724 REPORT — 1901. 



and the region around French River. The map? resulting from many of my sur- 

 veys have not yet been published, although on file in the office of the Geological 

 Survey, and accessible to anyone retjuiring them. In 1900 the Government of 

 Ontario sent out ten surveyors, in charge of an equal number of parties, to inspect 

 Northern Ontario, The reports of these surveyors and explorers, recently pub- 

 lished in one volume, amply confirm all that I have said during the last thirty 

 years, in the Geological Survey reports and elsewhere, in regard to the ' New 

 Ontario.' A small-scale map, compiled from the most recent surveys and explora- 

 tions, accompanies the paper. 



6. On the Systematic Exploration of the Atmosphere at Sea hy meaits of 

 Kites. By A. Lawrence Rotch, Director of Blue Hill Meteorological 

 Observatory (Massachusetts, U.'^'.A.) and American Member of the 

 International Aeronautical Committee. 



It is appropriate that this paper should be presented at Glasgow, since it was 

 here that Dr. Alexander Wilson first used kites for meteorological observations in 

 1749.1 



Kite-flying with continuously recording instruments was originated at Blue 

 Hill in 1894, and the progress of the work is set forth in five annual reports nre- 

 sented to Section A of this Association. Although the meteorological condition.^ 

 up to a height of three miles above this region have been ascertained by several 

 hundred kite-flights, yet since wind of at least twelve miles an hour is required, 

 certain types of weather — notably the anticyclonic — can rarely be studied. 



The method proposed not only permits kites to be flown in calm weather, but 

 enables data to be obtained a mile or two above the oceans, where no observations 

 have been possible hitherto. The method consists in installing the kites and ap- 

 paratus on board a steamship, which, when travelling through calm air at a speed 

 of ten or twelve knots per hour, enables the kites and instruments to be raised to 

 the height that can be reached in the most favourable wind. Should the wind bo 

 too strong, its force may be moderated by steaming with it. In this way the kites 

 can be flown at all times and in the equatorial regions, where a knowledge of the 

 conditions of the upper atmosphere is needed to complete our theories of the 

 atmospheric circulation. 



The use of kites to the best advantage requires a vessel that can be manoeuvred 

 at will, and therefore experiments were made in Massachusetts Bay on a tug 

 havino- a maximum speed of ten miles an hour. Although the wind blew only 

 six to ten miles an hour, and at no time was strong enough to lift the kites, yet by 

 steaminf towards it within 45° of its mean direction, the meteorograph was raised 

 to a heio'ht of half a mile. The ease with which the kites were launched and the 

 steadiness with which they flew in the uniform artificial wind were noticeable. A 

 trial of the kites was next made upon a passenger steamer crossing the North 

 Atlantic in order to ascertain whether it was possible to obtain in this way meteoi-o- 

 lou-ical data frequently during the voyage. JFlights were made on five days, when 

 although the winds accompanying an anticyclone were too light to lift the 

 kites the artificial wind, caused by the eastward motion of the vessel at a speed of 

 15 knots, sufficed to carry the kites and meteorograph to a maximum height of 

 one-third of a mile. Had it been possible to alter tlie course of the vessel the kite.s 

 could have been flown every day. The kite records obtained in this anticyclone, 

 in connection with similar ones on deck, show abnormal changes of temperature 

 with altitude above the ocean, great fluctuations in relative humidity, and slight 

 variations in wind velocity. A series of such flights on successive voyages would 

 disclose any dilference in the vertical distribution of the meteorological elements 

 above the ocean as compared with that over the land, and in weather condi- 

 tions like the above would furnish data for the upper air that cannot be obtained 

 with kites at a fixed station. 



' Trans, Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. x. part ii. pp. 284-286. 



