250 
NATURE 
[JuLY 10, 1902 
THE United States Weather Bureau has just issued a paper by 
Prof. Alfred J. Henry on wind velocity and fluctuations of 
water level on Lake Erie. Continuous automatic records of 
the variations of level at Amherstburg and Buffalo for December, 
1899, to November, 1900, are correlated with wind records at 
Buffalo for the same period, and the material applied to analysis 
of seiches of different types, including the ‘fair weather” 
seiches and those accompanying storms. The period of the 
smaller seiches is about fourteen hours, that of the larger about 
sixteen hours. The occurrence of a severe seiche at Buffalo 
cannot be foretold many hours in advance, but sufficient time 
could generally be given to warn property interests along the 
wharves. 
THE report of the Californian section of the climate and crop 
service of the Weather Bureau, for April, contains an interesting 
note ona statement in the article on Francis Drake in the ‘‘ Dic- 
tionary of National Biography.” Referring to the position of 
Drake’s anchorage near the Golden Gate in June, 1579, the article 
says :—‘* The one doubtful point is the account of the climate, 
which is described with much detail as excessively cold and foggy. 
(Vaux, pp. 113-118). This is now said to be an exaggeration, but 
to speak of the climate near San Francisco or anywhere on that 
coast in July in these terms is not exaggeration, but a positive 
and evidently wilful falsehood (Greenhow, ‘ History of Oregon and 
California,’ 1845), credulously inserted by the original compiler of 
the ‘World Encompassed.’’’ The Weather Bureau station at 
Point Reyes Light, probably not more than three miles from 
Drake’s anchorage, amply confirms the correctness of Drake’s 
description. Fog is specially prevalent during the months June, 
July and August, and it is generally accompanied by strong 
north-westerly winds, often reaching a velocity of fifty miles an 
hour ; a comparison of the records with those from the stations 
at San Francisco and on Mount Tamalpais shows an astonishing 
contrast as regards temperature, relative humidity and duration 
of sunshine. Prof. George Davidson, who was in charge of the 
work of the Coast Survey in this region, and has published a 
paper on the “‘ Identification of Sir Francis Drake’s Anchorage on 
the Coast of California,” says ‘‘that from July 2, 1859, the fog 
hung over the promontory of Point Reyes for thirty-nine 
consecutive days and nights.” 
IN an article in NATURE of April 18, 1901, attention was 
directed to the commercial uses made of peat in Sweden, where 
it is coming largely into use as a substitute for coal for steam 
engines. In a recent number of the Angineer (June 27) an 
account is given, with illustrations, of the peat fuel works at 
Stangfiorden, in Norway, where electricity generated by water 
power has been in use since 1898 for the manufacture of peat 
for fuel, which is of the more interest because it is reported that 
negotiations are now in progress for the introduction of this 
system for the development of one of the water powers on the 
west coast of Ireland. So far peat fuel and moss litter are the 
only two products that have been obtained from a very limited 
number out of the numerous peat bogs to be found in this and 
other countries. The chief difficulty in manufacturing peat fuel 
jis the extraction of the water, which comprises about 85 per 
cent. of the whole bulk, and which must be removed before the 
remaining carbonaceous matter can be rendered available for 
fuel. At Stangfiorden the wet peat is brought direct from the 
bog to the factory in boats of 100 tons capacity ; the material 
is removed from these by electric agency and submitted to a 
preliminary operation of drying and pressing. The briquettes 
thus formed are then transported on small iron trolleys with 
shelves to the interior of the drying chamber. Warm air is 
driven through this by electric fans. From the drying chamber 
the blocks are taken on the same trolley to the retorts, where 
they are packed round spiral resistance coils and the electric 
NO. 1706, VOL. 66] 
heating agent set in operation, The peat yields—besides the 
fuel briquettes, which form 33 per cent. of the whole—tar, 
charcoal, creosote, sulphate of ammonia and other bye-products. 
The electric power is derived from five 80-kilowatt dynamos 
coupled direct to five turbines of 128 H.P. The plant is capable 
of turning out 1000 centners of air-dried peat a day. The fuel 
burns well, yields little soot or ash, and is readily disposed of 
in Bergen and other towns. 
FROM a paper communicated by Prof. Héfer to the Vienna. 
Academy of Sciences it appears that spring waters from a large 
number of different petroleum districts either contain no sul- 
phates or at most a minimal quantity of these salts. Under the 
influence of the petroleum and marsh gas, the sulphates have 
probably undergone reduction. It is pointed out that the 
absence of sulphuric acid in waters from petroleum provinces may 
be advantageously made use of in a practical way for ascertain- 
ing the whereabouts of petroleum deposits or inversely for 
determining the source of the waters in question. 
MEssrs. SANDERS AND CROWHURST have sent usa catalogue 
of the photographic apparatus which is made and sold by them. 
The list contains almost everything ‘that a photographer can 
desire ; many useful novelties are included. 
Messrs. A. W. PENROSE AND Co, are making Mr. Alex. 
Tallent’s diffraction spectroscope camera, an account of which 
instrument is given in a small pamphlet published by Messrs. 
Penrose. The main feature of this camera is that we have in a 
small compass a light, compact, handy and inexpensive spectro- 
scope, ready for use at any moment. Such an instrument is 
rendered possible only by the introduction of the Thorp diffrac- 
tion prism-grating, which does away with the necessity of a train 
of prisms to obtain large dispersion and what is also am 
important item, the outlay of considerable expense. The 
compactness of the instrument is due chiefly to the fact that 
the prism-grating forms a direct vision system. The instrument, 
a full account of which is given in the pamphlet, only costs 
from forty-five to sixty-three shillings, according to the require- 
ments of the user, and will be found very serviceable in many 
directions, such as the composition of various light sources, 
colour sensitiveness of plates, examination of dark-room filters, 
&c. The plate which accompanies the text describes better 
than words the different uses to which the instrument can be 
applied, and the scale on which the spectra are obtained. 
A COMPARATIVE study of the permeability of living and dead 
animal membranes by measurement of the electrolytic resistance 
has recently been made by Mr. G. Galeotti, and the results 
are published in Lo Sperimentah, Archivio di Biologia norm. e 
patol., vol. lvi. The living membranes were first investigated, 
and then after remaining in chloroform vapour for some time 
were again placed in the electrolytic cell and the resistance of 
the solution measured as before. Various salt solutions were 
employed, the strengths of these being in the majority of cases 
one-tenth normal. The author finds that the resistance of 
membranes, which in the animal body separate solutions of 
different nature and concentration from one another, is ten to 
forty times greater in the living condition than when the 
membranes are dead. The resistance of membranes, which 
have no functions of this character in the animal system, is, on the 
other hand, unaltered by the action of chloroform vapour. The 
conclusion is drawn that membranes of the first class, for 
example, from the czecum of the rabbit and the bladder of the 
turtle, behave as semipermeable membranes in the living con- 
dition, but this semipermeability is lost when the cells are dead. 
Membranes of the second class, on the other hand, act simply 
as diffusion membranes, and the permeability of these is the 
same whether living or dead. 
