556 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 483. 



an increase of temperature with altitude dur- 

 ing fog is an exception, and is observed only 

 at the beginning of fog foi-mation, or during 

 very light ground fogs. The usual condition 

 is a decrease of temperature, and occasionally 

 a very rapid decrease. 



NOTES. 



A PAPER by Sir J. Norman Lockyer, on 

 ' Simultaneous Solar and Terrestrial Changes,' 

 read before the Southport meeting of the In- 

 ternational Meteorological Committee (Sep- 

 tember, 1903), is published in Nature for 

 February 11. In this paper Lockyer reviews 

 the work done along similar lines by previous 

 investigators, and gives the results of his own 

 studies, to which reference has already been 

 made in these Notes. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 

 Quarterly Issue, July-September, 1903, con- 

 tains 'Eecent Studies of the Solar Constant 

 of Radiation,' by C. G. Abbot. 



R. DeC. Ward. 



THE PELEE CLUB. ■ 



The Pelee Club held its second annual 

 meeting at the New Willard Hotel, Washing- 

 ton, D. C, February 27. 



This unique organization is composed of men 

 who participated in the events connected with 

 the relief, scientiiic and news-gathering expe- 

 ditions to Martinique and St. Vincent. Its 

 original membership embraces about eighty 

 people, including officers of the navy and army, 

 geologists, journalists and magazine vsriters. 



While the club was originally organized to 

 perpetuate the associations and friendships 

 formed during the exciting moments of the 

 Martinique incident, at its first annual meet- 

 ing it was resolved to make the organization 

 of permanent value to mankind by taking upon 

 itself the function of collecting, as nearly as 

 possible, a complete record of the events of 

 the recent Martinique eruption, and by pub- 

 lishing them in a composite volume, which is 

 well under way. 



The society also undertook the collection of 

 all photographs pertaining to the eruptions 

 and relief expeditions, and this has resulted in 

 a collection of nearly two thousand negatives 



by Professor E. 0. Hovey, chairman of the 

 committee on photographs. The society has 

 made the New York Museum of Natural His- 

 tory (the only American institution, except 

 the National Geographic Society, which has 

 exhibited serious interest in the West Indies) 

 the permanent repository for its collection of 

 photographs and records. 



Having progressed thus far, the society at 

 its recent meeting still further expanded its 

 functions. Realizing . that the subject of 

 volcanic geography in its widest sense, inclu- 

 ding all branches of interest pertaining to 

 volcanic countries and phenomena, is a wide 

 and unorganized field of cooperative study, the 

 society has resolved to widen its sphere of 

 usefulness by taking up this subject and 

 becoming a permanent organization for its 

 study. Accordingly it resolved to use the 

 present organization as a nucleus for the ex- 

 pansion of the association, to adopt a perman- 

 ent organization and to expand the member- 

 ship by taking into the society all investiga- 

 tors interested in the subject of volcanoes. 



When the importance of vulcanism in rela- 

 tion to the environment of man, the part it 

 plays in the structure of the earth, and how 

 little is done to systematically study these 

 subjects, is considered, it is evident that the 

 Pelee Club has before it a most interesting and 

 useful study. The character of its member- 

 ship is unusually favorable for its successful 

 operation, and it is believed that it will espe- 

 cially stimulate interest in the recording of 

 the important geographic observations of the 

 large number of intelligent observers in the 

 army, navy and journalistic circles, while the 

 purely scientific element is also large and in- 

 fluential. 



The society has also resolved to use its in- 

 fluence for the encouragement of local organ- 

 izations wherever they may be and accept as 

 an affiliated society the unique Club Montagne 

 of Guadeloupe, which in the out-of-the-way 

 island of that name has provided an organiza- 

 tion for the study of the Grand Soufriere, the 

 highest and most dangerous-looking volcano 

 of the West Indies, and which, at its own ex- 

 pense, has constructed a road to the summit 

 and made arrangements to guide and enter- 



