436 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 376. 



est in a society which the honored traditions 

 of the past should most certainly keep alive 

 and active. In the Proceedings of the Mete- 

 orological Society of Mauritius for 1901, Mr. 

 Claston has some 'Remarks on the Objects for 

 which the Meteorological Society of Mauritius ' 

 was Established.' In this paper it is shown 

 that the work already accomplished has been 

 most important, and the hope is expressed 

 that the number of observing stations cooper- 

 ating with the Eoyal Alfred Observatory may 

 be increased. An unforeseen decrease in the 

 number of vessels which call at the island of 

 Mauritius has resulted in a corresponding 

 decrease in the number of marine meteorolog- 

 ical observations received by the Mauritius 

 Observatory. The annual number of vessels 

 has decreased from 787 in 1878 to 283 in 1900. 

 The material for the daily weather maps is 

 now so scanty that these charts have been dis- 

 continued except during cyclone weather, 

 when they are useful for determining the 

 tracks of cyclones. For giving a correct rep- 

 resentation of the atmospheric conditions over 

 the Indian Ocean, with a view to studying 

 the sequence of weather changes, the charts 

 are now well-nigh useless. 



Vol. I. of a new series of the Proceedings 

 and Transactions of the Meteorological Society 

 of Mauritius, 1896-1900, has come to hand 

 recently, and is welcome as a continuation of 

 the older series, which was discontinued in 

 1864 for lack of funds and other reasons. This 

 volume contains a number of interesting 

 papers, chiefly on the cyclones of the South 

 Indian Ocean from 1896 to 1900. A cyclone 

 in February, 1896, passed centrally over 

 Mauritius, this being the second case of this 

 kind on record since the conuneneement of 

 systematic observations in 1848. The diam- 

 eter of the 'eye' was about twenty miles. 

 Meteorologists will be glad to have in their 

 hands these further contributions to the study 

 of the Mauritius cyclones, and will not be 

 slow to express their thanks to Mr. Claxton 

 for his energy in continuing Meldruia's great 

 work. 



BRITISH RAINFALL. 



The annual volume on 'British Rainfall' 

 pomes this year in its familiar blue cloth 



binding, but with a new name, that of Dr. 

 Hugh Robert Mill, on its title page. As has 

 already been reported in these 'Notes,' Mr. H. 

 Sowerby Wallis succeeded to the editorship of 

 this important publication after the death of 

 Mr. George J. Symons in 1900. Mr. Wallis 

 was associated with Mr. Symons for over 

 thirty years, and from 1890 on his name 

 appeared with that of Mr. Symons on the title- 

 page of 'British Rainfall.' Dr. Mill, as 

 already noted in these columns, has assumed 

 the editorship of Symons's Monthly Meteoro- 

 logical Magazine, and is now associated with 

 Mr. Wallis in carrying on the work of the 

 British Rainfall Organization. The present 

 volume is a particularly interesting one. Dr. 

 Mill has a paper on 'The Ilkley Flood of 

 July 12,' which was caused by an unusually 

 heavy rainfall amounting to 5.40 in. at Ilkley 

 itself (the maximum fall for the year in the 

 British Isles) ; and another paper, of historic 

 value, on 'The Development of Rainfall 

 Measurement in the last Forty Years,' in 

 which the material, size, form, ex]30sure and 

 elevation of rain gauges used in England are 

 considered. It is a satisfaction to loiow that 

 'British Rainfall' is to be continued in such 

 excellent hands. 



CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF PANAMA AND 

 NICARAGUA. 



In a recent paper on 'The Present Condi- 

 tion of the Panama Canal' (Engineering 

 Mag., January, 1902), Gen. H. L. Abbot con- 

 siders briefly the climatic conditions of 

 the Panama and Nicaragua canal routes. 

 Throughout the entire region the temperature 

 varies but little during the year from the 

 annual mean of 79°. The high temperatures 

 and high relative humidity forbid hard man- ■ 

 ual labor on the part of white men. The 

 hospital records of the Panama Railroad and 

 of the Canal Company during the past 

 twenty years show that there is no reason for 

 apprehending serious trouble from sickness 

 in the future. At Colon the annual precipita- 

 tion is about 129 inches, in the interior, about 

 94 inches, and on the Pacific coast, about 57 

 inches. There is a clearly defined dry season 

 of about four months everywhere along the 



