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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 595. 



our recent forms from this region, so there 

 seems little doubt that these shells as well as 

 the deposit in which they were found are 

 post-glacial in age. 



J. Howard Wilson. 



CiOLUMBIA UnIYEESITY. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



THE TEACHING OF CLIMATOLOGY IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



At the meeting of the Association of Amer- 

 ican Geographers in New York last December 

 a paper was read by Professor Cleveland 

 Abbe on ' The Present Condition in our 

 Schools and Colleges of the Study of Cli- 

 matology as a Branch of Geography, and of 

 Meteorology as a Branch of Geophysics' (ab- 

 stract in Bull. Amer. Geogr. Soc, XXXVIII., 

 121-123). It appears that about 1,000 graded 

 schools teach the elements of climatology as a 

 part of geography, receive the daily weather 

 maps and give talks upon their use in fore- 

 casting the weather. About 7,000 high 

 schools, or seven eighths of the whole num- 

 ber, teach the elements of meteorology and 

 climatology in connection with physical geog- 

 raphy or physical geology. 



The replies to a circular letter recently sent 

 to 177 public normal schools in the United 

 States indicate that in about 25 meteorology 

 and climatology are taught in specific courses, 

 in about 115 these subjects are taught in con- 

 nection with physical geography or some 

 other allied subject, and in the remaining 37 

 these subjects are not touched upon. 



As to colleges and universities, out of 245 

 replies 49 state that they have specific courses 

 in meteorology, 95 teach meteorology in con- 

 nection with some other subjects, and 101 pay 

 no attention to the subject. The correspond- 

 ing percentages are 20, 39 and 41; probably 

 the replies from other colleges and universi- 

 ties will not alter these ratios very much. 



In fully one half of these institutions, from 

 the lower schools to the higher universities, 

 some form of laboratory method is pursued — 

 that is to say, students are required to make 

 personal observations, experiments and de- 

 ductions. 



LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. : 



Bulletin No. 37, of the Weather Bureau, 

 by Professor A. J. Henry, deals with ' Recent i 

 Practise in the Erection of Lightning Con- 

 ductors.' It presents a description of the , 

 lightning conductors on the Washington Mon- ; 

 ument ; the preface to the Eeport of the Light- | 

 ning Research Committee, by Sir Oliver 

 Lodge; the rules for the erection of lightning 

 conductors as issued by the Lightning Rod 

 Conference of 1882, with observations thereon 

 by the Lightning Research Committee of 1905, 

 and brief statements of the latest practise 

 abroad, in Holland, Hungary and Germany. 

 In this connection reference may be made to 

 a recent book, 'Modern Lightning Conduct- 

 ors,' by Killingworth Hedges, in which some 

 interesting illustrations are given of damage 

 by lightning and of different methods of pro- 

 tection. The recent studies of lightning have 

 brought out some definite rules to be followed 

 if proper protection is desired, and there need 

 be no more of the haphazard, ineffective and 

 often dangerous ' protection ' of years back. 



SOIL TEMPERATURE AND SNOW COVER. 



To the Deutsches Meieorologisches Jahr- 

 huch for 1901, volume for Saxony, Professor 

 Paul Schreiber, director of the section for 

 Saxony, contributes a noteworthy practical, 

 observational and experimental, as well as 

 theoretical, discussion of soil temperatures and 

 the effects of a snow cover. This study, which 

 occupies nearly one hundred quarto pages, 

 exceeds in completeness anything that we have 

 yet seen on this subject. The distribution of 

 temperature in the soil at readings over 32° 

 P.; the snow cover and the effect of frost 

 upon bare ground; and the theoretical aspects 

 of the subject, are all discussed in great de- 

 tail. A series of diagrams help to a better 

 understanding of the test. 



We note in the same volume of the 

 Deutsches Meieorologisches Jalirbuch a page 

 devoted to facsimile reproductions of baro- 

 graph and of thermograph curves which 

 showed special peculiarities during the year 

 1901. We suggest that similar diagrams 

 would add greatly to the value of the annual 



