August 13, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



197 



Hildebrandt, of Berlin, said that on the 

 Peak of Teneriffe, pilot-balloons were 

 driven down for three minutes at the rate 

 of 2.5 meters per second and Gen. Ko- 

 wanko, of St. Petersburg, mentioned the 

 fact that when above a sea of clouds aero- 

 nauts found currents rising over the cloud 

 summits and descending in the spaces be- 

 tween the clouds. 



M. Teiisserene de Bort discussed the data 

 relating to the upper isothermal .stratum. 

 Up to about 10 kilometers the decrease of 

 temperature is almost adiabatic, then in 

 the next 5 kilometers there is usually a rise 

 in temperature of 8° to 10° C, with iso- 

 thermal conditions up to at least 26 kilo- 

 meters. The lower zone he calls the "tro- 

 posphere," and the upper one the "strato- 

 sphere. ' ' The former is a region of violent 

 atmospheric disturbances, for Hildebrands- 

 son has shown that cyclones do not extend 

 above the cirrus clouds, though anti-cy- 

 clones persist to greater heights, and there- 

 fore the stratosphere is lowest in the cy- 

 clone and highest in the anti-cyclone and 

 its level sinks from the equator to the poles. 

 The stratosphere is a region of interlaced 

 currents and small vertical movements. 



The following papers described the re- 

 sults of recent expeditions and investi- 

 gations. General Rykatchef, director of 

 the Central Physical Observatory, at St. 

 Petersburg, exhibited charts of aerial 

 soundings at various Russian stations. 

 The higher level of the great temperature- 

 inversion in anti-cyclones than in cyclones 

 at St. Petersburg, and the isothermal con- 

 dition prevailing in winter for several 

 thousand meters above the ground at 

 A.siatic stations, were some of the phenom- 

 ena illustrated. 



The most interesting report was pre- 

 sented by Professor Person, assistant at 

 Lindenberg Observatory, on his recent ex- 

 pedition to tropical East Africa and Lake 



Victoria Nyanza. On the coast and from 

 a specially chartered steamer on the lake, 

 ballons-sondes, pilot-balloons and kites 

 were sent up. The observations over the 

 equator, in the center of the continent, 

 showed very low temperatures at great 

 heights, as did the expedition of Teisserenc 

 de Bort and Rotch on the equatorial Atlan- 

 tic, but with the difference that over the 

 African continent there was a trace of the 

 isothermal layer. The vertical changes 

 were as follows: adiabatic decrease of tem- 

 perature to 13,000 meters, between 13,000 

 and 15,000 meters a small inversion, and 

 above 17,000 meters isothermal conditions. 

 Above the southeast monsoon the wind was 

 south-southwest and three times a westerly 

 wind was observed between 15,000 and 

 18,000 meters, above the great equatorial 

 current from the east which is supposed to 

 prevail at all heights. 



Professor Palazzo, director of the Italian 

 Meteorological Office, described his aerolog- 

 ical expedition to Zanzibar and to the east 

 coast of Africa, in which ballons-sondes 

 and pilot-balloons were launched from an 

 Italian cruiser. Professor Hergesell gave 

 some results of balloons sent up from a 

 German cruiser in the neighborhood of the 

 Canary Islands, and on the Peak of Ten- 

 eriffe. He showed the effect of the dis- 

 tribution of barometric pressure on the 

 trade-wind, which is especially influenced 

 by the displacement of the center of maxi- 

 mum pressure over the North Atlantic. 

 Professor Hergesell reaffirmed his belief 

 that the effect of the Peak on the wind 

 extends up to 6 kilometers above sea-level. 

 Professor Rotch presented his volume 

 giving an account and a discussion of the 

 first observations with ballons-sondes in 

 America, which were made at St. Louis 

 from 1904 to 1907. 



The communications relating to new 

 projects included the promises of Dr. van 



