154 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol.. XXIll. .Nfo.578. 



next day. Since October 11, 1904, the daily 

 weather map (isobars, wind direction and 

 shaded areas of rainfall) has appeared regu- 

 larly in the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper 

 supplies the observatory with a small number 

 of reprints of the maps each day, and through 

 the courtesy of Mr. H. A. Hunt, acting 

 meteorologist. New South Wales, the compiler 

 of these notes has received a set of the maps 

 bearing dates from May 24 on. We have no 

 doubt that general interest in meteorology 

 will be greatly stimulated by the publication 

 of these weather maps in the Daily Telegraph. 

 In the United States several papers have at 

 odd times attempted a daily publication of 

 weather maps. There is at present at least 

 one newspaper, the Boston (Mass.) Herald, 

 which still prints them regularly. A short 

 account of ' The Newspaper Weather Maps of 

 the United States ' appeared in the American 

 Meteorological Journal, Vol. XI., 1894^5, pp. 

 96-107. 



METEOROLOGY OP THE ' SCOTIA ' EXPEDITION. 



E. C. Mobsman, meteorologist of the Scotia 

 Expedition, contributed to the August number 

 of the Scottish Geographical Magazine a dis- 

 cussion of the meteorological results obtained 

 after October, 1903, chieily concerning the 

 observations at Laurie Island, South Orkneys. 

 The observations made at sea and at the Falk- 

 land Islands will be discussed later. Thp 

 station at Laurie Island has, it may be re- 

 membered, been taken over by the Argentine 

 Meteorological Service since February 22, 

 1904. One of the most interesting meteoro- 

 logical phenomena is the foehn winds. These 

 come from the west-northwest over a consider- 

 able area of high land, and may produce as 

 high a temperature in midwinter as in mid- 

 summer. Inversions of temperature were 

 common during anticyclones. The summer 

 is the cloudiest season, as is usiially the case 

 in the polar latitudes. The prevailing wind 

 direction is northwest and west-northwest. 

 Precipitation, chiejSy granular snow, amount- 

 ed in 1904 to 10.41 inches, although the actual 

 fall may be fifteen inches. Thunder-storms 

 occurred twice, and distant lightning was seen 

 twice. The cyclones show a very rapid fall 



of the barometer in the front, and a slow rise 

 in the rear. The rapid fall is associated with 

 light winds, but heavy gales prevail on the 

 rear. 



LOSS OF SLEEP AND HIGH MOUNTAIN ASCENTS. 



Dr. Bullock Workman, whose high moun- 

 tain climbing in the Himalayas is well known, 

 has recently brought out the point that very 

 high ascents may be rendered impossible by 

 loss of sleep due to the difficulty in breathing 

 while lying down. He notes that while in 

 camp at 19,358 feet his party was kept awake 

 by lack of breath, and when the members dozed 

 off, they would awake with a start, gasping for 

 breath. Dr. Workman adds : " If camps could 

 be established at heights of 23,000 feet to 

 25,000 feet and above, as they would have to 

 be, sleep might be entirely prevented or inter- 

 fered with by deficient oxygenation of the 

 blood to such an extent that a party would Be 

 incapacitated from this cause alone from go- 

 ing any higher." {Bull. Am. Geogr. Soc, 

 XXXVIL, 1905, 6Y1.) 



NOTES. 



In Symons's Meteorological Magazine, Sep- 

 tember and October, 1905, R. H. Curtis urges 

 the use of Beaufort's scale by observers on 

 land who have not anemometers, and suggests 

 that such observers would make much more 

 accurate estimates of wind velocities if they 

 accustomed themselves to associating the ob- 

 servable effects of the wind with the actual 

 wind velocities, which could be published 

 every day. 



The crop of meteorological observations 

 made during the recent solar eclipse is be- 

 ginning to be gathered in. Among the data 

 published we note the following: At Fal- 

 mouth (England) the thermograph showed a 

 slight depression at 12:30 p.m., and the fall 

 continued slightly until 1:15 p.m., well after 

 the maximum phase. The barometer rose 

 throughout the day, with a little more pro- 

 nounced rise between 1 and 2 p.m., but no 

 irregularities were noted. At Broughton-in- . 

 Furness a decline of temperature was dis- 

 tinctly shown, from nearly 60° at noon to 56° 



