Apbil 6, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



555 



local culture areas-, the interrelation of each 

 of these, and of each to outside cultures. 



But few specimens have been found in the 

 whole area extending from the central Arctic 

 region to the Columbia River, and from there 

 southward along the coast to the Santa Bar- 

 bara Islands, thence to the Pueblo region and 

 eastward as far as the mounds of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. Literature on the archeology of 

 the area is scanty. That whole region, north 

 to the Arctic, across all the plains towards the 

 east, and the plateaus south throughout 

 Nevada, remains to be explored. 



Haelan I. Smith. 



Ameeican Museum of N.^tueax History. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



CYCLONIC DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL. 



Mention has several times been made in 

 these columns of the great value of discussions 

 of weather elements, not on the basis of 

 monthly and annual averages, but on that of 

 cyclonic control. A further contribution to 

 such investigations is a report by J. A. Udden, 

 ' On the Cyclonic Distribution of Rainfall ' 

 {Augustana, Library Publications, No. 4, 

 1905). The method employed is the one 

 familiarly known as the composite portrait 

 method. The general region of a cyclone is 

 divided into twenty-five areas, separated by 

 four concentric circles and by a series of eight 

 radii. The precipitation, wind direction and 

 cloudiness shown on the 8 a.m. weather maps 

 for a series of selected stations were entered 

 in the appropriate divisions, and the results 

 then summarized and charted. The stations 

 are Davenport (Iowa), Amarillo, Dodge City, 

 Wichita, Oklahoma, Helena, Miles City, 

 Leander, Boise City, Detroit and Buffalo. In 

 some cases the observations relate to the year 

 1899 only; in others the period covers several 

 years. 



climatic notes on the SAHARA. 



Last summer Professor E. P. Gautier, of 

 Algiers, crossed the Sahara between Algeria 

 and the Niger River, being the first explorer 

 to cross this wide part of the desert since 

 Laing was murdered near Timbuktu in 1826. 



Gautier says that the Sahara, viewed as a 



desert, is much less extensive than has gen- 

 erally been believed. The Adrar plateau, 

 from 2,300 to 2,700 feet above sea-level, is not, 

 properly speaking, a waste; and while he was 

 still 360 miles from Gao on the Niger he 

 reached a wide belt of steppe, which is the 

 merging of the Sudan with the Sahara. This 

 steppe region has its rainy season with about 

 six to twelve inches of precipitation every 

 year. This quantity suffices to cover the land 

 with ponds and grass. Animal life is abun- 

 dant. 



Gautier distinguishes between the Tuaregs 

 who ride on camels and those who use horses. 

 The first inhabit the drier regions; the Tua- 

 regs who use horses are on the whole more 

 numerous and live in the steppe region and 

 along the Niger. 



The explorer found abundant evidences that 

 this part of the Sahara once had a very large 

 population of the Neolithic period of develop- 

 ment. His finds included many arrow-points 

 and axes of polished stone. Even the waste 

 regions were inhabitable until a comparatively 

 recent period. Proofs of this are found in 

 the thousands of drawings upon the rocks, the 

 graves in which, everyvchere, the same kinds 

 of implements and other objects were found, 

 and the stones used for grinding grain. These 

 stones show that agriculture was practised 

 here, and that civilization was considerably 

 advanced. 



The gradual desiccation of this region ad- 

 vanced from the Sudan. To-day, however, 

 the rain-belt is again extending more and 

 more to the north. Gautier distinguishes 

 these three epochs : the first was marked by 

 dense population; the second by desert condi- 

 tions, and in the third, or present period, the 

 land is again assuming a steppe-like character. 

 — Bull. Am. Geogr. 8oc., Jan., 1906. 



METEOROLOGY OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN. 



The Meteorological Committee (London) 

 has published a twelve-page pamphlet on the 

 relation between pressure, temperature and 

 air circulation over the South Atlantic Ocean, 

 this being a summary of the facts set forth 

 on a series of elaborate charts published pre- 

 viously by the hydrographic department of 



