.<56 



NA TURE 



\_Nov. II, 1886 



wind has the power of raising the water-level on a coast, but 

 whether wind-friclion can, in the great equatorial belt and in the 

 track of the Gulf Stream, produce the flow of water which is 

 there observed. The striking cases of the power of wind to 

 heap water on coasts, and to move bodily great masses of it in 

 lakes, are only interesting and relevant as demonstrating the 

 sufficiency of wind-friction to produce broad and rapid surface- 

 currents. This conceded, and the case is won, because, in the 

 lakes and open ocean, like causes produce like effects. Wind 

 of given velocity raises in both places waves of equal height in 

 equal times : against these waves the wind presses in the direc- 

 tion of its How, with no opposing force. As a consequence, the 

 roughened water-surface, from greatly increased friction, is 

 moved bodily forward just as thoagh impelled by the paddles of 

 a revolving-wheel. This surface-flow is in time communicated 

 to underlying strata, and, if the wind continue to blow in the 

 same direction, ultimately a large body of water will be set in 

 motion ; in other words, an ocean-current will be produced. 

 There is no escape from this conclusion. The great truth 

 remains that wind-friction can produce ocean-currents." 



A SHOCK of earthquake of a more or less severe nature was 

 felt at noon on November 5 at Washington, Richmond, Wil- 

 mington, Raleigh, Augusta, Charleston, Sav.innah, Macon, and 

 other places in North and South Carolina. At some points 

 the seismic disturbance was the severest since August 31. 

 A shock of earthquake was also felt at Greenville, Alabama, on 

 Friday last. The captain of a vessel which has since arrived at 

 Charlestun reports having experienced a seismic disturbance on 

 that day while at sea. 



Prof. John Milne, of Tokio, Japan, writes with reference 

 to Prof. Ewing's .article on seismographs in Nature, vol. xxxiv. 

 p. 343, that the instruments therein described represent the state 

 of general knowledge of the Seisnological Society of Japan 

 •with regard to seismometry at the time of Prof. Ewing's 

 departure from that country. With the exception of one or 

 two which have been modified, a set of instruments like those 

 recommended by Prof. Ewing are, so far as Japan is concerned, 

 quite obsolete. A very much better form of instrument is 

 Prof. Milne states, now in use in the Government observatories 

 and throughout the country. 



In a paper by the Hon. Ralph Abercromby, reprinted from 

 the Quarterly Journal of the Meteorological Society, on the 

 origin and course of the squall which capsized H .M. S. EuryiUcc 

 on March 24, 1878, the author concludes as follows: — "The 

 squall which capsized H.M.S. EurydUe was one belonging to the 

 class which is associated with the trough of V-shaped depres- 

 sions. The line of this trough was curved like a scimitar, the 

 convexity facing the front. The whole revolved round a point 

 near the .Scaw, in Denmark, like the spoke of a wheel. For 

 this reawn the portion of the squall over the east of England 

 moved only at the rate of 13 miles an hour, while the western 

 portion travelled nearly 50 miles in an hour. The portion 

 which struck the Eurydicc was advancing at the rate of 38 miles 

 an hour. The length of the squrtU over England was more than 

 400 miles, but only i to 3 miles in breadth. Hence we have 

 the picture of a scimitar-shaped line of squall-, 400 miles long 

 and about 2 miles broad, sweeping across Great Britain at a rate 

 varying from 13 to 50 miles an hour. The V-depression was 

 one of an uncommon class, in which the rain occurs after the 

 jmssage of the trough, and not in front of it, as is usually the 

 case. The weather generally for the day in question w.as un- 

 usually complex, and of exceptional intensity, and for this reason 

 some of the details of the changes cannot be explained." 



At a recent meeting of the Nieierrheinische Gesell-schaft Air 

 Natur- und Heilkunde at Bonn, Dr. Gurlt described a fossil 

 meteorite found in a block of Tertiary coal, and now in the 



Salzburg Museum. He said it belonged to the group of meteoric 

 irons, and was taken from a block of coal about to be used in a 

 manufactory in Lower Austria. It was examined by various 

 specialists, who assigned different origins to it. Some believed 

 it to be a meteorite ; others, an artificial production ; others, 

 ajain, thought it was a meteorite modified by the hand of man. 

 Dr. Gurlt, however, came to the conclusion, after a careful ex- 

 amination, that there is no ground for believing in the intervention 

 of any human agency. In foim, the mass is almost a cube, 

 two opposite faces being rounded, and the four others being 

 made smaller by these roundings. A deep incision runs all 

 round the cube. The faces and the incision bear such cha- 

 racteristic traces of meteoric iron as to exclude the notion of 

 the mass being the work of man. The iron is covered with a 

 thin layer of oxide ; it is 67 mm. high, 67 mm. broad, and 

 47 mm. at the thickest part. It weighs 785 grammes, and its 

 specific gravity is 7 75 ; it is as hard as steel, and it contains, 

 as is generally the case, besides carbon, a small quantity of 

 nickel. A quantitative analysis has not yet been made. This 

 meteorite resembles the celebrated meteoric masses of Saint 

 Catherine in Brazil and Braunau in Bohemia, discovered in 

 1847, but it is much older, and belongs to the Tertiary epoch. 



Dr. Doberck, the Government Astronomer in Hong Kong, 

 has published a pamphlet entitled "The Law of Storms in the 

 Eastern Seas," containing the practical results of investigations 

 of .about forty typhoons, continued during three years. He 

 divides typhoons into four classes, according to the paths which 

 they usually follow :— (l) Those which cross the China Sea and 

 travel either in a west-north-westerly direction from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Luzon towards Tonquin, passing south of, or cross- 

 ing the Island of Hainan ; or, if pressure is high over Aiinam, 

 they travel first westward and then south-westward. These, 

 which occur at the beginning and end of the typhoon season, 

 can generally be followed for five or six days. (2) The seccmd 

 class are most frequently encountered, and their paths can be 

 traced farthest. They generally travel north-westw.ird while in- 

 the neighbourhood of Luzon, and either strike the coast of 

 China south of the Formosa Channel, in which case they abruptly 

 lose the character of a tropical hurricane, re-curve in the 

 interior of China, and re-enter the sea to the north of Shang- 

 hai, pass across or near Corea, and are finally lost to the east- 

 north-east. Typhoons of this class may pass up the Kormosan 

 channel, and re-curve towards the coasts of Japan, or they m.ay 

 strike the coast of China north of Formosa. A third of the 

 typhoons belong to this class ; they can be followed between 

 five and twelve days, and are most common in August and 

 September. (3) This class is probably the most numerous of 

 all, .although not so frequently encountered. Their path is 

 along the east of Formosa, travelling northwards and passing 

 near Japan. (4) Typhoons of this class pass south of Luzon, 

 travelling westward. Their dimensions are very limited, and 

 hitherto they have not been followed for more than a day or 

 two. When a few hundred typhoons have been investigated, 

 no doubt complete lists of the sub-classes of these four main 

 classes will be obtained, and exceptional cases will be better 

 understood. The pamphlet, which is largely wri'ten for 

 the guidance of ship-masters and others, concludes with 

 the remark that typhoons are of simpler construction, and 

 their paths are more regular, than the storms of Europe. 

 Typhoons are so violent near their centre that the whole dis- 

 turbance i? evidently ruled thereby ; whereas storms in the 

 North Atlantic and in Europe appear to be made up of a num- 

 ber of local eddies, some of which are by degrees detached 

 from the chief disturbance and form subsidiary depressions. 

 Dr. Doberck has not been able to ascertain the existence of a 

 subsidiary depression in the China Seas during the last three 

 years, and it is, therefore, doubtful whether they ever occur. 



