August 23, 1883] 



NATURE 



407 



altogether, and only takes the east and west components into 

 consideration. Mr. Chambers, on the other hand, while attach- 

 ing considerable importance to the meridional components, ex- 

 cept very near the Poles, omits curiously enough all reference to 

 the probable corresponding variations in the upper currents of 

 the atmosphere, upon which Kykatcheff discourses most effec- 

 tively. Each theory alone is defective ; a combination of the 

 two would probably form a fairly satisfactory explanation of a 

 considerable part of the diurnal variation, though it will be safer 

 at present to conclude that, while there is a very intimate rela- 

 tion between the diurnal variation of the wind and the barome- 

 tric tides, we d > not as yet know for certain whether either is 

 the cause of the other or whether both are not effects of s inn- 

 common cause. 1 



Mr. Blanford discusses the diurnal variation of the wind at 

 Calcutta through the medium of Bessel's interpolation formula, 

 and by comparing similar terms in the wind and barometric 

 equations deduces several interesting results. Thus the single 

 (semicircular) oscillation of the north and south components, is 

 found to represent in all probability the diurnal land and sea 

 breeze, while the single oscillation of the east component 

 cides in direction and phase w ith the rise and fall of the day land 

 wind from the interior of the continent. - 



Dealing in like manner with the double (quadrantal) terms, it 

 is shown that the variations of both the north and south compo- 

 nents and east and west components is very similar to that of 

 the second term in the barometric fluctuation, though the course 

 of the north and south com onents is exactly the reverse in 

 direction of those at Bombay. 



In part ii. of this paper the thermal, baric, and hyetic wind- 

 roses are discussed. The results may be briefly summed up 

 as follow- : — (1) that polar currents play no part in the wind SJ s- 

 tem of Bengal, which indeed might have been anticipated, owing 

 to the presence of the Himalayan barrier to the north isolating 

 India in so unique a manner from extra-tropical influences; (2) 

 that rain is most probable, not when the monsoon current is 

 blowing steadily, but "when it is deflected from its normal 

 direction by some local irregularity of pressure," in other words, 

 when small depressions prevail, and in this respect it would seem 

 that the law is one of general incidence ; (3) that when the 

 periodic components are eliminated there is no definite relation 

 between rhe non-periodic variations of presure and those of 

 temperature and humidity. This result is just what we should 

 expect from a local application of the statistical method, now we 

 know, thanks to the recent development of the synoptic method, 

 that the larger oscillations of pressure which accompany the 

 passage of cyclones and anticyclones, are due to conditions which 

 are in operation over regions widely removed from those where 

 such oscillations prevail. This conclusion, moreover, so far as 

 India is concerned, derives fresh sup, ort of late from the fact 

 that certain abnormal features in the pressure over India and 

 adjoining countries during the droughts and famines in Madras 

 and the North-West Provinces in 1876-77 were due to some 

 widespread influence which mainly affected the atmosphere above 

 the level of the Himalayan sanitaria (7000 feet), since the varia- 

 tions in the density of the atmospheric stratum beloiv this level 

 were not only opposite to those at the higher levels, but to those 

 which prevailed in the total pressures at the lower stations 

 throughout the Peninsula. 



Paper II. " The Meteorology and Climate of Yarkand and 

 Kashgar." — This is a discussion chiefly of the registers kept by 

 Dr. Scully, of the Bengal Medical Service, who, in the autumn 

 of 1874, accompanied the mission sent by the Indian Govern- 

 ment to Kashgaria under the charge of Mr. R. B. Shaw. The 

 observations were carefully made, and as they represent a dis- 

 trict whose meteorology had hitherto been entirely unknown, and 

 of which we can only get samples by the aid of such rare oppor- 

 tunities as political embassies, their discussion is well worth the 

 labour which Mr. Blanford has bestowed upon it. 



Where it was possible, on the route, and at Yarkand and 

 Kashgar on four days in each month, horary observations were 

 made. 



Some evidence of the laborious nature of the task to which 

 Dr. Scully so nobly devoted himself may be gathered from the 

 fact that in order to get a second observer he was obliged to 

 teach an uneducated hill coolie named Bhola, first the use of 



1 A full account of Mr. Chambers' theory is given in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, 1873, and in the Proc. Roy. Soc, xxv., p. 402. 



8 This wind is called an anti-convection current, as will subsequently be 

 seen in our notice of a paper by Mr. Chambers on " The Winds of 

 Kurrachee." 



English numerals, then decimal fractions, and finally the mode 

 of reading and recording the various instruments in the newly- 

 acquired notation. 



Any one who knows the amount of intelligence evinced by the 

 ordinary Indian coolie, will agree with Mr. Blanford in his re- 

 mark that " it was an achievement which reflected the highest 

 credit on both teacher and pupil." 



From the geographical description of the country which 

 accompanies Dr. Scully's report, we gather that the soil is very 

 arid, the rivers are chiefly snow-fed, and that there are deposits of 

 bless, similar in all respects to that of the Rhine and the Danube. 

 By many, this loess is inferred to be of subaerial origin, and the 

 peculiar du-t-haze which prevails in these legions, is cited in 

 favour of this idea. 1 



Hie chief points noticed in this paper are: (1) the excessive 

 dryness of the climate and consequent large amplitude of the 

 diurnal temperature oscillation ; (2) the abnormally large annual 

 range of barometric pressure ; and (3) the fact that the non- 

 periodic oscillations of barometric pressure at Yarkand, unlike 

 those of stations situated to the south of the Kuen-Lun, Kara- 

 It Oram, and Himalaya ranges, appear to have some sort of 

 connection with those of Europe. Such large oscillations are in 

 fact probably confined to the lower and denser portion of the 

 atmosphere, which is effectually partitioned oil' from the north by 

 ranges of such lofty elevation. 



The latter part of the paper deals with the diurnal periodic 

 oscillations in the pressure, vapour tension, ami « inds, and it 

 may be observed that, in regard to the first of these, Yarkand is 

 found to exceed in range any other place under an equally high 

 latitude. Even in winter it averages 0^07 inches between 10 

 a.m. and 4 p.m., while in June and July it is 0-098 inches 

 between the same hours. 



In other respects the curve is characteristically continental, the 

 fall of the night tide being almost evanescent. 



The diurnal variation of the wind at Yarkand also presents a 

 peculiarity worthy of remark, in that, as at Zikawei, in China, and 

 Upsala, in Sweden, it violates the general rule that easterly com- 

 ponent- prevail in the morning and westerly in the afternoon. 

 Like the sea in these places, the d> sert stretches to the east of 

 Yarkand, and there is every reason to suppose lhat something 

 analogous to a sea-coast system of local convection currents 

 exists which overrides the normal right-handed rotation of the 

 diurnal breeze. 



( To be continued.) 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



The Gilchrist Engineering Entrance Scholarship at Univer- 

 sity College, Londo 1, will be open to competition at the end of 

 September. The conditions of examination are this year some- 

 what altered in a direction which places the scholarship better 

 within the reach of those for whose benefit it was founded. The 

 detailed regulations can be obtained on application to the secre- 

 tary of University College ; the following is a summary of 

 them : — Candidates must be unde-r nineteen years of age, and 

 must send in notice to compete by September 23. The subjects 

 of examination are (1) elementary mathematics, and (2) any two 

 or more of the following five subjects : mechanics, mechanical 

 drawing, essay on one of three given subjects connected with 

 mechanics or engineering, French or German, the use of tools, 

 either carpenters' tool-, or the !r"he (wood or metal), or the file. 

 The Scholarship is of the value of 35/. per annum, and is tenable 

 for two years. There is also at University College a Senior 

 Engineering Scholarship, awarded at the close of the session, of 

 the value of 80/. The regulations affecting this scholarship, as 

 well as those of the Andrews Entrance Prizes, &c, can be 

 obtained on application to the Secretary. 



University College, Dundee, has already issued its first 

 Calendar, necessarily a thin one, but bound to increase in size. 

 So far as the science classes are concerned, and these are the 

 prominent features in the College, the arrangements are fairly 



1 Ricbthofen, in his work on China, similarly attributes the enormously 

 thick formations of loess in the northern part uf that country, to the action of 

 the winds. It seems reasonable, however, to imagine that, like the analogous 

 European deposits, it might have been originally deposited as Pleistocene 

 glacial unstratified mud from the neighbouring Thian-Shan and Kuen-Lun 

 ranges, and that it has since been redistributed and perhaps in part aug- 

 mented, by asolian action. The fact that it occurs in North China, and not 

 South China, and that traces of the Glacial period extend as far south as the 

 Himalaya, favours this supposition. 



