780 
The rain gauge at Hearne overflowed at 24 
inches. The floods resulting from these ex- 
traordinary rainfalls were extremely destructive, 
as readers of SCIENCE will doubtless remember. 
Between 30 and 35 lives were lost, and crops 
and other interests suffered to the extent of 
millions of dollars. 
VOLCANIC SMOKE AND THE PREVAILING WINDS. 
The Monthly Weather Review for July contains 
an interesting note contributed by Curtis J. 
Lyons, of Honolulu, on the course taken by 
the smoke during the recent eruption on the 
island of Hawaii. This smoke rose to a height 
of about 30,000 ft. above sea level, and then 
floated off to the northeast, being carried in a 
horizontal direction by the anti-trades. It 
then sank to sea level about 600 miles from 
Hawaii, and was brought back by the northeast 
trade wind, covering the entire group of islands 
with heavy smoke fourteen days after the erup- 
tion. The S. S. Mariposa, on her voyage from 
San Francisco, met the cloud of smoke at the 
above distance from Honolulu. The smoke 
was overhead at first, and as the steamer pro- 
ceeded it covered everything at sea level. 
HURRICANE TRACKS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC 
OCEAN. 
The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for 
November gives the tracks followed by the 
centers of all the West Indian hurricanes which 
have occurred in the North Atlantic during the 
period 1890-1899. It appears from a tabula- 
tion of the 25 hurricanes noted during these 
years that the ideas which were formerly held 
regarding the recurvature of the storms of a 
particular month within certain narrow limits 
of latitude need some revision. The table 
shows that the hurricanes of September, instead 
of recurving between latitudes 27° and 29°, as 
formerly maintained, may in actual practice 
recurve in any latitude from 20° 20’ N., to 33° 
80’ N., while those of October, instead of re- 
curving in latitude 20°-23° N. may continue 
their northeasterly course until the parallel of 
89° is reached. 
TORNADO POWER. 
As the result of studies of the amount of 
pressure necessary to bend the rods of certain 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8S. Von. X. No. 256. 
railroad switch targets, Mr. B. F. Groat comes 
to the conclusion that the velocity of the wind 
in the New Richmond, Wis., tornado of June 
12th last was 1384 miles an hour. Mr. Groat’s 
paper is published in the Monthly Weather Re- 
view for July. 
R. DeC. WARD. 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA 
UNIVERSITY. 
President Low’s annual report to the trustees, 
after paying a tribute to the memory of Corne- 
lius Vanderbilt and expressing thanks to Pro- 
fessor Van Amringe, who was acting president 
during his absence as a delegate to the Inter- 
national Conference of Peace, gives a clear and 
interesting account of the progress and pres- 
ent condition of Columbia University. 
The cost of the new buildings and grounds 
was in all $6,879,011. By the payment of 
President Low of $600,000, completing his great 
gift for the construction of the Library, the 
debt against the new site is reduced to about 
$2,975,000. There is also a debt against the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons amounting 
to about $86,500. Although Columbia Univer- 
sity has gained greatly by its removal in many 
ways, including a large increase to its funds by 
gifts for the grounds and buildings, it is evi- 
dent that the interest, even though a large part 
of the debt has been refunded at 3 per cent., is 
a serious burden, and President Low states that 
the growth of the University is necessarily 
checked until this incubus is removed. As a 
matter of fact the University did receive lib- 
eral gifts during the year; $73,494 for current 
uses and $490,417 forendowment: The increase 
of the library during the, year was 25,404 vol- 
umes. 
The growth of the University, since the be- 
ginning of Mr. Low’s administration nine years 
ago, is indicated by the fact that in this period 
the officers of instruction have increased from 
170 to 339. This is not due to the multiplica- 
tion of subordinate officers as the number of 
professors and adjunct professors has increased 
from 41 to 84. The number of students has 
increased from 1,753 to 2,208 although the 
growth has been checked by increasing the re- 
