524 
South America is that of the Argentine Repub- 
lic, with headquarters at Cordoba. The Argen- 
tine meteorological office, established by the 
late Dr. B. A. Gould, has, since the date of Dr. 
Gould’s resignation as its director (1883), been 
under the direction of Mr. W. G. Davis. This 
service has at the present time nine first-order 
stations, fifty-eight second-order and one hun- 
dred and twenty-six third order. Of the first 
order stations, the most interesting in many re- 
spects, is that on the Isla de los Estados (Staten 
Island), off the southeastern extremity of South 
America, where the meteorological conditions 
present many unusual features. In addition, 
Mr. Davis will soon have in operation six new 
mountain stations, reaching from Patagonia 
along the Cordilleras into northern Argentina. 
These new stations will, in connection with the 
Harvard meteorological stations in Peru, form a 
splendid series along the western coast of South 
America. 
As yet the Argentine meteorological service 
makes no attempt to publish a daily weather 
map or to issue forecasts, the director believing 
that his first duty is to establish and equip his 
stations, and to study the general climatolog- 
ical features of the region. The Anales de la 
Oficina Meteorologica Argentina already number 
nine large volumes, containing meteorological 
data as to the climate of Argentina. Vols. X. 
and XI. are now in press, and contain, among 
other data, the observations made on the Isla 
de los Estados, and a discussion of them. In 
addition to the ordinary work directly con- 
nected with the weather service, the director 
has made studies of the climatic conditions of 
different parts of the country as bearing on the 
raising of various crops, on the manufacture of 
cotton, ete., and of the relation between atmos- 
pheric conditions and disease in Buenos Ayres 
and Cordoba. The physiological effects of dif- 
ferent weather types have also been studied. 
The forthcoming census of Argentina will con- 
tain chapters on the climatology of the country, 
illustrated by charts, also the work of the di- 
rector. Theobservers of the Argentine metero- 
logical service now receive ten dollars (paper) a 
month for their services, and it is the policy of 
the director to do all he can to keep them inter- 
ested in their work and to secure as accurate 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Vou. VI. No. 144, 
observations as possible from them. He accom- 
plishes this by constant personal correspondence 
with the individual observers, and by sending 
them such meteorological books as they may 
wish to see and which he is able to loan them. 
At present, for instance, he is sending out eighty 
copies of the new cloud atlas to the observers. 
Such a policy is worthy of adoption by other 
weather services. 
In 1882 the capital of the province of Buenos 
Ayres was removed from Buenos Ayres to the 
new city of La Plata, in Latitude 34° 55’S., 
Longitude 57° 54’ W. Here an observatory 
was built for carrying on astronomical, mag- 
netic and meteorological work, and a provin- 
cial weather service has been organized under 
the direction of V. Boeuf. The headquarters 
are at La Plata, and there are at present some 
sixty stations in all. Sixteen of these take the 
ordinary observations at 8 a. m. and 8 p. m., 
and report by telegraph to La Plata every 
morning, while the remaining (pluviometer) 
stations report wind direction, cloudiness and 
rainfall. The La Plata Observatory publishes 
a daily weather map, based on these data, and 
this is the only map of the kind at present is- 
sued in South America. This is no forecast, 
and the map relates solely to the province of 
Buenos Ayres, and not to the republic as a 
whole. The chief office has a poor instru- 
mental equipment, there being, at the time of 
the writer’s visit, no self-recording instruments 
in operation. Cloudiness is estimated in quar- 
ters of the sky covered, instead of in tenths, as 
is usually the case. Hourly observations are 
made at La Plata every hour from 6 a. m. to 
8 p. m. 
At Rio de Janeiro meteorological observations 
are regularly made at the National Observatory, 
situated on the most easterly hill of the city, 
overlooking the harbor. The instrumental 
equipment is good, and observations are made 
eight times in every twenty-four hours (1, 4, 
7and10a.m.andp.m.). The observatory is 
under the direction of L. Cruls, who also has 
charge of the geographical and geodetic work 
of the republic. The meteorological observa- 
tions have been published in various volumes 
of the Annales del’ Observatoire. M. Cruls has 
lately been the chief of a commission appointed 
