May 17, 1901.] 
the form of maps, may in due time be presented 
regarding the glacial lakes above noted. As 
to the restoration and development of the Ter- 
tiary drainage systems, the problem is inher- 
ently difficult on account of the unproved inland 
extension of the Cretaceous coastal plain, of the 
complicated rock structure of the region, of the 
uncertain relation between river volume and 
valley size in the advanced stage reached by 
the Tertiary cycle of erosion before the glacial 
period, and of the large volume and irregular 
distribution of the drift. Additional examples 
of streams, explainable by the same theoretical 
process, would perhaps lead as far towards dem- 
onstration as the case allows. 
W. M. Davis. 
CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 
THE Monthly Weather Review becomes more 
and more indispensable to teachers and students 
of meteorology with every succeeding number. 
Under the able editorship of Professor Cleve- 
land Abbe, the Review is rapidly enlarging its 
scope and its sphere of usefulness. The num- 
ber for December (issued in February) contains, 
among its special contributions, ‘The Circula- 
tory Movements of the Atmosphere,’ a trans- 
lation of portions of a paper by Professor V. 
Bjerknes, recently published in the Meteorolog- 
ische Zeitschrift, and ‘Line Integrals in the 
Atmosphere,’ by Professor F. H. Bigelow. In 
the ‘ Notes by the Editor,’ Professor Abbe takes 
up a great variety of topics. In ‘ Micro-Photo- 
graphs of Snow Crystals,’ the history of the 
study of snow crystals is briefly reviewed. 
Under ‘Bombarding the Hail Clouds’ the 
question as to the possibility of dispersing hail 
storms by means of cannonading is answered 
by Professor Abbe as follows: ‘‘The Editor 
would state that although statistics show that 
during the past year 15,000 shooting stations 
were established in Italy, and a very large 
number in southern France and Austria, yet 
there is no evidence whatever that the shooting 
done by these stations has had any effect what- 
ever upon the hailstorms or the hail.’’ A short 
paper on ‘Oscillations of the Lakes and the 
Climate in Arid Regions’ mentions the decreas- 
SCLENCE. 793 
ing depth of Great Salt Lake, the notable dimi- 
nution of the quantity of water in the streams 
and wells of Turkestan and Bokhara, and the 
shrinking of Lake Ngami, in South Africa, and 
points out that these observations do not indi- 
cate a permanent change in the conditions of 
the atmosphere, these lakes having gone through 
many similar dry periods before now. Other 
papers are ‘The Commercial Importance of 
Storm and Weather Forecasts,’ ‘The Evolu- 
tion of the Thermometer’ (a review of Dr. 
H. C. Bolton’s recent book); ‘Correlation of 
Weather in Distant Localities,’ and ‘ Light- 
ning from Cloudless Skies.’ A recent investi- 
gation of the ‘ Relations between Summer and 
Winter Temperatures,’ by Dr. O. L. Fassig, of 
Baltimore, is found to show that neither warm 
nor cold summers have any more relation to 
the succeeding winter temperatures than have 
the normal summers, or, in general, that there 
is no regular alternation or period in atmospheric 
temperatures. 
NEW CHARTS OF MEAN MONTHLY RAINFALL. 
THE first charts showing the mean monthly 
rainfall for the world were constructed by Dr. A. 
J. Herbertson, and published in Bartholomew’s 
new ‘Atlas of Meteorology’ (1891). Several 
charts of mean annual rainfall had previously 
been published, the first fairly complete one 
being that of Loomis (Am. Journ. Sci., third 
series, Jan., 1882; revised edition, Jbid., Jan., 
1883). Seasonal rainfall charts have recently 
been constructed by Supan. MHerbertson’s 
monthly rainfall charts have now appeared in 
‘The Distribution of Rainfall over the Land’ 
(Roy. Geogr. Soc., London, 1901, 8vo, pp. 70), on 
a considerably larger scale than that adopted for 
them in the ‘Atlas of Meteorology.’ The discus- 
sion is also much more extended than in the 
‘Atlas.’ This monograph will naturally not 
attract as much attention as it would have done 
had not the charts already appeared, but never- 
theless it may be said that Herbertson’s ‘ Distri- 
bution of Rainfall over the Land’ is one of the 
most important meteorological publications of 
recent years. 
NOTES. 
ARCTOWSKI, the meteorologist of the Bel- 
gica expedition, contributes to Ciel et Terre 
