844 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 648 



Mr. Roteh and himself. Thirty-nine pilot 

 balloons were launched and twenty-two 

 balloons with instruments, of which seven 

 were lost. A captive balloon ascended to 

 7,500 meters and kites were used in the 

 lower strata. The existence on the open 

 ocean of the southwest anti-trade above the 

 northeast trade, and of the northwest anti- 

 trade above the southeast trade, was 

 demonstrated and it was shown for the 

 first time that the temperature high above 

 the thermal equator is lower than it is at 

 the same height in temperate regions, ow- 

 ing to the absence of isothermal strata. 

 Professor Hergesell gave a brief account 

 of the cruise which he had made to Spitz- 

 bergen on the Prince of Monaco's steam- 

 yacht Priticesse- Alice. Owing to fog and 

 cloud no lofty observations were obtained, 

 but a slow decrccise of temperature and a 

 rapid increase of wind with height were 

 indicated. Professor Hergesell explained 

 his method of releasing one of the tandem 

 balloons at a given height, so that the 

 other balloon with the instrument would 

 soon drop and be recovered, even in cloudy 

 weather. It was suggested that the balloon 

 might be liberated also by electrical waves. 

 The same speaker and Professor Koppen 

 idescribed the survey steamer Planet of the 

 German Marine, which is making sound- 

 ings of both the water and the air in the 

 South Seas. The thanks of the commission 

 were voted to the Grerman Minister of 

 Marine, to the Prince of Monaco and to 

 Messrs. Teisserenc de Bort and Rotch for 

 their researches over the oceans. 



M. Teisserenc de Bort submitted a 

 memoir on the necessity of extending the 

 territory for the international ascensions. 

 In Europe almost all the stations are 

 grouped within an area having less than a 

 thousand kilometers radius, and there are 

 none to the north and southeast. It is 

 necessary to get data from a point to the 

 north of the Scandinavian peninsula and 



also to the north of Great Britain. It 

 would be interesting to have one station 

 near the center of the Mediterranean, such 

 as the Etna Observatory at an elevation of 

 3,000 meters. In Algeria it is proposed to 

 launch pilot balloons and to measure their 

 angles, and in Cairo, where there is a well- 

 organized meteorological service, it is prob- 

 able that observations can be obtained 

 with kites and pilot balloons and possibly 

 with ballons-sondes. In the United States 

 we have observations, due to Mr. Rotch, at 

 Blue Hill and at St. Louis and an aerial 

 observatory has been established by the 

 government on Mount Weather in Vir- 

 ginia. The most important place is New- 

 foundland, where hallons-sondes could be 

 launched, even during storms, as the writer, 

 M. Teisserenc de Bort, had done with suc- 

 cess in the more restricted region of Den- 

 mark. In order to bridge the gap over the 

 ocean, as much as possible, it is proposed 

 to request the Canadian meteorological serv- 

 ice to make ascensions with pilot balloons 

 at Bermuda; to have this done at the 

 Azores, and to secure the cooperation of 

 the Jamaica and Havana observatories. 

 In Mexico iallons-sondes might be used and 

 the system thus developed will permit the 

 general circulation to be determined at dif- 

 ferent heights around two or three of the 

 most important centers of action in the 

 atmosphere. 



At the close of the meeting eleven reso- 

 lutions were voted, chief of which were the 

 following: The commission, on the recom- 

 mendation of M. Teisserenc de Bort, realiz- 

 ing the great importance of collecting suf- 

 ficient observations to chart the meteoro- 

 logical elements at various heights under 

 different atmospheric conditions, believes 

 that its efforts should be concentrated upon 

 four groups of ascensions during the year, 

 called 'grand international ascensions,' in 

 order to distinguish them from the monthly 

 ascensions. These last are optional for 



