324 
subjects to their pupils and not to prepare the 
teachers to pass examinations. The payments 
made by the Board during the quarter amounted 
to about $100,000. 
DEGREES of a ‘ Chicago National University ’ 
have been for sale in London. The Times states 
that it has ‘‘received a telegram from Mr. 
Francis Harkins, the Chancellor of the Chicago 
National University, stating that that univer- 
sity repudiates agents who offer degrees on 
payment of a guinea.’? There are five hun- 
dred colleges and universities in the United 
States entitled to confer degrees, but the ‘ Chi- 
cago National University’ is not one of them. 
Miss MARTHA VEEDER has been appointed 
professor of mathematics at Huguenot College, 
Cape Colony. 
M. JUMELLE has been made assistant pro- 
‘fessor of botany, and M. Beaulard assistant 
professor of physics in the faculty of sciences 
of Grenoble, and M. Brunhes has been made 
professor of physics in the faculty of sciences 
of Dijon. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS DURING AN 
ATLANTIC VOYAGE. 
TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: A few notes of 
meteorological interest, made during a recent 
voyage from New York to Rio de Janeiro, may 
not be unwelcome to the readers of SCIENCE. 
The trip itself is one which cannot fail to inter- 
est anyone who has a knowledge of meteorology, 
for the steamer route crosses several of the 
great wind and calm belts of the world, and 
the characteristic features of each belt are 
brought into striking contrast as the ship 
passes from prevailing westerlies into ‘horse 
latitudes,’ and then successively through N. 
E. trades, ‘doldrums’ and §S. E. trades, the 
voyage ending in the ‘horse latitude’ belt of 
the southern hemisphere. A teacher of meteor- 
ology who has the good fortune to take this voy- 
age must constantly feel how grand an opportu- 
nity the trip would give him to teach the great 
facts of this science to a class of students, if he 
could only take his class with him. It would 
indeed be field-work, if such an expression may 
be used, on a magnificent scale. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. VI. No. 139. 
The formation of cumulus clouds over is- 
lands has been noted by many observers in dif- 
ferent parts of the world, but is always of inter- 
est. On June 8th, early in the afternoon, the 
ship was some distance to the eastward, of 
Bermuda. The sky, except in the west, was 
covered with strato-cumulus clouds, and the 
wind was light from S. S. W. On the west- 
ern horizon the sky was lighter, and the sun 
was shining on the low clouds. In this direc- 
tion, which was that in which Bermuda lay, 
could be seen a considerable number of cu- 
mulus clouds, radiating from below the west- 
ern horizon, and moving across the sky to the 
N. E. These were evidently coming from the 
island, for in no other part of the sky were 
there any other cumulus clouds to be seen. 
The cumuli diminished rapidly in size as they 
increased their distance from their place of 
origin, and they were lost sight of as the ship’s 
course took her farther away from the island. 
Another observation of cumulus clouds formed 
over land was made on the morning of June 23d, 
when about 10 miles off shore north of Bahia. 
There was a splendid development of cumuli 
over the land, the shore-line to the north and 
south being outlined in the sky by the clouds, 
while over the ocean there were only a few 
scattered trade cumuli. 
On June 9th (noon position 29°43’ N., 
59°23’ W.), between 3 and 4 p. m., there was 
a fine opportunity to study the growth and 
mechanism of an adyancing thunderstorm. 
These storms, as the writer has pointed out in 
an account of the thunderstorms of New Eng- 
land, advance, when well developed, in a long 
line (storm-front), but their activity is not the 
same all along this line. In some places where 
there is more active convectional ascent the 
rain and thunder and lightning are more severe, 
while at other points along the same storm- 
front there may be no rainfall, and the clouds 
may even seem to break away. It is these 
apparent breaks along the storm-front which 
give rise to the common statement that thunder- 
storms ‘divide’ over an observer, when in 
reality there is no true division. On the day 
in question the thunderstorm when first noted 
was a single large cumulo-nimbus cloud to the 
west, and the heaviest rain could distinctly be 
