94 



SCIE'^UJE. 



[Vol. 7I1I., No. 182 



June, 68.03" F. As compared with the preceding 

 sixteen years, June of 1886 was a cool month : in 

 but two years, 1879 and 1881, has the mean been 

 so low. The maximum temperature was 84° F. : 

 this was reached on the 10th at 5 P.M., on the 

 17th at 1 P.M., and on the 29th at 5 p.m. In no 

 year since 1869 has the maximum been so low for 

 the month of June, the lowest being 88° F. in 

 1881, while it has in thirteen different years since 

 1869 been in the nineties, and in 1874 was as high as 

 98° F. The rainfall for the month was 3.35 inches, 

 slightly above the average for sixteen years, which 

 was 3.01 inches : it was less than that of May by 

 2.05 inches, but greatly in excess of that of June, 

 1880, which was only 1.32 inches. The number 

 of days on which rain fell was nine. 



It is of interest, in connection with the subject 

 of temperature, to compare the maxima as re- 

 corded in the cities of New York and Brooklyn. 

 The meteorological observations for the former 

 city are made at Central park at a height of 97 

 feet above the sea : those for Brooklyn are made 

 at Prospect park, 220 feet above the sea -level. 

 The following table shows the maximum and 

 minimum temperature for each day of the month 

 of June at these two recording-stations, and the 

 mean for the weeks ending June 5, 12, 19, and 26. 



|Max. temp. 



1886 



N. T. BUn, 



June 16( 81 



17 84 



18 77 

 19! 75 

 20! HI 

 Slj 81) 

 22, '13 

 23 66 



Min. 

 temp. 



N.Y.iBkn 



62 60 



63 ; 65 

 63 I 66 



It will be seen that Brooklyn has, as a rule, a 

 lower temperature than New York. Whether this 

 is due to the difference in elevation of the reading- 

 station, or to some other cause, we do not know. 

 At some future time we hope to be able to give 

 the record of temperature as observed in the 

 hearts of the two cities, which is really the tem- 

 perature which has a direct bearing upon the pub- 

 lic health, rather than that which obtains at such 

 salubrious localities as Central and Prospect parks. 



PARIS LETTER. 



As the centennial anniversary of the French 

 revolution is to be celebrated here with great dis- 

 play, the government is pushing on with great 

 eagerness all preparations concerning the exhibition 

 of 1889. The plan of the buildings is not yet exactly 

 chosen, but will be soon. It is, however, already 

 decided that a large and very high tower shall be 

 erected in the middle of the exhibition buildings. 

 The Eiffel tower — as it is called, after the name of 

 the man who is to build it — will cost a million of 

 dollars. It is to rest on two legs, which meet and 

 coalesce to form a single tow-er supported by them. 

 The arch thus formed will be wide and high enough 

 to allow a free and easy passage to the whole of 

 Notre Dame, if this cathedral were to come and 

 ramble about the exhibition. The whole tower 

 will be seven times as high as the Arc de tri- 

 omplie. At present the question is how one shall 

 get up to enjoy the very fine view that will be 

 afforded from the top. An elevator can be used 

 only in the vertical part of the tower : in the 

 two legs, one must devise some other plan, on 

 account of the incline. It is believed that in the 

 first, non-vertical part, a funicular railway will be 

 used ; in the other an elevator will do very well. 

 But, of course, both systems must be very well 

 combined, and every thing possible must be done 

 to insure the safety of the amateurs who wish to 

 ascend the tower. This is not the easiest part of 

 the task of M. Eiffel. The building is to be begun 

 as soon as the necessary funds have been voted by 

 the senate. 



A very interesting meeting was recently held at 

 the Academy of inscriptions. Some days after I 

 sent my last latter, it was rumored that M. Mas- 

 pero, the very modest and able director of the 

 Boulaq museum of Cairo, had found some very 

 antiquated and interesting mummies. These were 

 found, as he wrote to the academy, in a cachette 

 of Deir el Bahari, not at all in their tombs : they 

 had been hidden to prevent violation. The mum- 

 mies were undone in presence of Nubar-Pacha, Sir 

 Drummond Wolff, and the khedive. 



It was then easily ascertained, by means of the 

 inscriptions on the cloths surrounding the mum- 

 mies, that one of them was the body of Ramses II. 

 This is certainly a very interesting fact ; and it is 

 easily believed that to assist at the unveiling of the 

 coi'pse of a great conqueror, such as Ramses, who 

 died forty centuries ago, causes an emotion of a 

 rare and novel nature. A photograph of the mum- 

 my was produced at the meeting of the academy, 

 and created quite a sensation. Although forty 

 centuries have passed over this dead body, the 

 face is in an excellent state of preservation. The 



