APRIL 21, 1904] 
NATURE 587 
‘what may be below. The ore is a hard specular hematite, 
with, on an average, 60 per cent. of metallic iron, much 
-of it going up even to 67 per cent. 
THE recent annual presidential address of Mr. T. Fairley 
‘to the Society of Analysts has been published as 
“pamphlet, a copy of which has reached us. The president, 
we notice, directed attention to the fact that we are falling 
behind both Germany and America in research work in 
analytical chemistry, and proceeded to urge each member 
of the society to do his utmost, not only to remove this 
reproach, but to seek to restore to this country a front rank | 
..in the cultivation of this branch of chemistry. 
THERE was a considerable attendance at the triennial 
meeting of the German Meteorological Society held at 
Berlin during Easter week, under the presidency of Prof. 
‘von Bezold, the meetings being held at the Institut fur 
Meereskunde. Numerous papers were read and discussed, 
those on April 7 and 9 being mainly meteorological, and 
those on April 8 electrical and magnetical, the one. which 
occasioned the most animated discussion being communi- 
-cated by Prof. Holdefleiss, Halle—* Ueber die meteor- 
ologischen Ursachen des Auswinterns des Getreides.’’ On 
the afternoon of April 7 the members were conducted over 
the Meteorological Institute in the Schinkelplatze; that of 
April 8 was devoted to the Physical Observatory at Pots- 
dam; that of April 9 to the meteorological and military 
balloon and kite flying establishments at Tegel, and 
-the evening to the Geographical Society's meeting; and 
Sunday evening to the Astronomical Observatory at 
Treptow. At Tegel the Luftschiff military section charged 
a balloon of 600 cubic metres within three minutes; within 
fifteen minutes it had been attached to its car, and, with 
two officers on board, had disappeared beyond the clouds. 
'The military authorities also carried out wireless telegraphy 
experiments by means of kites. Dr. Assmann, in charge 
of the meteorological station, had observations taken at a 
considerable elevation by means of a kite, and 
dispatched a small rubber free balloon with a set of in- 
struments attached. 
also 
Ix accordance with an imperial decree, the duties of the 
Earthquake Committee of the Academy of Sciences of 
Vienna have been transferred to the Central Meteorological 
Office, the director of which is Dr. J. M. Pernter. The 
title of the institution is now changed to K.k. Zentral- 
anstalt fiir Meteorologie und Geodynamik. 
Ix our issue of December 10, 1903 (p. 135), attention was 
directed to some of the leading features of a paper read by 
Dr. H. R. Mill at a meeting of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers on November 24, on the mean and extreme 
annual rainfall over the British Isles. A complete copy of 
this valuable paper has now been received, containing an 
abstract of the discussion upon it. It is accompanied by 
three tinted maps showing respectively the mean rainfall 
in 1870-99, the maximum rainfall in 1872, and the mini- 
mum in 1887. 
the positions of stations used, and the distribution of the 
extremes of annual rainfall, the years of occurrence being 
entered in the geographical positions of the stations. A 
glance at the map of stations shows that great care has | 
been exercised in their selection, and that materials were 
forthcoming (except in one or two of the Irish districts) for 
a remarkably uniform distribution of stations over the | 
whole of the British Islands. 
Tue great dustfall of February, 1903, has been discussed 
by Dr. H. R. Mill and R. G. K. Lempfert, and the results 
No. 1799, VOL. 69] 
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a separate | 
There are also three outline maps showing | 
published in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteor- 
ological Society of January last. Before the completion of 
this investigation an elaborate discussion of the same pheno- 
menon was published by Dr. E. Hermann, of Hamburg, 
in the Annalen der Hydrographie October and 
November, 1903. The English authors have approached the 
subject from a somewhat different point of view from that 
taken by Dr. Hermann, and have concerned themselves 
mainly with the relation between the fall of dust and the 
larger motions of the atmosphere, illustrated by a series of 
maps embracing the North Atlantic and the western portion 
of Europe. They have also paid more particular attention 
to the fall over the British Islands. The area over which 
it fell thickly: in’ England and Wales is estimated at not less 
than 20,000 square miles, to the sovth of a line drawn from 
Anglesey through Wrexham and Northampton to Ipswich, 
and the total deposit in England is estimated at not less 
than ten million tons. There is strong evidence in favour 
of the dust being of African origin, and that it travelled 
at a very high altitude. The paper includes some interest- 
ing descriptions of competent observers, and a valuable note 
of a microscopical examination of a number of specimens 
of the dust by Dr. J. S. Flett, of H.M. Geological Survey. 
for 
Pror. H. F. Oszorn sends us an interesting photograph 
of the Tasmanian wolf taken by Mr. E. T. Keller, and here 
reproduced. The photograph _ illustrates interesting 
observation made by Mr. Keller that in the resting position 
an 
Or as 
Fic. r.—Resting Position of the Tasmanian Wolf. 
the stiff tail is used to support the animal. Prof. Osborn 
remarks :—‘‘ I have not seen this interesting fact recorded 
elsewhere. It is, however, possible that it is well known 
among students of the habits of this animal.”’ 
Tur occasional appearance during winter of pipistrelle 
bats, hedgehogs, and frogs, according to a paper by Mr. 
C. B. Moffat in the April number of the Irish Naturalist, 
is, in Ireland at any rate, much more frequent than is 
commonly supposed. In the same issue Mr. G. C. Gough 
discusses the formation of iron-ore in Lough Neagh, and 
concludes that this is chiefly due to the decomposition of the 
magnetite in the surrounding rocks. 
Amonc the contents of the Jahrbuch of the Nassau 
Naturalists’ Union, published at Wiesbaden, is an article 
by the editor, Dr. A. Pachenstacher, on the hawk-moths 
and Bombycida collected by Baron Carlos von Erlanger 
during his travels in Shoa, Gallaland, and Somaliland in 
and 1901. In another paper Dr. W. Schuster de- 
scribes the enormous number of long-eared owls nesting 
in the warm Mayence basin. 
1900 
