J/aj' 2, 1872] 



NATURE 



19 



continuous line of coast running north, which has been sighted 

 as far as the S2nd parallel. Along this coast one would have to 

 work one's way in spring with dog-sledges. I consider it a wild 

 undertaking to penetrate towards the Pole by ship between 

 Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla." No one could undo the effect 

 of evidence so honest and conclusive as this. The Duke of 

 Somerset rested his decision to delay action on the importance of 

 first being furnished with the results of the Swedish Expedition, 

 then on its way to Spitzbergen. The Swedes during the last 

 seven or eight years had sent no less than four expeditions to the 

 verge of the Polar region ; and the conclusion of their scientific 

 leader, Von Nordenskiold, is that in summer it is not possible to 

 penetrate by ship through the pick, and that an open Polar Sea 

 is a mere hypothesis destitute of foundation. The Swedish 

 authorities further state that the only way to approach the Pole 

 is that proposed by the English Arctic officers, of exploring on 

 sledges in the spring. Here, then, are the results for which the 

 First Lord of the Admiralty in 1S65 desired to wait. After a 

 review of the voyage of the Austrian Lieutenants Payer and Wey- 

 precht last summer, in which they found open sea a little to the 

 north and west of Nova Zembla, and which discovery is to be 

 followed up by a second expedition in the present summer, Capt. 

 Osborn concluded by an eloquent appeal to the English people 

 not to allov/ the final laurels of Polar discovery to be wrung from 

 them by the sailors or explorers of any other nation. In the 

 discussion which followed, Dr. J. D. Hooker spoke of the im- 

 portant questions in the science of botany which a North Polar 

 Expedition alone could elucidate ; such as the extension nearer 

 the Pole of fossil plants like those of Disco in Greenland, which 

 indicate a former temperate climate in 70° north. Dr. Carpenter 

 advocated a Polar Expedition as a necessary complement to the 

 one the Government were about to despatch to the Pacific to in- 

 vestigate the deep-sea ocean currents, and so forth. Accurate 

 investigations of current-temperature, &c. , of the Polar Ocean 

 were of the highest importance to the right comprehension of the 

 true theory of oceanic movements. Admiral Sir George Back 

 stated that he entirely approved of the Smith Sound route as the 

 one best to be adopted for a North Polar Expedition. Sir Leo- 

 pold M'Clintock also spoke to similar effect. Admiral Richards 

 explained the interest attaching to the completion of the 

 geography of Greenland, which ought to be achieved by the 

 English. He was strongly of opinion that a Government ex- 

 pedition, and by the English, was al 3ne competent to finish the 

 work of Arctic discovery. Mr. R. H. Scott read a letter from 

 Von Nordenskiold, in which he stated that a Swedish expedition 

 would start for Spitzbergen this summer, winter in the islands to 

 the north, and attempt a journey towards the Pole in May, 1873, 

 with reindeer-sledges. 



Anthropological Institute, April 8. — Sir John Lubbock, 

 Bart., president, in the chair. Mr. Hyde Clarke read a note 

 on the Hamath Inscriptions. The remainder of the evening was 

 occupied by an exhibition and description, by Mr. Edward 

 Charlesworth, of certain objects from the Crag of Suffolk simu- 

 lating human workmanship. A long and animated discussion 

 ensued, and the question was postponed until such time as Mr. 

 Charlesworth could lay before the Institute, in the form of a 

 paper, his matured opinion based upon reliable evidence. 



April 22. — Dr. Charnock, vice-president, in the chair. Mr. 

 Hyde Clarke contributed a further note on the Hamath Inscrip- 

 tions and their comparison with Himyarite and Lybian. — A 

 paper by Dr. Barnard Davis, F. R.S., was read " On the Hair 

 and some other peculiarities of Oceanic Races." The paper 

 was illustrated by a large and beautiful series of specimens of 

 hair showing all the varieties of dressing, ornamentation, pre- 

 paration, bleaching, &c. , employed by a great number of races 

 and tribes. — Dr. Henry Blanc also exhibited a specimen of 

 long hair from the head of a Hindustanee. — A paper by Dr. 

 Rink " On the Descent of the Esquimaux " was read, in which 

 the author showed from traditionary and historical evidence that 

 that race was truly American, and not Asiatic in its origin, as 

 some ethnologists had maintained. — Dr. Charnock read a paper 

 " On Le Sette Communi." The district lay nearly north of 

 Vicenza. The people were the remnants of those Germans 

 who obtained an asylum in that country after having been 

 vanquished by Theodoric, King of the Osirogoths, who died .\.n. 

 526. There had been many marriages with the It.alian'^, and the 

 people more resembled the latter than the Germans There 

 were, however, many with fair hair and German features. The 

 people were simple in their manners, honest, poor, dirty, and 

 superstitious. The author noticed no cases of goitre or cretinism. 



The paper concluded witli a vocabulary and ample remarks on 

 the grammar of the dialect, which resembled the Hochdeutsch 

 of the 13th century, still spoken in Southern Bavaria. It had 

 some words from the ItaUan. 



Meteorological Society, April 17. — Dr. Tripe, president, 

 in the chair. A paper was read " On the Temperature of Hill 

 and Valley," by Mr. G. Dines. The observations in the valley 

 were made at Cobham, and those on the hill at Denbies, the 

 difference in height being about 600 feet ; both the thermometer 

 stands are those known as " Glaisher's," and the instruments 

 are by Casella. The observations extend over eighteen months. 

 The air on the hill is colder in the day and warmer at night than 

 in the valley ; and the daily range of temperature at the higher 

 station is not so great as at the lower, the average being only 

 about 4?..'. In cold weather it is found that the air on top of the 

 hill is never so cold as that in the valley. The rainfall also on 

 the hill is 40 per cent, greater than in the valley. It has been 

 said that " the air on top of a hill is drier and colder than in the 

 valley," but the results arrived at in this p.aper show that the 

 contrary is the case. In the discussion which followed, Mr. 

 Glaisher said that he had always found in his balloon ascents 

 that the temperature decreased as he ascended, and was colder 

 and more uniform the higher he went, but at night he found that 

 the temperature was warmer than on the ground, and it was this 

 that led him to place thermometers at the height of 4 ft., 22 ft., 

 and 50 ft. above the ground, and the results obtained show that 

 the air is sometimes 5' or 6' colder at 50 ft. than at 4 ft. in the 

 day time, and 3' or 4° warmer at night time. Colonel .Strange 

 said that the temperature was colder on mountain tops both in 

 day and night than in the valley. Dr. IMann thought that the 

 temperature of the air directly above the earth in a balloon, and 

 the temperature on top of a hdl at the same height, would be 

 quite different. The Rev. F. W. Stow had made several observa- 

 tions which showed that the air was warmer at the upper station 

 and colder at the lower. Mr. Strachan remarked that unless 

 the thermometers were protected from radiation the readings 

 would be too high. Mr. Gaster said that solar radiation was out 

 of the question, because the air is colder on top of the hill than 

 in tlie valley when the sun is shining, and warmer at night when 

 it is not shining, and he thought the more abrupt the hill the 

 more would the observations coincide with those taken in a 

 balloon at the same height. — The next paper was by Mr. C. O. 

 F. Cator *' On Certain Defects in Anemometric Registration." 

 The author said that correct records cannot be obtained by the 

 present method, that the sheets should be much longer, and 

 made to move more quickly. A correct register of the velocity 

 of the wind is not obtained because the cups cannot take up the 

 motion directly at each gust, and in a lull the cups revolve 10 

 quickly on account of the momentum received from the previous 

 gust. In registering the {pressure of the wind, the sheets and 

 the scale should be longer, because at present the very small 

 amounts are scarcely shown, and in gales the paper is completely 

 black from the constant movements of the pencil, but if the 

 sheet were moved more quickly each separate pressure might 

 be recorded. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, April 22. — M. Camille Jordan read 

 a note on the forms reduced from congruences of the second 

 degree. — M. de .Saint-Venant presented a p.iper on a coarfile> 

 ment to be given to one of the equations presented by M. Levy 

 for plastic movements which are symmetrical around an axis. — 

 A note was read by BI. J. Montier on the internal work which 

 accompanies the escape of a gas without variation of heat ; 

 and one by M. P. Desains on the reflection of heat at the surface 

 of polished bodies. — Several notices more or less closely relating 

 to auroras were read, namely, a note by M. Fron, presented by 

 M. Delaunay, on the auroral period from the loth to the 1 6th 

 April, 1872, and its relations to the movements of the atmo- 

 sphere ; a portion of a letter from M. Donati to M. Delaunay, 

 relating chiefly to phenomena of terrestrial magnetism observed 

 during the time of manifestation of auroras ; a claim of priority iu 

 proposing the theory of the solar origin of magnetic auror.as, by M . 

 H. Tarry; a continuation of M. J. Silbermann's paper on the re- 

 lations existing between terrestrial meteorology and the move- 

 ments of celestial bidies; and a note byM. Duponchel, in which 

 that gentleman ascribes the origin of auroras to the modification of 

 the calorific waves after sunset ; as these tlien cease to traverse the 

 atmosphere and become tangential with it, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of the poles, he supposes them to produce there 



