May 24, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



569 



February, 1893. The days were warai ami 

 pleasant ; but the nights cooled to -5° or 

 -10° C ; the changes of temperature being 

 extremelj' sudden. For example, on Feb- 

 ruary 1, at noon, the thermometer read 

 + 5°. 5, with a cool wind ; at 2 o'clock, +0°, 

 at 4, 7.5°; then came a rapid rise to 25.5°, 

 for which no special explanation is given. 

 Just after sunset there was a sudden fall of 

 thirty-three degrees, to -8°; and the mini- 

 mum of the night was -11°. The cold and 

 blustering wind caused much discomfort in 

 traveling. The greatest surprise that Nolde 

 met was on February 2, when a storm 

 clothed the Nefud far and wide with a 

 sheet of snow several inches deep, making 

 it resemble a Russian steppe rather than 

 an Arabian desert. The Bedouins, how- 

 ever, said that snowfall there was very un- 

 usual. (Globus, 1895, No. 11.) 



CEXTEAL AMERICA^- EAIXFALL. 



Prof. M. W. Harringtox shows in an 

 article under the above title (Bull. Phil. Soc. 

 "Washington, xiii., 1895, 1-30) that the 

 northeast slope of Guatemala and Hon- 

 duras has rainfall maxima in June and Oc- 

 tober, following the zenithal passages of the 

 sun and a moderate winter maximum in 

 Januarj^ ascribed to the encroachment even 

 in these low latitudes of cyclonic areas from 

 the westerlj^ winds of the temperate zone. 

 This gives an interesting repetition of the 

 case of northern India, as described by 

 Blanford. The rainfall on the southwest 

 slope of Central America has maxima in 

 June and September-October, corresponding 

 to the two zenithal passages of the sun. The 

 July-August minimum is faintly marked, 

 while tliat of January and February is very 

 low and for a time almost rainless. It is 

 noteworthy that the zenithal rains here 

 are often accompanied by strong squally 

 winds from the southwest, suspected of 

 being occasional ext-cnsions of the southeast 

 trade wind across the equator into our 



hemisphere. It may be remarked that the 

 association of these winds with the counter 

 current that runs eastward in the Pacific 

 a little north of the equator confirms the 

 suggestion that the equatorial counter 

 cui-rents in general are caused by the exten- 

 sion of the trade winds of one hemisphere 

 across the equator into the other hemi- 

 sphere. They are thus deflected from a 

 westward to an eastward coui-se, and hence 

 locally produce eastward currents. 



THE METEOROLOGISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT. 



The thoroughness so characteristic of 

 German scientific w'ork appears in this ex- 

 cellent journal, the leader of its class, with 

 its able original articles, its rich variety of 

 notes and its exhaustive bibliographic re- 

 views. Originally established thirty years 

 ago by the Austrian ^leteorological Society, 

 and edited successively by Jelinek and 

 Hann, of Vienna, it w-as enlarged eleven 

 years ago by further assistance from the 

 German Meteorological Society, when Kup- 

 pen, of the naval observatoiy at Hamburg, 

 became associate editor ; his place being 

 latelj' taken by llellman of the Prussian Me- 

 teorological Institute at Berlin. Dr. Hann, 

 however, still retains liis position as leading 

 editor and is a frequent contributor to the 

 pages of the journal. One of his latest es- 

 says (January, 1S95) is on the rainfall of 

 the Haw.aiian Islands, in which he brings 

 together all available material, and dis- 

 cusses it more completclj' than has hither- 

 to been done. Button's explanation of the 

 considerable rainfall on the southwest slope 

 of Hawaii is quoted with acceptance. A 

 meteorological peculiarity of these islands 

 seems to be that their richer windward 

 sides, sloping to the northeast w^th a plen- 

 tiful rainfall, are on a large part of the coast 

 with difBculty approached from the sea on 

 account of tlie clifl's that have been cut 

 along the shore by the strong surf from 

 waves driven by the trade winds. 



