September 14, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



345 



' TJntersuchung iiber die Genauigkeit der 

 Tages-, Monats- und Jahresmittel aus den 

 Temperaturbeobachtungen fiir die drei Stund- 

 en-Kombinationen : 6 A.M.-2 p.M.-lb p.m.; 

 8 A.M-2 P.M.-8 P.M. ; Y A.M.-2 P.M.-9 P.M.'' Dr. 

 Schreiber is at the head of the Meteorological 

 Institute of Saxony, and is well known 

 through his accurate statistical work there. 

 H. H. Hildebrandsson : ' Sur la Circulation 

 des Couches superieures de I'Air au dessus 

 du Maximum de I'Atlantique Nord.' Dr. 

 Hildebrandsson, as is known to readers of 

 these notes, has lately advanced a new view of 

 the general circulation of the atmosphere, and 

 all his contributions to this subject are of 

 peculiar interest. A. Woeikof : ' Die Verteil- 

 ung und Akkumulation der Warme in den 

 Festlandern und Gewassern der Erde.' Woei- 

 kof has given special attention to the larger 

 relations of land and water and climate; this 

 is a study in this connection. W. N. Shaw: 

 ' The Law of Sequence in the Yield of Wheat 

 for Eastern England, 1885-1904.' In this 

 paper the director of the British Meteorolog- 

 ical Office gives the results of his recent studies 

 into the relations of weather and the wheat 

 crop in England. L. Teisserenc de Bort : ' Sur 

 la Circulation generale de 1' Atmosphere,' an 

 investigation of the relations between tempera- 

 ture and pressure at sea-level and in the free 

 air. Cleveland Abbe : ' The Trade Winds and 

 the Doldrums,' being notes on observations 

 made by Professor Abbe during a voyage in 

 the U. S. S. Pensacola in October, 1889, and 

 May, 1890. A. L. Eotch and L. Teisserenc 

 de Bort : ' The Meteorological Conditions 

 above the Tropical North Atlantic,' dealing 

 with results already summarized in these notes. 



ANTI-TRADES IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE 

 WEST INDIES. 



A BELATED note on the drift of the- upper 

 air currents as shown by the carriage of 

 smoke and ashes during the volcanic erup- 

 tions of 1902-3 in the West Indies and Cen- 

 tral America is found in the Meteorologische 

 Zeitschrift for July. The writer, Dr. K. 

 Sapper, points out that but little attention 

 has yet been paid to this subject. The anti- 



trade in the West Indies was clearly evidenced 

 by the drift of smoke and ashes from St. 

 Vincent and from Mont Pelee. The altitude 

 of this upper current is not great, but was not 

 accurately determined. In Central America 

 the anti-trade seems to occur, if at all, at very 

 great altitudes. Observations of the drift of 

 smoke and ashes at heights of 7,000 to 8,000 

 meters above sea-level showed a movement 

 towards the west or north-northwest. There 

 was a slight carriage of ashes in an easterly 

 direction, but of no considerable importance. 

 The famous eruption of Coseguina, in 1835, 

 showed that in southern Central America, at 

 any rate, the anti-trade blows from west-south- 

 west. Ashes fell in Jamaica. Smaller erup- 

 ions of other volcanoes in 1880, 1864, 1828 and 

 1833 showed a westward drift of the upper 

 currents. 



RAINFALL, TEMPERATURE AND TREE GROWTH. 



In the Bulletin of the American Geograph- 

 ical Society for July, Mr. Henry Gannett 

 discusses ' Certain Relations of Rainfall and 

 Temperature to Tree Growth' in the western 

 United States. He finds that the timber-line 

 has a mean annual temperature of approxi- 

 mately 30°, but the data relating to rainfall 

 are more definite and more significant than 

 those of temperature. It appears that the 

 lower limit of the yellow pine is at or just 

 below 20 inches of rainfall. The lower limit 

 of the red fir is at or about 30 inches, and 

 there is apparently no upper limit, the fir 

 being abundant where the rainfall exceeds 

 100 inches a year. The redwood belt in Cali- 

 fornia includes only one station with a rain- 

 fall less than 30 inches. This seems to show 

 that the isohyetal line of 30 inches is the lower 

 limit of this species. 



CUMULUS CLOUDS OVER THE SAN FRANCISCO FIRE. 



We have seen but one notice of the develop- 

 ment of cumulus clouds over the fire which 

 followed the San Francisco earthquake. This 

 is in a letter from Mr. Charles Van Norden 

 {Nature, Vol. 74, 1906, p. 133), who observed 

 the conflagration from the deck of a ferry 

 boat. A white cumulus cloud was seen, dark 



