ON TERRESTIUAL SURFACE WAVES. 399 



The most interesting drifts were those on the prairies, where the cold 

 is great and the snow is dry. The normal snow-drift round a house on 

 the open prairie in Manitoba consists mainly of a snow-bank in the form 

 of a U, the house being situated in tlie bend, near the bottom of the letter, 

 with a few yards ncai'ly free from snow between it and the snow-bank. 

 Between the two limbs of the U, which are much longer, reaching further 

 to leeward, than the shape of the printing type permits to be here indi- 

 cated, the ground is kept almost clear of snow by the operation of the 

 wind as modified by the presence of the building, and this clearance is 

 sometimes noticeable beyond the distance to which the two arms of the 

 drift extend as a noticeable snow-bank. Close to the house, centrally 

 situated on the lee side, is a I'elatively small accumulation of snow, which 

 is, however, conspicuous from its form and position. Beyond the limbs 

 of the U-shaped snow bank to right and left the depth of the snow on 

 the prairie is not notably affected by the neighbourhood of the building. 

 The height of the U-shaped snow-bank is commonly four to si.x feet when 

 there are three or four inches of snow on the open prairie. 



In the calm upper valleys of the Selkirk Mountains, where the snow- 

 fall is very heavy, the flakes usually large, and the temperature during 

 precipitation usually near the melting point, the notable forms in which 

 the material accumulates are not those of drift but deposition, not snow- 

 banks but snow-caps. On tree stumps these frequently take the form of 

 gigantic mushrooms, nine to twelve feet wide and four to four and a half 

 feet thick, which project from three to four feet all round beyond their 

 supporting pedestal. These strange growths are not unstable, as are the 

 small globular masses of snow upon a slender support, but, on the con- 

 trary, possess a remarkable degree of permanence. The depth of snow in 

 them is sutficient to express most of the air, and to weld the lower parts 

 into a tenacious mass. 



Much attention was given to overcoming the difficulties of the o-eal 

 photography of snow, i.e., the rendering of the detail of the snow surface, 

 instead of photographing objects silhouetted against snow, as is done in 

 the ordinary ' snow-scene ' photograph. After some initial failures suc- 

 cess was achieved, and a large collection of good quarter- and half-plate 

 negatives has been brought back which is of very considerable scientific 

 value. 



The whole of the grant has been expended, and the Committee apply 

 for a grant towards the expenses of continuing the investigations. 



Women s Labour. — First Report of the Committee^ consisting of Mr. 

 E. W. Brabrook {Chairman), Mr. A. L. Bowley (Secretary), Miss 

 A. M. Anderson, Mr. C. Booth, Professor S. J. Chapman, Miss 

 C. E. Collet, Professor P. Y. Edgeworth, Professor A. W. Flux, 

 Mrs. J. R. MacDonald, Mr. L. L. Price, Professor W. Smart, 

 and Mrs. H. J. Tennant, appointed to investigate the Economic 

 Effect of Legislation regidating Women s Labour. 



The Committee, as appointed at the Bradford meeting, sought the 

 assistance of Mrs. H. J. Tennant, late H. M. Principal Lady Inspector of 

 Factories, Miss A. M. Anderson, her successor in office. Miss C. E. Collet, 

 of the Board of Trade, and Mi'. Charles Booth, to all of whom the 



