Sept. 13, 1877] 



NA TURE 



425 



may turn out to be to some extent accidental, yet the 

 results can hardly be regarded as very far from correct. 

 And in a case of such importance to the maritime engi- 

 neer where we have so very few direct observations of the 

 waves in the open sea to guide us, and where it is unde- 

 niable that all such observations are invariably found to 

 be excessively difficult to get, and even when got prove 

 often unsatisfactory, any contribution to our knowledge, 

 however imperfect, may be considered of some value ; 

 and all the more when, as in this case, the curve traced 

 out on the beach is the result of long-continued action 

 produced by innumerable storms. 



yl RUSSIAN ACCOUNT OF SCIENTIFIC 

 PROGRESS IN INDIAN 



WE have already noticed the meteorological journey 

 of M. Wojeikott" round the world. The volume 

 referred to below contains a series of letters written to 

 Baron Osten-Sacken and M. Rykatcheff during his stay 

 in India (December, 1875, to February, 1876). 



He had great hopes of the development of meteorology 

 in India. A series of stations working upon one uniform 

 plan, together with a system of weather-warnings, was 

 about to be established throughout the country under the 

 superintendance of Mr. Blanford. That gentleman ex- 

 pected a great deal from a thoroughly organised system 

 of weather-forecasts, owing to the periodicity and com- 

 parative regularity of meteorological phenomena in India. 

 The non-periodical fluctuations are yet certainly very 

 large — especially as to rains — but they are less compli- 

 cated than elsewhere, and it was likely to bs easier to 

 detect the laws they obey. Already in 1874 the Govern- 

 ment asked Mr. Wilson whether it was probable that 

 the rainy period would be as short that year as it was 

 in 1S73 ; Mr. Wilson answered] that he expected heavy 

 rains at the end of the monsoons, and October was 

 in fact very rainy. The importance of such forecasts 

 may be seen at a glance, as the rice-crops depend entirely 

 upon the quantity of rains and the time when they finish, 

 the rice-fields giving the best crops when they remain 

 under water during the first two months after the sowing. 



A subject treated at greater length by M. Wojeikoff is 

 the Black Earth of India. This fertile soil appears mostly 

 in the western and southern parts of the country, especially 

 on the table-land of the Deccan, whilst on the plains of 

 Bengal and in the north-western provinces it is, on the con- 

 trary, nearly wanting. It attains its largest development on 

 traps, being found only as smaller patches on the bottoms 

 of valleys in the districts of crystalline rocks. Altogether, 

 it does not occupy in India such extensive uninterrupted 

 spaces as in Southern Russia, and even in the provinces 

 where it is most developed, it covers but from fifty to 

 seventy per cent, of the surface of the land. The data as 

 to its thickness are few ; six feet is not unusual, but thick- 

 nesses of twenty feet must have been observed on some 

 deposits washed down from the slopes of the hills. A few 

 analyses show a percentage of from 77 to 9'2 of organic 

 matters, not much different from what was found in the 

 black earth of Russia. 



As to its origin, the most curious opinions continue to 

 prevail among Indian geologists. Some suppose it to be 

 merely a product of the disaggregation of traps ; others 

 continue to support the old opinion as to its origin in 

 marshe;. Dr. Oldham, who was the first to renounce an 

 erroneous view long established in Western Europe, in a 

 letter to M. Wojeikoff, adopted the theory of the origin 

 of black earth from "a dense vegetable growth, princi- 

 pally herbaceous, but partly arborescent," although there 

 are localities where it may have come " from jheels and 

 marshes." M. Wojeikoff supports the opinion now pre- 

 vailing in Russia, that Black Earth is the result of a 

 herbaceous steppe-vegetation accumulated during long 



' IstYstia of the Russ. Geogr. Soc , 1S76, No. 3. 



centuries. He points out that its marshy origin is con- 

 tradicted by the facts that, I, the percentage of organic 

 matter in its upper and lower parts is much the same, 

 while in marshy deposits it constantly decreases in the 

 upper patts ; and 2, Black Earth never contains a large 

 amount of acids, as is always the case in marshy deposits. 

 Therefore, Black Earth mostly covers the surface of the 

 Ijwer table-lands, and is of far rarer occurrence in the 

 bottoms of valleys. As to these latter deposits many 

 misconceptions still prevail. Many of them are secondary, 

 being washed down by rains from the tops and slopes of 

 hills, and M. Wojeikoff supposes that the black-earth in 

 the lower parts of the Ncrbudda, Taptee, Godavery, 

 Kistna valleys, &c., has mostly such a secondary origin. 

 There are many instances when the black-earth of low 

 levels is not a secondary deposit. It is then the product 

 of a grassy meadow-vegetation, grown upon the former 

 marshy deposit after the total draining up of the marsh. 



We notice, also, his remarks upon the interest afforded 

 by India for ethnographical and anthropological explo- 

 rations. There is much to do in these departments. An 

 official report says that not less than two-thirds of the 

 old monuments of India remain unexplored ; and there 

 are large parts of the country, as, for instance, the Central 

 Provinces, where almost nothing was done in this 

 direction. The question as to the origin of some of the 

 aborigines of India is still very obscure. The origin of 

 the Dravidians, for instance, seems to be very uncertain, 

 and M. Wojeikoff had much trouble to procure for Dr. 

 Hochstetter some twenty photographs of this interesting 

 people. He warmly recommends India as a field for 

 anthropologists. 



METEOROLOGY AND THE INDIAN FAMINE 



•T^HE following letter appeared in the Times of Satur- 

 -'■ day last : — 

 In a recent article on the Indian Famine you asked 

 whether science could do nothing to foresee and pro- 

 vide for these appalling calamities. I think that, as 

 regards Madras at any rate, science may safely accept 

 your challenge. The present famine was foreseen on 

 meteorological grounds last year, and the continued 

 drought during the present summer (an unusual feature in 

 Indian famines) was indicated in a printed research as 

 early as February. Meteorologists have for some time 

 been aware that the eleven years' cycle of sun-spots is 

 coincident with a cycle of atmospheric conditions pro- 

 ducing ascertained terrestrial effects. Thus the minimum 

 periods of sun-spot activity are coincident with the 

 minimum appearances of the aurora and with the 

 minimum number of cyclones, while the maximum periods 

 of sun-spot activity are contemporaneous with the maxi- 

 mum activity of the aurora and of cyclones. The coinci- 

 dence between the sun-spot cycles and the variations in 

 the indications of the magnetic needle has also been 

 affirmed, and a periodic connection between solar activity 

 and terrestrial magnetism is now an accepted fact of 

 science. A similar connection betv/een the eleven years' 

 cycle of sun-spots and the temperature and rainfall had 

 also been suspected, and various researches had been 

 undertaken to s'now that the supposition was well founded. 

 It was at this stage of the inquiry that Dr. \V. W. Hunter, 

 the Director-General of Statistics to the Government of 

 India, commenced his investigations last year into the rain- 

 fall of Madras. During this century six years of minimum 

 sun-spots had occurred (1810 to 1867) ; and for practical 

 purposes the present year, 1S77, may be taken as the 

 seventh period of minimum sun-spots within this century. 

 Dr. Hunter also found that six great scarcities of suffi- 

 cient gravity to be officially returned as " famines " had 

 occurred during the same period (1810-77). Of these 

 six famines five were caused by years of drought coinci- 

 dent with, or adjnining to, the periods cf minimum sun- 



