AucustT 8, 1912] 
radiation. At Valencia magnetic observations are 
taken periodically, but at Kew and Eskdalemuir both 
magnetism and atmospheric electricity are continu- 
ously recorded, together with earth movements. At 
Eskdalemuir the solar radiation is also observed. 
Since the beginning of 1911 daily values from the 
three observatories, together with wind values from 
four anemograph stations, have been published month 
by month in a new periodical issue, known’ as The 
Geophysical Journal, which is part iii.a of the 
‘British Meteorological and Magnetic Year Book.” 
In this publication Dr. Shaw, with the advice of the 
Gassiot Committee, has taken the forward step of 
adopting units based on the C.G.S. system for the 
meteorological tables, as well as for the magnetic 
and electrical tables. This is not the first time these 
units have been employed in meteorology, for in The 
Weekly Weather Report they have been used since 
1909 for the purpose of presenting the results obtained 
Fic. 3.-—Eskdalemuir Observatory. —General view from the south-w est. 
tendent’s house is on the left, the caretaker’s house with assistants’ quarters on the right. 
In front of the right-hand hut is seen the mound of the underground magnetic chamber, with the stonework of 
NATURE 
The office block is the middle one of the three buildings in line ; 
The two huts in the background are the wooden magnetic 
593 
The eastern gate is the wide channel of the Skagerack, 
that leads through the narrow passes of the Belts and 
Cattegat to the great inland Baltic Sea; I like to 
think of it as an old road, a route of very ancient 
trade, the old highway of the Hanse merchants, the 
road to Muscovy r And lastly, in the south-west, there 
| is the narrow strait that widens into the British 
Channel, the chief and busiest street of the modern 
maritime world. Of these three gateways, two open 
to the ocean and one to the inland sea, two to the 
salt waters and one to the brackish or the fresh; and 
herein, as we shall see presently, we have the simple 
clue to much of the physics and not a little of the 
biology of the North Sea. 
Sailing in imagination round the North Sea, we 
pass from the rock-bound shores of northern Scotland, 
through all the varied scenery of our eastern borders, 
to the dull levels of the Dutch and Frisian coast, to 
a long line of low-lying shores, sandy or muddy, 
the superin- 
huts for ‘absolute’ observations. 
the top ofthe porch. From the *‘Sixth Annual Report of the Meteorological Committee.” 
from the ascents of kites and balloons. The Geo- 
physical Journal, however, is the first British official 
publication where these units have been employed in 
their entirety, and for all the tables, and on this 
ground alone the new issue would be noteworthy, 
without reference to the fact that it supplies for the 
first time a monthly conspectus of the movement, 
temperature, and magnetism of the earth’s crust, 
combined. with. the. records of the temperature, 
humidity, pressure, rate of movement, .and electric 
condition of the lower atmosphere. 
THE NORTH SEA AND ITS FISHERIES.} 
OUR-SQUARE the North Sea lies, and its gates 
are three. To the northward lies the broad open- 
ing to the northern ocean, a frequented highway of 
cats fisherman, where the sails of commerce aré few. 
A discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on March 22 by. Prof. 
D yee: W. Thompson, C.R. The diagrams, charts, &c., referred to in the 
discourse were shown, but are not reproduced. 
NO. vo.. 89] 
QD! 2:D. 
<--9-> 
| Around this 
| is universally but unequally distributed. 
| Sparse settlement of 
fringed with low islands, where through islands and 
| broken coast. the great rivers of central Europe find 
their outlet to the sea. Along the shores of Jutland, 
low, level stretches of sand confront us, until, crossing 
| the Skagerack, we are again of a sudden in presence 
of rock and precipice. Then onwards along the many 
hundred miles of Norwegian coast we have more or 
less similar scenery of cliff and mountain, often 
glacier-topped, and the broken barrier of islands, 
behind which the deep fjords are sheltered from the 
Atlantic billows. 
long the fishing population 
In the old 
sandy bay, where 
coast-line 
days almost every sheltered creek or 
the boats could be drawn up in winter, received its 
fishermen, and their number, if 
in part regulated by the nature of the coast, was still 
more governed by the racial characteristics of the 
| people: for. some breeds of men are fishermen born, 
and some are not; and some -races, such as the 
