448 



NA TURE 



[August 29, 1907 



greatest possible resistance in proportion to its weight in 

 dragging over the ice-floes, which are usually covered 

 with a snow-crust and rarely present a smooth surface. 

 The function of the retarder is to drag like a drag-anchor 

 when the wind is adverse to the course and it is wished 

 to drift gently with it, and without losing either too much 

 headway or burning too much fuel in the motor. Hence 

 this serpent is covered with 1875 steel scratchers, each 

 with six sharp points about i inch in length, or a total 

 of 11,250 points on the 75 feet of body. The equilibrer is 

 intended always to have more or less of its length upon 

 the surface of the earth ; the retarder is to be let down 

 to touch the earth only when necessary. Reserve supplies 

 of food to the amount of 1438 lb. have been packed in the 

 interior of the serpents. 



The Prince of Monaco has arrived at Tromsb on board 

 the I'rincess Mice, having left the Iljalmar, the vessel 

 conveying the Johansen expedition, at Kved Fjord about 

 the middle of August. The Hjabnar left for Prince 

 Charles Foreland, where it is the intention of Johansen 

 to meet the Bruce expedition, and which will probably be 

 the winter quarters of the explorers. 



Mr. W. F. Denning writes to say that a rather fine 

 meteor, presumably from the Draconid radiant, to which he 

 referred in a letter in our last number, was seen at Bristol 

 on August 26, oh. i8m. The curious feature about the object 

 was its fluctuation in brilliancy. At first nearly equal to 

 Jupiter, it quickly dropped to about two magnitudes, and 

 finally burst out with a lustre rivalling that of Sirius. 

 Its path was from about , 23 1°-|-57° to 2i3°-|-5o°. As 

 viewed from Wales, the meteor must have been very con- 

 spicuous and striking, and Mr. Denning will be glad of 

 any descriptions of it. 



The secretary of the Kite Committee of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society has written to the Press to say 

 that, of the twenty-four meteorographs sent up in July 

 last in connection with the international investigations of 

 the upper air, only a few have been returned. He thinks 

 it possible that some may have fallen among the standing 

 corn and other crops, and so have not yet been seen. 

 The secretary requests that a sharp look-out may be kept 

 for the cylinders containing the meteorographs, and that 

 if any be found they may be carefully handled and re- 

 turned to the address given on the label or to himself at 

 the Royal Meteorological Society. The next special series 

 of ascents will take place from September 4 to 6 next. 



With a view to supplying Paris with electric energy 

 for its railways and lighting, three Paris engineers have 

 drawn up a project for establishing an immense power 

 station by barring the Rhone Valley, at Gresin, near 

 Bellegarde. The enterprise has, says the Engineer, re- 

 ceived the support of the French authorities. The 

 estimated cost is 2,400,000/. 



We are sorry to learn from the annual report on the 

 British Museum that there has been a falling off in the 

 number of persons visiting the institution during the year 

 1906. The total number of visits paid to the museum at 

 Bloomsbury was 691,050, showing a decrease of nearly 

 122,000 from the number in 1905. The Sunday total of 

 SSwjS was less by 4369 than that of the previous year. 

 Not since the year 1900, with its 689, 24q visits, has the 

 total been so low as that of the past year. The report 

 upon the Natural History Museum also shows a decline in 

 the number of visitors. In 1905, 566,313 visits were paid, 

 and in 1906 only 472,557. The attendance on Sundays 

 NO. 1974, VOL. 76I 



was, in 1906, 61,151, and in 1905 70,084. The gifts t'^ 

 the Natural History Museum in 1906 numbered 2057 

 against 2092 in 1905 ; the principal donors were tlv 

 Government of India (collections of Tibetan insects), the 

 Duke of Bedford (zoological specimens from Japan and 

 Korea), Mr. C. D. Rudd (specimens in continuation of his 

 systematic survey of South African fauna), and Mr. 

 W. E. Balston (natural history specimens from Western 

 Australia). 



Prof. F. A. Forel has favoured us with a note of a 

 very unusual shifting of the wind observed by him during 

 a storm at Morges (north of Lake of Geneva) on 

 .August 15. At 6h. p.m. the wind, which was blowing 

 strongly from S.W., veered during a succession of violent 

 squalls to N.W., N.E., and S.E., back again to S.W. by 

 loh. p.m., making a complete gyration in four hours. 

 The weather in north-west Europe was very unsettled ; a 

 cyclonic disturbance which had passed across England lay 

 over the Skager Rack at 6h. p.m., and a heavy thunder- 

 storm was in progress at Berlin. Prof. Forel thinks that 

 the sudden changes of wind could only have been caused 

 by thunderstorms which occurred in various quarters in 

 the vicinity of Morges. The barometer, which previously 

 had been slowly falling, rose 0'2 inch between 6h. and 

 loh. p.m. 



In an editorial article in Symons's Meteorological 

 Magazine for August, objection is taken to the way in 

 which meteorological papers are dealt with at the British 

 Association meetings. Several papers this year were of 

 special interest, e.g. examples of modern methods of 

 treating observations, by W. P. Elderton, and recent 

 developments of the methods of forecasting by means of 

 synoptic charts, by Dr. W. N. Shaw, but they were 

 sandwiched with papers on astronomy and other subjects 

 with which meteorologists were not particularly con- 

 cerned. The difficulties in the way of hearing and dis- 

 cussing the papers were aggravated this year owing to 

 the bewildering acoustic properties of the hall, and Dr. 

 Shaw's paper was cut cruelly short owing to want of 

 compression in the case of a previous astronomical paper. 

 The writer of the article considers that unless at least a 

 subsection is devoted to the subject in future, it will not 

 be worth while for meteorologists to contribute papers 

 to the British Association. 



In the same magazine Colonel Bentley refers to a very 

 severe thunderstorm which occurred in County Clare on 

 July 22. On the east of the Kilbane Mountains, near 

 Killaloe, gaps of 10 feet and one of 30 feet deep were 

 made in the road, and five large stone bridges and one 

 wooden bridge were carried away by the floods in a dis- 

 trict three miles long and one mile wide. During the 

 storm hail fell in large rugged lumps, and the damage to 

 property is estimated at 6000/. 



From the annual report of the principal chemist on the 

 work of the Government Laboratory, we learn that during 

 the past year there has been a notable increase in the 

 number of samples analysed in the two branches of the 

 laboratory (Customs and Inland Revenue). The total 

 number of analyses and examinations made was 173,606, 

 against 158,939 for the previous year, the increase being 

 mainly in respect of tobacco examined under the various 

 fiscal regulations. Among other points of interest, we 

 note that manufacturers appear fully to appreciate the 

 advantages of the new or " industrial " variety of 

 methylated spirit, which, by reason of its lower price and 

 greater purity compared with that formerly used, is ex- 



