Makch 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



397 



its surface, the water already at the freezing 

 point. 



The most remarkable feature of the climatic 

 conditions of Adelie Land are the violence and 

 constancy of the winds. They are hurricane 

 in force and, from the data in these volumes, 

 appear to have come invariably from the south- 

 south-east. Their regularity vras most re- 

 markable, and the direction so constant that 

 field parties traveled during blizzards and in 

 semi-darkness by shaping their course relative 

 to the wind. Indeed the wind — and the sas- 

 trugi formed by it — was a far better direction- 

 guide than was the compass, affected by their 

 proximity to the magnetic pole. The average 

 hourly velocity of the wind for the first year — 

 determined by a registering Robinson ane- 

 mometer, was fifty miles. The average for 

 March, 1912, was 49; April, 51.5, and May, 

 60.7 miles. Hourly velocities of 90 miles were 

 not uncommon, and in a number of cases the 

 rate eseeeded 100 miles. The most remarkable 

 winds — which from the snow carried by them 

 assumed the character of blizzards — are as fol- 

 lows: 1912 (for the 24 hours). May 11, 80 

 miles; May 15, 90; May 22 (gust approxi- 

 mating 200 miles per hour, with temperature 

 of — 28°) ; 1913, May, 17 (24 hours), 83 miles ; 

 May 18, 93.7 (between 6 and 7 p.m. of the 18th 

 the instrument recorded 103 miles) ; July 5, 

 116 miles in one hour, and an average of 107 

 miles for eight consecutive hours; July 11, 

 298 miles in three hours ; August 16, 105 miles 

 in an hour. Gusts were determined from time 

 to time by an instrument called a puffometer, 

 by which winds in gust were noted of an ex- 

 treme velocity of about 220 miles, though 

 necessarily such record could not be consid- 

 ered as absolutely accurate. 



Meteorologists have usually associated whirl- 

 winds with heated or desert regions. Maw- 

 son related: 



Whirlwinds of a few yards to a hundred yards 

 or more in diameter which were peculiar to the 

 country. The velocity of the wind in the rotating 

 column being very great, a corresponding lifting 

 power was imparted to it. The lid of a case, 

 weighing more than 300 pounds, was whisked into 

 the air and dropped fifty yards away. An hour 

 afterwards the lid was picked up again, and 



struck against the rocks with such force that part 

 of it was shivered to pieces. 



Regions of calms sometimes obtained in a 

 sheltered locality immediately under hurri- 

 cane winds. One man working in a fifty mile 

 gale at the Hut, on the upper cliffs, walked 

 down to the harbor ice and suddenly found 

 himself in an area of calm. As compared 

 with the force of winds of the Discovery, 77° 

 51' S., 167° E., 10.3 miles per hour, the winds 

 of Adelie Land are nearly six times as violent. 

 As to direction the Discovery winds as deter- 

 mined from the lower clouds showed 18 per 

 cent. S., 15 S.W. and 15 S.E. At Cape Adare, 

 with 10 per cent, calms, there were 20.4 per 

 cent, winds from the S.E. and 13.9 from the S. 

 These data seem to bring the S.S.E. winds of 

 Adelie Land in harmony with those a few hun- 

 dred miles to the southeast. The Gauss, 

 66° S., 90° E., was frozen-in a long distance 

 from land so that its winds, 47.8 per cent, 

 from the E., are not directly comparable with 

 those 1,700 to 2,000 miles to the eastward. 



It is evident that Mawson is justified in 

 calling Adelie Land the Home of the Blizzard, 

 and in claiming that it is the windiest region 

 on the earth at the level of the sea. Meteor- 

 ologists will look forward with interest to the 

 publication of the full observations with their 

 scientific discussion. 



A. W. Greely 



EEPOBT OF TEE COMMITTEE OF THE 

 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ANAT- 

 OMISTS ON FEEMEDICAL WORK 

 IN BIOLOGY 



At the meeting of the American Association 

 of Anatomists in Philadelphia, December, 

 1913, a committee was named by the president 

 of the association to confer with the zoologists 

 on the subject of work in biology preliminary 

 to the study of medicine. 



In accordance with the original motion of 

 the chairman, which led to the appointment of 

 this committee, the following report was sub- 

 mitted to the association December 29, 1914, 

 at the St. Louis meeting: 



Tour committee was appointed to confer 

 with the zoologists to ascertain what coopera- 



