134 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 5. 



announced. J. M. Schnver is south-west of 

 Abj-ssinia, about the head-waters of the Blue 

 Nile. Anbre3- and Hamon, Ri^voil and Soleil- 

 let, are French explorers working inward from 

 the Red Sea. 



English exploration in the lake region is to 

 be renewed under Joseph Thomson, who is 

 sent b^' the Roj-al geographical societj^ to ex- 

 plore Mounts Kenia and Kilimandjaro and the 

 country be.yond them. H. E. O'Neill, British 

 consul at Mozambique, has latelj' undertaken 

 several inland expeditions, and will be proba- 

 bly heard from again. Jolinson, of the Univer- 

 sities mission, has recentlj- shown that the 

 Ludjende branch of the Rovuma heads in a lake 

 supposed to correspond to Livingston's Shirwa. 

 Manj' other missions have stations in the lake 

 region. James Stewart has been sent to con- 

 struct a road between Lakes Nyassa and Tan- 

 gan3-ika. He had a steamer on the former, and 

 has executed a survej^ of it. 



A. Ratfray, who had explored part of Abys- 

 sinia while French consul at Massaua, has been 

 sent as consul to Tamatave on the eastern 

 coast of Madagascar, where he will probably 

 continue his geographic studies ; Paiva de 

 Andrada, with a companj- of experts, has 

 examined the mineral riches of the lower 

 Zambesi, but no full reports are j^et made pub- 

 lic ; Gii-aud left Marseilles for Zanzibar last 

 Jul}', hoping to penetrate to Bangweolo lake 

 and then west to the Atlantic ; Cardoso and 

 Franco left Mozambique in vSeptember last, to 

 enter Umzeila's country ; and Dr. Holub in- 

 tends to return to south Africa earlj' this yeai-, 

 prepared for a journej'' from the Cape to the 

 Zambesi. 



Australasia. — The government of West 

 Australia has sent an expedition, under J. 

 Forrest, to tlie north-western coast to institute 

 surveys, as he had found valuable agricultural 

 lands there in a previous trip. Michlucho-Mac- 

 laj', who has spent a year in Europe after his 

 long stay in New Guinea, returns to Sj'dney to 

 continue zoological studies there. While in 

 Europe, he received £2,200 from the emperor 

 of Russia toward the publication of his previous 

 explorations. Last March the Rev. W. S. 

 Green accomplished the ascent of Mount Cook, 

 the highest of the New Zealand Alps, with 

 the aid of two Swiss guides. He proposed to 

 attempt a similar excursion in New Guinea. 

 Dr. Finch has returned from ethnological 

 studies in Australasia and Oceanica. Scha- 

 denberg, Meyer, and Landau have been in the 

 Philippines ; and the latter goes to Japan. H. 

 de Vcisine, Larue, and M. Geny have under- 

 taken an expedition in Sumatra. 



As the reports and results of these various 

 explorers are published, it is our hope to 

 j)resent an outline of them to the readers of 

 Science. 



THE WEATHER IN DECEMBER, 1882. 



The monthly' weather-review of the U. S. 

 signal-service for December, 1882, shows that 

 the meteorology of the month was of unusual 

 interest. The following may be mentioned as 

 the prominent characteristics : — 



The temperature was below the mean in all 

 districts east of the Rocky Mountains, except 

 in the lower Missouri valle}-, and above the 

 mean from these mountains to the Pacific. 

 The lowest temperature noted was — 35°, in 

 Dakota ; and the highest, 95°, iu Arizona. 

 The cold was unusual in the southern states, 

 there being frosts as far south as central Flor- 

 ida. The special frost warnings were of great 

 value to the sugar and fruit growers in this 

 section. 



The rainfall reports, which were received 

 from over five hundred stations, show in gen- 

 eral adeficienc}' ; but there was a marked ex- 

 cess in the northern Pacific district, causing 

 floods in Oregon and Washington Territorj'. 

 Snow in California on the 12th, causing con- 

 siderable damage to the evergreen foliage, was 

 the special feature of the precipitation record. 

 The average pressure was normal ; but the 

 depressions, as is usual in December, were 

 well marked, ten being charted. Of these, one 

 was observed from the Pacific to the Atlantic, 

 and across the ocean to the English coast ; one 

 was formed by the union of two centres ; while 

 two presented the unusual phenomenon of sep- 

 arating each into two distinct centres, which 

 afterwards re-united. Five of the depressions 

 13ursued an easterly track, and four a north- 

 easterlj'. Four of the areas were traced com- 

 pletelj' across the Atlantic. 



The wind velocities were often high ; the 

 greatest recorded being 116 miles an hour, at 

 Mount Washington. Velocities of 70 miles 

 were noted on the coast of North Carolina. 

 The following ' total movements of the wind ' 

 in miles deserve note : Mount Washington, 

 23,411 ; Cape May, 12,901 ; Pike's Peak, 

 12,548 ; Hatteras, 12,279. The velocities at 

 Mount Washington invariablj' exceed those of 

 an}' other station, month after month ; while 

 those at Pike's Peak are smaller, though the 

 elevation of the station is more than twice as 

 great. In this month the velocitj' at Cape 

 Maj', on the coast, exceeded that at Pike's 

 Peak, over 14,000 feet in altitude. 



Auroras were frequently noted, but none 



