i6o 



NATURE 



[June 13, 1907 



slopes of the Comelico Range, by Prof. O. Marinelli. The 

 limits are reckoned for the snow-line, glaciers, shrubs, 

 trees, pastures, barns, &c. 



In the report for 1905-6 of the department of botanical 

 research connected with the desert botanical laboratory 

 at Tucson, Arizona, the director, Dr. D. T. MacDougal, 

 refers to a number of problems that are being investigated 

 by the resident staff or with the cooperation of other 

 botanists. In order to test the influence of altitude and 

 climatic factors upon vegetation, small plantations are being 

 laid out at difTercnt localities in .Arizona and north and 

 .south California, where the same plants will be grown 

 and the various modifications noted. Water storage in 

 plants is being studied from several aspects, and some 

 results are already noted. .Storage organs are found most 

 abundantly in regions where a scanty rainfall is confined 

 to a short period and during the remainder of the year the 

 precipitation is very slight. A curious storage organ at 

 the base of the cucurbitaceous plant Ibervillea sonorae 

 was e.\amined by Dr. MacDougal. Changes in the shape 

 and volume of the " saguara " Ceretis giganietis were 

 found by Mr. E. S. Spalding to depend mainly on water- 

 content, but partially on temperature and illumination. 

 The development of storage organs on the roots of seed- 

 ling Opuntias was discovered by Dr. \V. A. Cannon. 



Two papers by Mr. R. N. Hall, on the prehistoric gold 

 mines of Rhodesia, have been reprinted from the African 

 Monthly, and issued by the African Boole Company, 

 Grahamstown. In this pamphlet, of forty-five pages, Mr. 

 Hall collects a series of statements to prove that the main 

 working of the Rhodesian gold mines was not due to the 

 Portuguese during the si.xteenth to eighteenth centuries, nor 

 to the Arabs and Persians between the tenth and sixteenth 

 centuries. He therefore holds that the mines must have 

 been worked earlier than the tenth century. He maintains 

 that the fragments of Nankin china found in the ruins do 

 not prove that the Zimbabwe was erected in mediaeval 

 times, as the specimens were not found under the walls 

 of the temple, and were buried during a subsequent occu- 

 pation. He emphatically re-states the conclusion that the 

 old mining and ruined temples of Rhodesia date from 

 ancient times, and were due to Semitic immigrants. 



The enormous rainfall of qj inches in about half an 

 hour during a thunderstorm at Guinea, Caroline County, 

 \'a., on August 24, 1906, is reported in the Monthly 

 Weather Review of September last. Mr. E. A. Evans, 

 section director of the Weather Service at Richmond, states 

 that, being much interested in establishing the facts re- 

 lating to this cloud-burst, he visited Guinea and obtained 

 the following information. There were three " measure- 

 ments " made in buckets of various dimensions, all in 

 open positions, but the term " measurements " applies only 

 indirectly, as there were no actual measurements taken at 

 the time ; the buckets, however, were said to have been 

 full and overflowing. As the storm approached, the 

 lightning became severe, and at the meeting of two clouds, 

 one moving from west and the other from north-east, the 

 rain " poured down in solid sheets." The storm came 

 from the west, and moved almost due northward ; the 

 wind was light, and no rain of consequence fell ij miles 

 east of Guinea. 



Weather in war time was the subject selected by Mr. 

 R. Bentley as his presidential address to Royal Meteor- 

 ological Society on January 16. To find a new theme 

 after fifty-six previous addresses is of itself not easy ; Mr. 

 Bentley 's task was laborious, but he showed in a most 

 interesting manner how the operations of war, both on 

 NO. 1963, VOL. 76 J 



land and sea, were influenced by weather in more than 

 360 cases, dating from the earliest times. We can only 

 quote a few of the memorable instances. Rain appears 

 to have been the leading factor on land ; in a.d. 9 the 

 Roman legions under Quintilius Varus perished in the 

 swamps of Lippe, in Westphalia, owing to the impossi- 

 bility of moving the wagons ; 1870 years later the British 

 experienced disaster from the same cause at Isandlwana, at 

 the hands of the Zulus. On August 13, 1870, Marshal 

 Bazaine excused his inactivity from his inability to cross the 

 Moselle rapidly owing to the flooding of the river after 

 heavy rain. Snow has also played a great part ; the author 

 refers to the passage of the Alps by Hannibal, and to the 

 retreat of the French .Army from Russia in 1812, among 

 many other instances. Ice has been frequently of assist- 

 ance ; perhaps the most important occasion was the in- 

 vasion of Denmark in 1658, when Charles X. marched 

 his entire army over the frozen Baltic to besiege Copen- 

 hagen. The first exemplification of the result of fog was 

 at the badle of Barnet, on April 14, 1471, when each side 

 outflanked the other without being aware of it ; it was 

 owing to fog that Gustavus Adolphus lost his life at 

 Lutzen in 1632. The effect of wind at sea may be 

 exemplified by the buffeting of the various Spanish 

 armadas between 1588 and 1719. In November, 1854, the 

 allied fleets were seriously damaged by the Black Sea 

 storm. This event was one of the principal causes that 

 led to the establishment of storm signals in this country, 

 as a study of the storm showed that if the present system 

 of weather telegraphy had then existed, timely notice of 

 its approach might have been given. 



We have received copies of the plan de voyage and 

 programme of scientific work of the proposed second 

 Belgian Antarctic Expedition, drawn up by M. Henryk 

 Arctowski. It is proposed to reach the edge of the . ice- 

 pack early in the season in about long. 100° W., and to 

 spend some months in making hydrographic and magnetic 

 observations. At a suitable opportunity efforts will be 

 concentrated on making a way through the pack to the 

 .Antarctic coast, trusting to the prevailing easterly 

 winds to bring the expedition to the neighbourhood 

 of King Edward VII. Land, where the vessel may 

 be able to put itself li quai on the edge of the ice-barrier 

 and to go into winter quarters. Efforts will be made 

 during the following spring to penetrate southward across 

 the ice by means of automobiles. It is intended that the 

 expedition shall be fitted out for three summers and two 

 winters. The scientific programme was discussed at a 

 meeting of men of science held at Brussels on May 4, and 

 on May 12 an enthusiastic meeting was held at Antwerp 

 under the presidency of M. Beernaert, Minister of State, 

 to discuss ways and means. 



The Home Office has issued the first part of the general 

 report on mines and quarries for 1906 (Cd. 3478, price 7^.). 

 The report contains statistics of the persons employed, 

 output, and accidents at mines and quarries in the United 

 Kingdom. The total number of persons employed was 

 912,576. The total output of coal was 251,067,628 tons, 

 which is an increase of 14,938,692 tons on that of 1905. 

 The death-rate from accidents per looo persons employed 

 was 1.29 at collieries, i-ig at metalliferous mines, and. 

 I 06 at quarries, the corresponding rates for 1905 being 

 ■■35. i'45. 3"d ''04 respectively. 



In the Annals of Mathematics for April Prof. G. A. 

 Miller contributes a note on the use of group theory in 

 elementai-y trigonometry. It deals with the various groups 

 of angles the sum or difference of which Is a multiple of 



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