Decembeb 21, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



823 



Other instances of tlie stranding of whales 

 are reported by the same classic author. 



C. R. Eastman. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



LANTERN SLIDES FOR TEACHING METEOROLOGY. 



The Geographic Society of Chicago has 

 -done an excellent work for the development 

 of meteorological instruction in the United 

 States. It has collected a set of 270 lantern 

 slides of various meteorological subjects. It 

 has published a good descriptive text to ac- 

 company them. It sells the slides at cost. 

 This is one of the more important meteorolog- 

 ical contributions along educational lines 

 which has been made in this country within 

 the last few years. The plan was inaugurated 

 in 1905 by Dr. J. Paul Goode, then president 

 of the Chicago Geographic Society, and on 

 the committee which was put in charge of the 

 work were Dr. Goode, Professor Henry J. Cox, 

 of the U. S. Weather Bureau in Chicago, the 

 •chief observer of the Weather Bureau in Chi- 

 cago, and three teachers. The slides are copied 

 from maps and diagrams in the Atlas of Mete- 

 orology, recent text-books, and in the Monthly 

 Weather Review; from photographs, and from 

 weather maps and weather records selected 

 and prepared by the committee. A wide 

 Tange of subjects is covered, and any teacher 

 of meteorology, climatology or geography will 

 surely find many slides suitable for use in his 

 particular line of teaching. The text to ac- 

 ■company the slides embraces 130 pages. It 

 includes a ' General Introduction,' by Pro- 

 fessor Cox; a paper on ' The Use of the Lan- 

 tern in Teaching Meteorology,' by Dr. Goode; 

 a short working bibliography for the use of 

 teachers, and then the descriptive text (110 

 pages). The latter is subdivided according to 

 the subjects covered by the slides, including 

 the following: weather observatories; meteor- 

 ological instruments and instrument records; 

 temperature distribution; atmospheric press- 

 Tire and circulation; sunshine and other 

 optical phenomena; humidity, cloudiness and 

 precipitation; cyclones and anticyclones; 

 thunderstorms and tornadoes; floods; syn- 

 <:-hronous weather conditions; life response to 



climate. This descriptive text is almost a 

 small text-book in itself, and will be very 

 helpful to teachers (unless perchance it be 

 so complete that it tempts them to limit their 

 reading to this alone). We welcome most 

 heartily the Chicago Geographic Society's 

 valuable contribution to meteorological edu- 

 cation. 



LAND AND SEA BREEZES ON THE GERMAN COAST. 



The phenomena of land and sea breezes on 

 the eastern coast of Germany bordering the 

 Baltic have been studied by Max Kaiser, of 

 Halle ('Inaugural-Dissertation,' Halle, 1906), 

 who has made use of anemograph records for 

 the period 1901-5 at five stations extending 

 over a strip of 300 miles of coast-line; of the 

 observations taken thrice daily at storm-warn- 

 ing stations of the Deutsche Seewarte, and 

 of observations on light-ships and on passing 

 vessels. The sea breeze was found to begin 

 at various times, often at 8 a.m. and often not 

 until 2 P.M. or later. The absolute maximum 

 velocity was 13.2 miles per hour; the absolute 

 minimum was 0.8 miles per hour. The mean 

 velocity is 4.5 to 6.7 miles per hour. April 

 to September are the months of occurrence. 

 Only those days were taken as sea-breeze days 

 which had an offshore wind early, an onshore 

 wind at noon and an offshore wind again in 

 the evening. The ' roundabouts ' which have 

 been noted on the New England coast and in 

 other places are but partially developed on the 

 Baltic coast of Germany. An interesting 

 study of the place of beginning of the sea 

 breeze, based on observations from vessels off- 

 shore, makes a decided addition to our present 

 knowledge on this subject. In the region 

 under discussion the sea breeze, when condi- 

 tions are favorable, begins between four and 

 five nautical miles offshore, and the land 

 breeze extends as far out as eight nautical 

 miles. 



MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 



No. 8, Vol. 34, 1906, of the Monthly 

 Weather Review contains the following 

 papers : ' The International Symbols,' by H. 

 H. Clayton. It is pointed out that the Amer- 

 ican term ' frostwork ' is equivalent to the 

 German ' Rauhfrost,' and the English term 

 ' silver thaw ' is the equivalent of the Amer- 



