April 5, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



255 



connection with forecasts of weather along our entire Atlantic 

 sea-board. 



An officer detailed from the Hydrographic Office to visit Havana 

 last September, in order to consult with Padre Vifies, the leading 

 -authority on West Indian hurricanes, secured also the cordial co- 

 operation of Capt. Carbonell, the director of the newly established 

 -marine observatory there ; and the French and Spanish cable com- 

 -panies have granted the franking privilege for telegrams over their 

 lines whenever the weather is disturbed. The chief signal officer, 

 United States Army, has offered every assistance in his power in 

 order to secure the best results during the coming hurricane sea- 



COLONIZATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA. 



Companies which attempt to promote immigration into Mex- 

 ico have to contend against serious political prejudices, which are 

 not readily counterbalanced by even great prospective productivity 

 of the land they offer for sale. Most attempts on large and small 

 scales have failed on account of this fact. One of the most impor- 

 tant and promising enterprises of this kind is that of the Interna- 

 tional Company of Hartford, which, by the Colonization Act of 1883, 

 received a grant of the northern portion of Lower California. It 

 appears that the company finds some difficulty in inducing sufficient 



-son ; and it would seem, that, by means of earnest co-operation, 

 the dangers of storms that traverse the Bay of North America 

 might be greatly reduced, and a large loss of life and property be 

 avoided annually. To navigators, especially, this is a subject of 

 great importance, as timely warning may enable them not only to 

 avoid the dangerous regions of an approaching storm, but actually 

 take advantage of it to prosecute their voyages. The attention of 

 all those interested in the commerce of the Bay of North America, 

 and the security of the inhabitants of its shores and islands, is 

 therefore specially called to the importance of this subject. 



The Long Island College Hospital recently graduated a class 

 of forty-seven men. 



numbers of colonists to settle in this region ; and, as a chapter of 

 its charter requires the settlement of a certain number of families 

 in a certain period, difficulties arose. The New York Times re- 

 marks upon this subject in a recent issue. 



The International Company, as is well known, has its principal 

 sphere of operations in Lower California ; and the chief aim of 

 Mexico in granting such large concessions to the company was to 

 secure the speedy survey and settlement of that territory. A lead- 

 ing stipulation, in fact, in the company's charter, which was granted 

 in 1883, was that within ten years there should be settled in the 

 territory granted at least two thousand families as colonists ; 

 and it was the alleged failure to have brought in the requisite num- 

 ber of settlers up to the time of the close of the inspection of the 



