1^4 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXII. No. 556 



THE METEOROLOGICAL CONGRESS.* 



Monday, August 21st, at ten a. m. the congresses of the 

 Department of Science and Philosophy of the Congress 

 Auxiliary of the Columbian Exposition were formally 

 opened at the Memorial Aj't Institute of Chicago with an 

 address of welcome by the President, Mr. C. C. Bonney, 

 followed by responses from representatives of the various 

 special congresses. At the close of this general session 

 the different divisions met in rooms assigned to them, the 

 Division of Meteorology, Climatology and Terrestrial 

 Magnetism meeting in room XXXI, in which the regular 

 sessions were held daily from 10 a. m. to 2 p. m. from 

 August 21st to August 24th. 



The chairman of the Congress not being able to be 

 present in person the first day. Prof. P. H. Bigelow, rep- 

 resenting Prof. Mark W. Harrington, opened the session 

 at eleven a. m. of the 21st with a few words of welcome 

 and a statement of the objects of the Congress. 



The Congress had no legislative authority. The main 

 purpose, as previously announced, was to collect together 

 a series of memoirs "outlining the progress and summar- 

 izing the present state of our knowledge of the subjects 

 treated,'' and to print them in full in the English lan- 

 guage. 



The meetings, while thiis making the reading and dis- 

 cussion of papers a matter of secondary importance, were 

 by no means lacking in interest or profit to those who 

 were present. But few of the papers could be read in 

 full, owing to their great number and the absence of 

 many of the authors. In all about 130 papers were read 

 by title, in abstract or in full, forming a most valuable 

 collection of memoirs prepared by writers of authority in 

 their respective lines of research. 



Among so many pajjers of merit, a simple list of which 

 would occupy several pages, individual mention cannot 

 be fairly attempted. 



While the papers were read in general session, they 

 were assigned, in the program, to various sections, ac- 

 cording to the subject, each section being placed in 

 charge of a responsible chairman. 



Section A. Prof. C. A. Schott, U. S. Coast Survey, and 

 Mr. H. H. Clayton, U. S. Weather Bureau, Chairmen. The 

 papers of this section are devoted to instruments, their 

 history and relative merits, and to methods of observa- 

 tion, especially to methods of observing in the upper air. 



Section B. Prof. Cleveland Abbe, U. S. Weather 

 Bureau, Chairman. This section is the most extensive in 

 its scope, dealing mostly with questions in djnamic 

 meteorology; much attention is given to the study of 

 thunderstorm phenomena in various countries. 



Section C, Prof. F. E. Nipher, Washington University, 

 Chairman, comprises a series of sketches of the climate of 

 different portions of the globe. 



Section D. Major H. H. C. Dun woody, U. S. Army, 

 Chairman, is devoted to the discussion of the relation of 

 the various climatic elements to plant and animal life. 



Section E. Lieut. W. H. Beehler, U. S. Hydrographic 

 Office, Chairman, deals with questions relating to marine 

 meteorology, particularly to ocean storms and their pre- 

 diction, methods of observation at sea, and international 

 co-operation. During the reading of a paper on the 

 work of the Hydrographic Office of the Navy, Lieut. 

 Beehler had on exhibition a fine bust of Lieiit. Maury by 

 the sculptor Valentine, of Richmond, Ya. 



Section P. Prof. Charles Carpmael, Director of the 

 Canadian Meteorological Service, and Mr. A. Lawrence 

 Botch, Director of the Blue Hill Observatory, Chairmen, 

 comprises papers relating to the improvement of weather 



*Held at Chicag-o, August 21st to August 24th, 1893. 



services and especially to the progress of weather fore- 

 casting. 



Section G. Prof. P. H. Bigelow, U. S. Weather Bureau, 

 Chairman, deals with problems of atmospheric electricity 

 and terrestrial magnetism and their cosmical relations. 



Section H. Prof. Thomas Eussell, of the U. S. Lake 

 Survey, Chairman, has to do with rivers and the predic- 

 tion of floods. 



Section I. Oliver L. Passig, Librarian U. S. Weather 

 Bureau, Chairman, is devoted to historical papers and to 

 bibliography, with special reference to the history of 

 meteorology in the United States. 



Prof. Mark YsL Harrington, Prof. P. H. Bigelow, Capt. 

 P. Pinheiro, of Rio Janeiro, and Lieut. W. H. Beehler suc- 

 cessively presided over the meetings. The printed pro- 

 gram distributed at sessions of the Congress contains a 

 list of all papers presented; copies of this maybe obtained 

 from the Secretary ufton apjjlication. 



At the close- of the last session a resolution was offered 

 calling for recommendations by the Congress relating to 

 (a) international co-operation in observations of auroras, 

 (6) simultaneous Greenwich noon observations daily at 

 all stations on land and sea, in addition to observations at 

 other times, (c) investigation of the earth's magnetic polar 

 current and the exact determination of the solar rotation. 

 As the Congress had no legislative authority, it was 

 agreed to hold a special session for the consideration of 

 these questions after adjournment, on the following day. 



Preparations have been begun for the printing of the 

 l^apers and an effort will be made to complete the work 

 at an early date. Oliver L. Passig, U. S. Weather Bureau, 

 Washington, D. C, is the Secretary. 



SALT TIDE MAHSHES OP SOUTH JILESET. 



BY JOHN GIFFOED, SWAETHMOBE COLLEGE, PA. 



The mainland of the peninsula of South Jersey is 

 fringed by many miles of marsh meadow. At times 

 this level plain is completely covered by water. It con- 

 sists of a mass of soft blue-black, bad-smelling mud, cov- 

 ered with a thick sod of grasses, rushes and sedges, and 

 intersected by many winding, reed-fringed creeks, shallow 

 bays, salt ponds and thoroughfares. 



These marshes are separated from the ocean by a long 

 line of low, sandy sea-islands, between which there are 

 inlets through which the tides flow swiftly. 



This stretch of marshland is of very recent origin. 

 During Indian times it was probably a shallow sea. This 

 accounts, perhaps, for the enormous quantities of clams 

 and oysters which then existed. The majority of the 

 bays in the marshes are very shallow and may, also, in 

 the course of time, become unfit for oysters. 



The rivers of South Jersey holding fine sand in suspen- 

 sion flowed into an ocean where there was practically no 

 current. This material was then, in consequence, depos- 

 ited, and there was thus formed a long sub-marine bank. 

 This tripped the waves into breakers, which lifted the sand 

 into a long line of low sea-islands. 



The combined estuaries of these rivers formed a long, 

 shallow inland sea, in which, owing to the slackening and 

 meeting of currents, enormous quantities of silt were 

 deposited. Wild water-fowl and winds disseminated the 

 seeds of grasses and sedges on the mud bars, which were 

 soon formed. The decay of each year's vegetation and 

 the scum of mud left by every tide caused a gradual 

 thickening of the sod. Three hundred thousand acres of 

 marsh region have thus been recently formed. 



Being an estuary, the scouring force of the tides jjre- 

 vents the formation of extensive beaches on the bay- side 

 of Jersey. The sand is held in suspension until the cur- 



