June 17, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



953 



be left at the summit, if that height is 

 reached. Besides these, numerous recording 

 instruments will be kept in constant opera- 

 tion at the base of supplies, a station just be- 

 low the steeper part of the mountain. A 

 comparison of the records obtained near the 

 summit and at the base during the several 

 months likely to be spent there will doubtless 

 be of great value, and when the results are 

 published it is not unlikely that they will 

 form a distinct contribution to American 

 mountain meteorology. 



Among the eleven scientists whose names 

 have been submitted for consideration in the 

 next election to the Hall of Fame in New 

 York city are those of Joseph Henry and 

 Matthew F. Maury. The distinguished 

 services rendered by these men to meteorology 

 and climatology, as well as to other sciences, 

 deserve the attention of the electors, and the 

 selection of their names would at best be but 

 a tardy recognition of pioneer American 

 genius. 



In Science of March 11, reference was 

 made to the changed character of The 

 Monthly Weather Beview of the United 

 States Weather Bureau. The bureau now 

 publishes three journals. The Mount Weather 

 Bulletin, for scientific papers. The Hydro- 

 logical Journal, reporting river-flow, floods 

 and discharges, and The Monthly Weather 

 Beview, for climatological and engineering 

 data. The first, a quarterly, is somewhat 

 technical and is devoted largely to reports of 

 the numerous researches being carried on at 

 Mount Weather, while it is aimed to make 

 the last a climatological summary and a 

 great national engineering journal, in view 

 of the growing interests in water resources. 

 As it is a question whether or not it is 

 proper for the government to expend public 

 money for the maintenance of a popular or 

 educational monthly, no journal of that na- 

 ture is published. 



Books of especial interest to students of 

 meteorology and climatology which have just 

 been published or which will soon appear are 

 as follows : " Descriptive Meteorology," Pro- 

 fessor W. L. Moore ; " Solar Eesearches," Dr. 



G. E. Hale; "Wind Pressure," Dr. T. E. 

 Stanton ; " Climates of the British Posses- 

 sions," Dr. W. N. Shaw, and "Meteorology: 

 Practical and Applied," Sir John W. Moore, 

 new edition, illustrated. 



Report has recently been made of the wire- 

 less transmission of meteorological observa- 

 tions made conjointly by the weather services 

 of Germany and England during the months 

 of February, March and April, and again in 

 August and September, 1909. Vessels in the 

 North Atlantic Ocean reported observations 

 made at 7 a.m. and at 6 p.m., Greenwich time, 

 to the coast stations of the Marconi Wireless 

 Telegraph Company by means of an especially 

 devised code. Even after making special ef- 

 forts toward rapid transmission in the second 

 series, but 43 per cent, of the evening obser- 

 vations, and less than 8 per cent, of the morn- 

 ing observations arrived in time to be of 

 value. In commenting upon the results, 

 " Prometheus " states that during the months 

 of August and September not a single pre- 

 diction of the Hamburg Weather Bureau 

 was appreciably infiuenced by a wireless mes- 

 sage. This may possibly have been due to the 

 presence, frequently observed, of a great high 

 pressure area extending westward from the 

 British Isles, a phenomenon characteristic of 

 spring and autumn. Under these conditions 

 the distribution of pressure gives but little 

 suggestion as to the coming weather in cen- 

 tral Europe. It was found that when the 

 pressure observations contained in the tardy 

 messages were plotted after their receipt, in 

 most instances there was no marked deviation 

 from the distribution over the ocean as 

 originally deduced from observations in Ice- 

 land and the Azores. In view of these facts 

 it is not probable that further experiments of 

 the kind will be made for a time, at least 

 not until wireless telegraphy has advanced to 

 a stage where messages can be transmitted 

 with considerably greater speed. 



Lick Observatory Bulletin, Number 169, 

 contains a report of the expedition made to 

 the summit of Mount Whitney last autumn 

 when spectrograms of Mars and the moon 

 were obtained under especially favorable cir- 



