Belgaum, although these stations are about 2500 miles apart, 

 but that the Belgaum curve lagged decidedly from two to three 

 months behind the Zanzibar curve." 



This discovery, if substantiated, would obviously prove of great 

 practical value, inasmuch as it would make it possible to obtain 

 a forecast of the barometric movements about to occur at any 

 particular station by watching the movements already taking 

 place at a point westward of that station. And as definite varia- 

 tions in the atmospheric pressure may be, and in some cases arc 

 known to be, accompanied by definite variations in the other 

 meteorological elements, a method of weather prediction would 

 thus be furnished. 



It has fallen to my lot to receive and discuss the Zanzibar 

 observations succeeding those last discussed by Mr. Chambers ; 

 and the results obtained by my examination of them seem to 

 involve matters of some practical and theoretical interest. 



Table I. — Monthly Abnormal Barometric Pressure at Zanzibar, 

 Belgaum, and Bombay 



From these observations the variations from the normal 

 monthly barometric movements have been obtained. '1 hey are 

 tabulated in Table I., and are represented graphically by the 



