January 28, 1909] 



NATURE 



great, shock. The extreme diameter of the seismic 

 area did not materially exceed 350 miles, and 

 making- every allowance, the area over which the shock 

 might have been felt — including in this the sea — could 

 not have been more than 95,000 square miles; in the 

 Californian earthquake of 1906, the corresponding 

 figure was 372,500, and in the Indian earthquake of 

 1S97 it was 1,750,000. These figures give some idea 

 of the relative magnitude of the three earthquakes, 

 and in the present state of the science it does not 

 srem possible to find a more satisfactory means of 

 comparison. 



A point which has attracted notice, and is worth}' 

 of attention, is the peculiar weather which accom- 

 panied and followed the earthquake. We need not 

 consider the fact that it coincided with the sudden 

 break-up of an equally sudden and severe frost over 

 northern Europe, nor the unusual cold and snow- 

 storms which have followed it in southern Italy. These 

 were due to meteorological conditions of great extent, 

 in all probability unconnected with, and independent 

 of, the earthquake, but the sudden fog which, accord- 

 ing to every account, settled on the Straits of Messina 

 stands in a ditferent case. The earthquake in Mexico 

 of January 24, 189S, was similarly followed by a 

 heavy mist, at a time of year when mists are usually 

 unknown, and rainfall is so frequently reported as the 

 immediate successor of an earthquake that we can 

 no longer reject the hypothesis of a real connection 

 between the two. Earthquake weather is a common 

 expression in earthquake countries, but is usually 

 applied to a heavy and oppressive feeling in the ait 

 which is supposed to precede an earthquake. Mr. 

 Maxwell Hall has attempted to find an explanation 

 in alterations of the barometric gradient by rapid 

 upheaval of the ground, and has shown that uplifts, 

 which are within the range of possibility, would 

 produce the required effects, but whether there is, 

 or is not, an earthquake weather, in 'the ordinary 

 sense of the words, there seems reason for be- 

 lieving that in another sense they represent a 

 ri ality, and that, as has been suggested by Prof. Milne, 

 the disturbance of the ground, when transmitted to 

 the overlying air, may determine precipitation, and 

 explain the apparent association of severe earthquakes 

 with mist and rain. W'hat may be the nature of the 

 influence we know not, but if mechanical, it must be 

 either the result of the vibratory motion of the ground, 

 or else of permanent changes of level, accompanied 

 by the sudden upheaval or depression of the overlying 

 column of air, and of this permanent change of level 

 we are still without any satisfactory evidence. In the 

 accounts which have reached us, quays and pierheads 

 are mentioned as having subsided beneath the water, 

 but there is nothing to show that more than a settle- 

 ment of made ground has taken place, while the 

 photographs which have been published suggest that 

 this rather than any displacement of the solid ground 

 is the explanation of the apparent subsidence, and 

 lhe_ commission appointed to inquire into the changes 

 which have taken place in the harbour of Messina 

 has reported that though the quays have been de- 

 stroyed in places, no permanent change has taken place 

 which will interfere with the continuation of its use 

 :i* a port. R. D. O. 



GRAVITATIONAL THEORIES. 

 T T is well known how cultivators of physical science 

 ■* in Great Britain lag behind the most up-to-date 

 I)hilosophical views in continuing to think that valu- 

 able light is thrown on physical phenomena by the 

 elaboration and study of mechanical analogies of more 

 familiar type, and more readily grasped by the mind. 

 NO. 204S, VOL. 79] 



These matters are, perhaps unfortunately, for us 

 largely the affair of specialists in science, who under- 

 stand both the value and the limitation of the method. 



For example, in the days of the very instructive — 

 and somewhat insular— ^mathematical development of 

 Lord Ivelvin's idea of vortex atoms, the mechanical 

 analogies of gravitation were much to the fore ; and 

 in particular Prof. W. M. Hicks elaborated, a quarter 

 of a century ago [e.g. in Camb. Phil. Soc. Proc, 

 October, 1879), on the basis of experiments by Guthrie 

 and others, a beautiful theory of how the attractions 

 of gravitation could be imitated by pulsating bodies 

 in a liquid medium. Further developments, theoretical 

 and experimental, of interesting character, with rela- 

 tion also to electrodynamics, were made in the well 

 known experiments of Bjerknes. Indeed, some such 

 notion is the only simple direct mode of imitating 

 gravitation which has presented itself; there is the 

 alternative, of course, that it may be a residual of other 

 more potent actions. 



In this regard, the pulsation analogy lies at the 

 back of the heads of most people interested in the 

 subject. But lest we forget, the watchful enterprise 

 of the daily Press in reporting by special correspond- 

 ence from Berlin the recent exciting revival of these 

 ideas illustrates one of the ways in which it can 

 keep us in - touch with the latest developments of 

 science. Doubtless the experimental phenomena 

 reported with so much emphasis will be found even- 

 tually to contain much that is interesting and useful 

 as new aspects of this well-worn subject. 



MOUNTAINEERING IN NORTHERN 

 NORWAY.'- 

 T^HERE being little left in Switzerland for the 

 -•• mountaineering pioneer, climbers who prefer 

 exploration to gymnastics have been driven further 

 afield. Mrs. le Blond (then Mrs. Fred Burnaby) was 

 one of the leaders in Swiss winter climbing; but 

 after fifteen seasons in the Alps she was induced to 

 visit northern Norway, partly from the desire for 

 virgin peaks and partly to give her well-known 

 guide, Imboden of St. Nicholas, a change of scene 

 after the death of his son on the Lyskamm. This 

 volume records the story of five seasons' climbing 

 amongst the glaciers and peaks of northern Norway 

 near Tromso. The narrative is pleasantly and 

 modestly written, and is occupied by short accounts 

 of the author's twentj'-seven first ascents in this 

 district. The country has many advantages over 

 Switzerland; it has the charms of solitude, of freedom, 

 and of being imperfectly mapped and explored ; until 

 recently its peaks were unclimbed, and many of them 

 even unnamed. 



Mountaineering in northern Norway is free from 

 two Alpine risks. No one can be benighted in this 

 land of continuous daylight, and there is no danger 

 from exposure to cold in the mild climate, re- 

 peatedly attributed by Mrs. le Blond to the Gulf 

 Stream, in which her faith is firm and primitive. 

 The country has, however, the drawbacks of long 

 spells of bad weather. On one occasion, for example, 

 two friends arrived at Mrs. le Blond's camp for a 

 few weeks' climbing at the beginning of " five weeks 

 of the very worst weather I have ever seen " (p. 179). 

 The constant mists and clouds add greatly to the 

 picturesqueness of the country, and to them' are due 

 the beauty of many of Mrs. le Blond's photographs; 

 but fogs and continual rain may easilv prevent any 

 mountaineering except to those who have most of 



1 " Mountaineering in the Land of the Midnight Sun." By Mr":. Aubrey 

 le Blond. Pp. xii+3l^4 ; m.ip and 71 illustrations. (London: T. Fisher 

 Unwin, 1908.) Price los. 6,/. liet. 



