ox THE ZOOLOGY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 285 



from the Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society. In the 

 meantime Mr. Perkins had accepted an appointment in the Sandwich 

 Islands, and there is now little prospect of his speedy i-eturn to England. 

 As a consequence work has been suspended to a considei-able extent. 

 Mr. Perkins has, however, been so kind as to draw up an account of the 

 Birds ; and the working out of the Diptera has been completed by Mr. 

 Grimshaw and Dr. Speiser. The Hemipteia have been finished by 

 Mr. Kirkaldy, and it is anticipated that the supplement to Lepidoptera, 

 by Mr. Meyrick, as well as the Micro-lepidoptera by Lord Walsingham, 

 will shortly be ready for publication. 



The Committee ask for reappointment, with a grant of £50. 



Terreshial S'urface-vaves and Wace-like Surfaces. — Second Ileport of 

 the Committee, consisting of Dr. J. ScoTT Keltie (Chairman), 

 Dr. Vaughan Cornish (Secretary), Lieut.-Col. Bailey, Mr. E. A. 

 Floyek, and Mr. W. H. Wheeler. (Draivn iqi by the Secretary.) 



Since the Glasgow meeting the observations upon drifting snow made 

 in Canada during 1900-1901 have been worked up, and the principal 

 results published in the ' Geographical Journal ' for August 1902 in a paper 

 upon Snow Waves and Snow Drifts in Canada, with notes upon the 

 Snow ' Mushrooms ' of the Selkirk Mountains. 



In this paper the forms of stationary snowdrifts (or sandhills) formed 

 in the neighbourhood of fixed obstructions are for tJie tirst time brought 

 into harmonious relationship with the forms of travelling snowdrifts (or 

 sandhills). The former, when completed by the supply of sufficient 

 material to fill in the whole of the eddy space, are ichthyoniorphic struc- 

 tures of easy lines, with a fine 'run' and relatively bluff ' entrance ' to 

 windward. 



In the travelling drifts, oi- waves, on the other hand, the eddy space 

 on the lee side is never filled up, as it continually moves forward (which 

 is the wave motion), and the form maintains the fine entrance and blunt 

 stern which is the aspect of greater eddy-making resistance. 



The observed shapes of incomplete snowdrifts (and sandhills) are 

 numerous, but it is believed that all are circumscribed by the assio-ned 

 ichthyom Orphic boundary, the lines of which are finer in the case of snow 

 than in that of sand. 



Progress has been made in the examination of measurements of deep 

 sea waves by different observers. It is found that the records of the 

 velocity of ocean swells, observed after storms, have acquired a new 

 interest from the recent reduction of about 25 per cent, in the factor used 

 by meteorologists for calculating the velocity of wind from the records of 

 the cup anemometer. Employing the newer values, it appears that the 

 velocity of the longest observed oceanic swells in European waters is but 

 little less than the greatest hourly velocity of wind reliably recorded on 

 our coasts. 



An extended table of the heights of deep-sea waves as related to the 

 velocity of the wind has been drawn up, in which it is found that when 

 the scales of estimated wind force expressed by conventional numbei's are 

 reduced to a common standard, and the newer equivalent velocities 



