568 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 21. 



Ultimately Dr. Chandler's formula, or a 

 slight modification of it, may be proved 

 correct, and with it we may be able to state 

 what the latitude of any place will be at 

 any time. 



The lecture was followed by some illus- 

 trations showing that revolving bodies pre- 

 ferred to revolve about their shortest axis 

 or around the axis about which the moment 

 of inertia was a maximum. 



Charts and diagrams were exhibited show- 

 ing the results of observations made at 

 Pulkova, Prague, Berlin, Strassburg, Bethle- 

 hem and the Sandwich Islands, etc. 



These results were compared with the 

 deductions from Chandler's formula and 

 shown to agree therewith to a remarkable 

 extent. 



The preliminary results of the observa- 

 tions made at Columbia College from May, 

 '93, to July, '94, were exhibited. 



The lecturer threw on the screen illus- 

 trations of several forms of Zenith Tele- 

 scopes and described the new form made 

 by Wanschaff, of Berlin. 



J. K. Rees. 



Columbia College. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY ( VII.). 

 AREA OF LAND AND WATER. 



Peofessoe H. Wagnee, of Gottingen, con- 

 tributes to the April number of the Scottish 

 Geographical Magazine an abstract of his 

 recent studies on the land and water areas 

 of the globe for successive latitude belts. 

 He contends that Murray's figures, pub- 

 lished in the same magazine for 1886 and 

 1888 and based on Bartholemew's maps, 

 are inaccurate to a significant extent. 

 Wagner's measures of the better known 

 lands between 80° north and 60° south 

 latitude is 51,147,100, against Murray's 51,- 

 298,400 square miles. Taking 250,000 for 

 lands yet undiscovered in the Arctic regions, 

 and 3,500,000 for Antarctic lands, the total 



land area of the globe would be 55,814,000 

 square miles. Wagner fijids confirmation 

 of his figures in the results independently 

 obtained by K. Karstens, who has recently 

 made a new reckoning of the area and mean 

 depth of the oceans. 



THE ' FLY-BELT ' IN AFRICA. 



The remarkable control over the occupa- 

 tion of Africa, exercised by the little tse-tse 

 fly, whose bite is fatal to horses and cattle, 

 leads to the inti-oduction of cheaply con- 

 structed narrow-gauge raUwaj's across the 

 belt of countiy dominated by this pest. The 

 Portuguese district, next south of the Zam- 

 besi river on the east coast, with its capital 

 at the little settlement of Beira, attains some 

 commercial importance from its relation to 

 Mashonaland and the gold district of the in- 

 terior ; but in order to connect the two, a 

 railway a hundred and twenty miles long 

 has been made ' to bridge the fly-belt.' 

 The coast exhibits a combination of equa- 

 torial and tropical rainfall, having high 

 temperature and heavy rain from October 

 to April, but from June to September ' the 

 weather is almost pleasant.' At Beira the 

 scarcity of water in the dry season threatened 

 a few j'ears ago to be a serious question, as 

 a supply had to be brought from the upper 

 course of the rivers at a considerable cost ; 

 but " in 1893 a Scotch plumber was im- 

 ported, and all anxiety on this score came 

 to an end," as he made galvanized iron 

 tanks in which rain water could be gathered 

 and stored from the roofs (Scot. Geogr. 

 Mag., April, '95). 



COLD AND SNOWFALL IN AEABIA. 



The ordinary association of heat with 

 the dryness of deserts tends to give the im- 

 pression that Arabia has no cold weather. 

 Nolde's account of his expedition into the 

 ISTefud desert of the Arabian interior, lati- 

 tude 28 north, altitude 3,000 feet, tells of 

 the severe cold that he experienced there in 



