February 2, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



193 



Otto Nordenskjold, observations were con- 

 tinued for twenty months, from March, 1902, 

 to October, 1903, on Snow Hill Island (lat. 

 64° 22' S.), and for seven months on Paulet 

 Island (lat. 63° 22' S.)- The low mean an- 

 nual temperature, 10.8° F., resulted from the 

 low summer mean of 28.2°, this being the 

 lowest Antarctic summer mean on record with 

 the exception of that of the Discovery expedi- 

 tion. The minimum was — 42.5° F. ; the 

 maximum, 48.7° F. The maximum tempera- 

 tures occurred in spring and fall. The pre- 

 vailing wind was southwest, and wind veloc- 

 ities showed no striking relation to pressure 

 changes. Rain fell occasionally. The cirrus 

 clouds moved from between west and west- 

 southwest, and the same direction was noted 

 in the intermediate clouds. The winter was 

 clearer than the summer, when fogs prevailed. 



Thk " Magnetic and Meteorological Obser- 

 vations made by the ' Southern Cross ' Ant- 

 arctic Expedition, 1898-1900," under the direc- 

 tion of C. E. BorchgTevink (London, 1903), 

 include the records made at Cape Adare from 

 March 3, 1899, to January 28, 1900, the first 

 winter records from the Antarctic continent 

 (lat. 71° 18' S.; long. 170° 9' E.). Anti- 

 cyclonic winds from east-southeast to south 

 prevailed (41 per cent.) ; calms were noted 

 nearly half of the time (41 per cent.). The 

 curious fact was noted that the lowest pressure 

 sometimes occurred with the end of a storm. 



The laws governing the size of rain-drops 

 have received some attention, notably of late 

 at the hands of Defant, of Innsbruck, who 

 reaches the following conclusion. The forma- 

 tion of drops depends upon the combination of 

 smaller droplets, but, contrary to the views of 

 Reynolds and Lenard, this union is between 

 droplets of the same size, or of nearly the same 

 size. Drops of unequal size unite less easily 

 the greater the difference in their sizes. 



As the result of actinometrical measure- 

 ments made on Mont Blanc in August and 

 September, 1904, Hansky finds the most prob- 

 able value of the solar constant 3.23 calories. 



Das Gewitter, by Albert Gockel, 2d edition, 

 Koln, 1905, is an excellent ' popular ' discus- 

 sion of present knowledge concerning thunder- 



storms, including lightning, lightning rods 

 and atmospheric electricity in general. 



CiRKUS clouds, on account of their delicacy 

 and beauty, offer an attractive field for indi- 

 vidual non-instrumental study, which may 

 lead to interesting conclusions regarding the 

 various methods of formation of these clouds. 

 Osthotf, of Cologne, has recently made a con- 

 siderable investigation of this sort, which will 

 prove interesting to any one undertaking a 

 similar quest. 



The transparency of fog has been experi- 

 mentally investigated by Haecker, of Kiel, by 

 means of a new method depending on exact 

 photometric measurements of the visibility of 

 surfaces at different distances. The instru- 

 ment used is a ' polarization-photometer.' A 

 practical result of such work would be the 

 application of the results to lighthouses, ships' 

 lights, etc. 



A REMARKABLE ' dust f og,' observed in the 

 Malay Archipelago in October, 1902, of such 

 density as to interfere with navigation, has 

 been investigated by the Batavia Observatory 

 staff, large numbers of circular letters of in- 

 quiry having been sent to ship captains whose 

 business took them to those seas at the time 

 in question. The causes of this remarkable 

 dust fog have been sought in the deficient 

 rainfall of the year 1902; in extended forest 

 fires, especially in Borneo and southern 

 Sumatra, and in the transportation of dust by 

 the southeast trade from Australia. As the 

 progress of the dust from Australia could be 

 followed, by successive stages, northward, the 

 latter cause was doubtless the most impor- 

 tant one. 



Meinardus of Berlin has been paying special 

 attention to the relation between the general 

 winds, the circulation of the water in the 

 North Atlantic Ocean and the weather of 

 adjacent lands. His latest conclusions are 

 summarized as follows, A and B being groups 

 of conditions which occur in association with 

 one another. 



A. 1. Weak Atlantic circulation (August- 

 February). 



2. Low water temperatures on the European 

 coast , ( November- April ) . 



