410 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 613. 



seems likely to be adopted is that by way of 

 making it worth while for those in Europe to 

 cross the water, and also of affording a certain 

 latitude, the congress shall officially last three 

 weeks. Only the middle week, however, is to 

 be devoted to scientific meetings and discus- 

 sions, it being proposed that the first week 

 shall be given up by visitors to exploring some 

 of the other great cities of the United States 

 north of Washington, in which official ar- 

 rangements will be made for their reception, 

 and the third week to similar official visits to 

 cities southwards. The idea is that there 

 may be many who could reach Washington 

 some little time before the scientific proceed- 

 ings commence, but would have to leave im- 

 mediately on their termination, while others 

 could spare plenty of time afterwards, but 

 none before, and that by placing the discus- 

 sions in the middle week America will be able 

 to show public hospitality to visitors of either 

 class. — The British Medical Journal. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



CLIMATE AND ALTITUDE IN AFRICA. 



The tempering effect of altitude, even with- 

 in the tropics, is well known. The vice-gov- 

 ernor of the Congo Free State, in a recent 

 description of a journey over the Uganda 

 Railroad (Mouvement Geographique, No. 16, . 

 1906), brings out this point in his notes on 

 Nairobi, an important town on the line west 

 of Mombasa, about half-way between the 

 Indian Ocean and Victoria Nyanza, at an ele- 

 vation of 5,450 feet. Here it is possible to 

 raise several varieties of European fruits, 

 vegetables and cereals; the European popula- 

 tion is increasing, and many of the white set- 

 tlers have brought their families. It is fur- 

 ther stated that they have no desire to return 

 to their native land. If this be true, it marks 

 a radical departure from the usual rule for 

 white settlers in the tropics, but it is doubtless 

 an exaggerated statement, or has its origin in 

 the fact that most of the Europeans have been 

 at Nairobi but a short time and have not yet 

 attempted to bring up their children there. 



Concerning German East Africa, the gov- 

 ernment of that district has recently issued a 



circular for the use of white colonists who 

 intend to settle in the Kilimanjo province. 

 The province consists chiefly of grassy steppe, 

 and the industries must be general agriculture 

 and stock-raising, in the main. The altitude 

 mitigates the heat, although the region is only 

 about 200 miles south of the equator. 



Major Gibbons {Geogr. Journ.., March) has 

 studied the western part of the high plateau 

 region of British East Africa with a view to 

 ascertaining its adaptability for European set- 

 tlement. Most of the plateau is 6,000 feet 

 above sea-level. Major Gibbons believes that 

 this, as well as other higher altitudes in this 

 part of Africa, will be classed as healthy 

 countries, and that they will have considerable 

 agricultural development. 



MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 



Recent numbers of the Monthly Weather 

 Review, Vol. XXXIV., 1906, have contained 

 the following notes and articles of general in- 

 terest : ' The Relation between Storm Move- 

 ment and Pressure Distribution,' by E. H. 

 Bowie ; ' Climatology of Haiti in the Eight- 

 eenth Century,' by C. F. Talman ; ' Vertical 

 Air Currents,' by F. W. Proctor, who notes 

 that he has several times had toy kites lifted 

 by vertical currents during summer anti- 

 cyclonic weather, thus showing the presence 

 of small irregular, rising bodies of air. A 

 case of ' Snow formed by Mixture of Warm 

 and Cold Air' is described by R. W. Gray, 

 observer at Atlantic City, N. J. On Feb- 

 ruary 6 last snow fell during a part of the 

 day when the sky was perfectly clear. At 

 times the flurries were quite heavy. Con- 

 densation seemed to occur at not more than 

 75 to 100 feet above ground, and in a region 

 of mixture of cold northwest land wind with 

 a warmer, damp ocean wind- Consul-Gen- 

 eral Skinner, at Marseilles, describes the 

 new method of frost protection in use in 

 the vine-growing regions. A newly-invent- 

 ed preparation, known as the ' Fumigene Mor- 

 tier,' packed in boxes containing about nine 

 pounds of black powder, and costing 1.50 

 franc each, is much used in producing thick 

 smoke, which has proved very effective in 



