NATURE 
[May 6, 1915 

records may be suspended until more detailed ac- 
counts of the observations are issued. There is, 
however, abundant evidence in the book to show 
that the main base is abnormally windy, and 
perhaps to justify the claim that it is the windiest 
place on earth. The “Roaring ’Forties” must 
give place to the “Shrieking “Sixties.” The 
author explains the power of the wind as due to 
the torrent of air rushing outward from a high 
pressure area around the south pole; but it is 
dificult to reconcile this theory, as now stated, 
with the experiences of Amundsen and Shackle- 
ton. 

Fic. 2.—A view of a rocky stretch of the Adelie land coast west cf Commonwealth Bay. 
(W. Heinemann.) 
The book, like much Antarctic literature, must 
have its usefulness restricted by its bulk; private 
students can scarcely afford the book space for 
such cumbrous volumes, a fact the more regret- 
table in this case owing to the exceptional beauty 
of the illustrations. Colour photography has been 
used with excellent results, and those of the star- 
fish show the great value of this process in bio- 
logy. The work includes only preliminary notices 
of the scientific results, but it shows that the 
Australian Expedition must rank as one of the 
most successful of modern antarctic expeditions. 
PenvG: 
NO. 2375, VOL. 95 | 
RECORDING RAIN GAUGES. 
()* mechanical devices for the registration of 
rainfall there is no end, and from the early 
date of most of them it is scarcely too much to say 
that in this direction there is no new thing under 
the sun. Up to 1898 Mr. G. J. Symons had 
described and figured in “British Rainfall”’ no 
fewer than forty-five different patterns of self- 
recording rain gauges, and now there are at least 
a dozen more. Very few of these have proved 
fully satisfactory. The diversity between the 
various forms consists mainly in subordinate 
details. With the exception of Mr. W. J. E. 
Binnie’s electrical drop-counter and Wild-Hasler’s 
over-shot water wheel, I cannot find more than 
three principles which have been applied singly or 
in combination for the automatic recording of 
rainfall by a pen writing on a rotating drum. 
These are (1) the double tipping-bucket on a fixed 
pivot ; (2) the descending counterpoised receiver, 
and (3) the ascending float. 
Tipping-bucket rain gauges are amongst the 
oldest forms, and they have been constructed to 
record directly or through an electrical device, 
by an escapement wheel, a cam in the axle of 
From Sir Doug'as Mawson’s ‘‘The Home of the Blizzard,” 
