[24 



NA TURE 



[February i, 1906 



Schutzgebieten (vol. xviii., part iv.). With this number is 

 issued a new map of the region, and also a map of Togo- 

 land on a scale of i : 200,000. 



Prof. H. Fischer and Prof. F. Guillotel write in the 

 Zeitschrift of the Berlin Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde (No. 

 in, 1905) and in La Gi'ographie (vol. xii., No. 4) on the 

 position of geography, and the teaching of geography, in 

 the I nited States. In both papers there is much to interest 

 and stimulate teachers of the subject in this country. We 

 note with pleasure the well deserved tribute which both 

 writers pay to the work of Prof. W. M. Davis. 



We have received the annual number for 1905 of 

 Mazama, the publication of the well known American 

 mountaineering club. Mr. Henry Gannett contributes a 

 paper on Lake Chelan and its glacier, and Mr. II. F. 

 Reid describes the glaciers of Mount Hood and Mount 

 Adams. The rest of the number is chiefly devoted to 

 accounts of the work of the club during the year. Some 

 of the photographs illustrating the " Rainier outing " are 

 of great excellence. 



Tin- director of the new Japanese Meteorological Service 

 of Corea, Mr. Y. Wada, has lost no time in searching 

 for and publishing the results of observations existing in 

 that country. The Journal of the Meteorological Society 

 of Japan for November last contains summaries of rainfall 

 observations for the years 1896-1904 discovered at Seoul, 

 and compiled in the Chinese language by a Mr. Li. The 

 mean annual rainfall is about 35-4 inches, of which nearly 

 25 inches fall in the three summer months ; July has an 

 average fall of iij inches, and December only 28 inches. 

 The greatest daily falls occur in June and July, and exceed 

 5 inches on rare occasions. Rain falls, on an average, on 

 94 days in the year, and snow on 19 days. 



Mr. 'J. R. Sutton has communicated to the Transactions 

 of the S.uitl, African Philosophical Society (vol. xvi., 

 part ii.) a useful paper entitled " Some Results of Observ- 

 ations made with a Black Bulb Thermometer in vacuo." 

 Mr. Sutton states that the object of the investigation was 

 chiefly to ascertain some of the effects of various meteor- 

 ological influences upon the indications of the instrument, 

 not to discuss its suitability for the purposes of physical 

 research. We are glad to see, however, that he doe's not 

 share the opinion that has been sometimes expressed by 

 high authorities of the untrustworthiness of the black bulb 

 thermometer. We think it has been recently shown that 

 good instruments, after use for some years, give fairly 

 accurate comparative results, and, this being "the case, 

 their indications afford useful observations which cannot 

 otherwise be obtained at ordinary meteorological stations. 

 The author's observations show inter alia that at 

 Kimberlej the differences between the maxima in sun and 

 shade increase with fair uniformity from winter to summer, 

 the temperature in the sun increasing faster than that in 

 the shade A monthly comparison of various elements for 

 four years shows that there is not any very obvious re- 

 lation between the solar temperature and either the state 

 of the sky or the hygrometric condition of the air, except, 

 roughly, that the amount of cloud is Last and the tempera- 

 ture of the dew-point lowest in winter, when the black 



bulb temperatures are lowest and the differen I maxima 



least. The elements arranged in a sequence of cloud per- 

 centages sh.,w that tile temperature in the sun is at its 

 highest when the sky is half clouded. Mr. Sutton thinks 

 this seems to indicate that when the sky is more than half 

 covered the clouds are as likely to shut off the solar heat 

 NO. 1892, VOL. 73] 



as to impede radiation from the thermometer. We are 

 unable in this brief notice to refer to various other points 

 of interest in the paper. 



The paper on worm contact read by Mr. Robert A. 

 Bruce before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on 

 January 19 throws much light on the actions involved 

 with worm gearing. Many writers have contributed to 

 the theory of the subject, but hitherto experimental in- 

 vestigation has been singularly incomplete. Some of the 

 most interesting aspects of the question are dealt with by 

 the author, but further research work is necessary before 

 a complete account of the action of worm-gearing can be 

 drawn up. The author's paper will prove a valuable guide 

 to students of applied mechanics, and forms a welcome 

 addition to the proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers. 



The presidential address of Prof. J. F. Kemp to the 

 New York Academy of Sciences is printed in full in Science 

 of January 5. It deals in a popular manner with the 

 genesis of mineral veins. Ores, he shows, gather along 

 subterranean waterways. They may fill clean-cut fissures ; 

 they may impregnate porous rocks on either side; or they 

 may replace entirely soluble rocks. As to the source of 

 the water that accomplishes these results there has been 

 much discussion, the crucial point relating to the relative 

 importance of the two kinds of ground-waters, those from 

 the molten igneous rocks and those derived from the rains. 

 The author inclines to regard the latter, if not as the sole • 

 vehicle of introduction, as the preponderating one. 



In the current issue of the Engineering Magazine 

 (January) there is an interesting account of the first 

 attempt of the L ; nited States Government to develop a 

 source of fuel supply in the Philippines, where the 

 economic conditions are favourable, inasmuch as nothing 

 in the shape of a competing private coal-mining industry 

 is established there. Owing to the high calorific power of 

 the coal available, and to the fact that there is an ideal 

 harbour adapted for a coaling station, the small island of 

 Batan was selected as the site for the Government coal 

 mines. The coal is of Eocene age, and the greatest normal 

 thickness of any seam on the island is 8 feet. The coal 

 yields 40 per cent, of volatile constituents and 4 per cent, 

 to 7 per cent, of ash, whilst the fixed carbon in several 

 cases exceeds 50 per cent. The author of the paper, Mr. 

 O. II. Reinholt, was in charge of the development, and 

 the numerous illustrations he gives are reproduced from 

 photographs taken by himself. 



Mr. Consul Stevens, in his report on agriculture in 

 the Trans-Caucasus for the year 1905, refers, writes a con- 

 tributor to the Journal of I he Society of Arts, to the 

 ravages of locusts. The fields situated along the stretch of 

 land north and south of the river Kura are often visited 

 by this insect at a season of the year when, in view of 

 the forward state of the crops, their presence proves most 

 disastrous to the population. The Government has for 

 senile years been paying much attention to the destruction 

 of locusts, and with this object in view has endeavoured 

 to encourage the peasants to destroy locusts' eggs, or the 

 larvee. Accordingly the peasants dig holes or trenches, and 

 during the months of June and July the villagers go out 

 into the fields and drive the larva- into the trenches. This 

 measure has been crowned with a certain amount of success 

 during the present season, and the havoc done to the crops 

 by locusts has thereby been reduced to a minimum. i\o 

 fewer than 13,905,276 days' corvie work was done between 

 the years 1898 and 1904 in destroying locusts in the Sir. 



