Febeuary 11, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



211 



School of Pedagogy of the University of Buf- 

 falo, has been appointed professor of the theory 

 and practice of teaching at the Teachers' Col- 

 lege, New York. The study of education and 

 the professional training of teachers will be 

 abandoned at Buffalo at the end of the present 

 year, special measures having been taken to 

 enable the students of Professor McMurry to 

 continue their work under him at Columbia 

 University. Dr. W. B. Elkin, lecturer in phi- 

 losophy at Cornell University, has been ap- 

 pointed to an instructorship in the theory and 

 practice of teaching. 



Me. H. Bagnall Poulton, M.A., F.R.S., 

 Hope professor of zoology at Oxford Univer- 

 sity, has been elected to a Fellowship in Jesus 

 College, under the statute providing for the 

 election of ' any person of eminence in liter- 

 ature, science or art whose presence on the gov- 

 erning body would, in the judgment of the Prin- 

 cipal and Fellows, be beneficial to the college. 



Me. Frank Clowes has accepted the posi- 

 tion of chief chemist to the London County 

 Council, and has been made emeritus professor 

 of chemistry of University College, Notting- 

 ham. 



M. Lb Chateliee has been appointed to the 

 chair of mineralogical chemistry in the College 

 de France, vacant by the death of M. Schiitzen- 

 berger, and Professor G. M. Searle has been 

 appointed Director of the Vatican Observatory 

 at Rome in the place of Father Denza. Dr. 

 Straubel has been promoted to an assistant 

 professorship of physics at the University of 

 Jena, and Dr. Brendel, decent in astronomy, to 

 an assistant professorship in the University of 

 Greifswald. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



A NOTE ON THE SOUTH AMERICAN COASTAL 

 CLOUD. 



To THE Editor of Science : The following 

 brief notes on the coastal cloud of the west 

 coast of Soiith America may be considered as 

 supplementary to the notes on clouds printed 

 in Science for August 27th last. 



One of the most interesting features in the 

 meteorology of the desert region which extends 

 roughly from lat. 3° S. to 30° S., along the 



west coast of South America, is the almost con- 

 stant presence of a bank of clouds over the 

 coast range of hills and the strip of land im- 

 mediately adjacent to the ocean. On the 

 writer's voyage up this coast from Valparaiso 

 to Panama, accomplished at intervals during 

 the mouths from August to January, it was noted 

 that the southern limit of this coastal cloud 

 coincides very nearly with the southern limit of 

 the rainless belt, and that its northern limit may 

 be taken as defined by the latitude at which the 

 zone of heavy rainfall in Ecuador begins and 

 the desert strip ends. 



The height of the base of the cloud, which 

 seemed usually to be a low strato-cumulus, was 

 determined in a few cases by means of aneroid 

 barometers and found to be between 2,000 and 

 3,000 feet above sea-level. The vertical thick- 

 ness of the cloud was found, by reference to the 

 heights of the coast range of hills, to be less 

 than 1,000 feet. As to the width of the cloud, 

 from its seaward to its landward side, a few 

 crossings by railroad from the ocean to the in- 

 terior country showed an inland extension of 

 roughly between ten and twenty miles. This 

 distance probably depends partly upon the 

 trend of the coast range of hills and partly upon 

 the topography of the region. The extension 

 of the coastal cloud to seaward apparently also 

 varies considerably. Sometimes the shore-line 

 itself was found to mark the limits of the cloud 

 as sharply as if they were drawn with a ruler, 

 and at other times the cloud was noticed ex- 

 tending as far as ten or even fifteen miles off 

 shore. 



A study of the growth of the cloud, and of 

 its relations to the clear sky on the seaward and 

 landward sides, would be very interesting. For 

 instance, on December 16th, last, at 8 a. m., 

 when the writer was in Mollendo, there was a 

 very sharp dividing line between the low gray 

 coastal cloud over the land and the blue sky, 

 with a few cirro-cumulus clouds dotted over it, 

 over the ocean. Later in the morning the 

 coastal cloud extended itself seaward and the 

 sharp line of division was lost. The contrast 

 between the region along the coast covered by 

 this cloud belt and the country inland, beyond 

 the reach of the cloud, is usually very striking. 

 But it is interesting to note that, if a sufficient 



