September 10, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



233 



Cause of a recent period of cool weather in New 

 England. 



From Aug. 15 to Aug. 23 the weather in New Eng- 

 land was quite cool and pleasant. This cool period 

 culminated on the night of the 22d, when the tem- 

 perature at the Boston signal office sank as low as 

 49*^. On the signal service weather-chart of the 

 morning of Aug. 23, it is found that the temperature 

 was higher all around New England (north, east, 

 south, and west) than in New England itself. Over 

 New England the sky was clear, and the air was blow- 

 ing out from this region in every direction, on the east 

 side toward a storm which is central on the ocean, 

 and on the west side toward a storm which is central 

 in the lake region. Whence, then, came this cool 

 air ? for it had previously been quite warm. It evi- 

 dently could not have been imported from abroad : 

 was it, then, due to a descent of cool air from above ? 

 This is hardly possible, since it was found, at 11 p.m. 

 of the 22d, that the temperature on Mount Washing- 

 ton was 51°, while at the nearest lower stations — 

 Portland and Boston — the temperature was 56°, and 

 on top of Blue Hill 51°. At 7 a.m. of the 23d the con- 

 ditions of temperature were almost the same, except 

 that the temperature had risen slightly at every sta- 

 tion but Boston. If the air had descended from the 

 height of Mount Washington, it is well known that 

 its compression would have heated it much higher 

 than the temperature was found to be at lower 

 stations, unless this heating had been counteracted 

 by some other cause. On top of Blue Hill the lowest 

 temperature recorded by a self-registering minimum 

 thermometer on the night of Aug. 22 was only 50.5°; 

 while, at a base station four hundred feet lower, the 

 temperature fell to 44°; and in Boston, nearly six 

 hundred feet lower and ten miles distant, the tem- 

 perature fell to 49°. The thermometers were alike, 

 and exposed in the same manner. The air evidently 

 descended over New England from above, otherwise 

 the wind could not have blown out in every direction ; 

 but the statistics above show that its coolness could 

 not have been due to this cause, since it was cooler 

 at the earth's surface than a little distance above it. 

 The air, as was to be expected on account of its 

 descent from above, was clear and dry, the absolute 

 humidity being lower than at any time during the 

 month except on the night of Aug. 15, when almost 

 identical conditions prevailed. Here we no doubt 

 find the cause of the coolness. Tyndall's experiments 

 on the effect of aqueous vapor in intercepting radia- 

 tion from bodies of low temperature like the earth 

 led him to assert, that, if the blanket of aqueous 

 vapor over England were removed for one summer's 

 night, the whole island would by morning be held in 

 the iron grip of frost, on account of the rapid radia- 

 tion from the earth's surface which such conditions 

 would permit. Even the more intense insolation by 

 day at such time would be counteracted by the rapid 

 radiation into space, as shown at elevated parts of the 

 earth's surface. This serves to explain the cool 

 period lasting several days in New England ; and this 

 cool period seems to substantiate the view recently 

 advanced, that the cold in anticyclones (or areas of 

 high pressure) is due to radiation from the earth's 

 surface, which is favored by the clear, dry atmosphere 

 accompanying these areas. Tyndall, Hann, and 

 Woeikof have adduced evidence of this in Europe, 

 and Mr. Dewey in this country {see Amer. met. 

 journ., May, 1886). H. Helm Cl,ayton. 



Blue Hill meteor, observ., Aug. 30. 



Dr. Orion's Ohio gas and oil report. 



I have been carefully studying my friend Dr. 

 Orton's admirable and most valuable report on the 

 Findlay, Bowling Green, and Lima wells, an ad- 

 vanced summary of which you published in the issue 

 of Science for June 25. Having been absent from 

 my office, I am ignorant as to whether your subse- 

 quent issues contain notices or criticisms of Dr. 

 Orton's facts and views, which I esteem not only 

 historical, but marking an era in our knowledge of 

 the subject. I run some risk, therefore, of offering 

 considerations which others may have anticipated ; 

 but two or three of these considerations deserve at- 

 tention in the present stage of our investigations. 



I trust that all geologists will sympathize with me 

 in heartily cheering Dr. Orton's skilful insertion of 

 the long- waited for keystone in the arch of the dem- 

 onstration of the origin of oil. I am ashamed of my 

 own stupidity in not finding and fixing in its place 

 this keystone myself. I have been seeking it for 

 years, asking myself continually how the decompos- 

 ing organic matter of the seashores and marshes 

 could be retained by the sands and shales until suf- 

 ficiently protected from complete oxidation. I have 

 repeatedly put this question to other geologists, but 

 never received an answer of any kind ; apparently 

 because so few of them accepted the in situ origin of 

 rock-oil, and therefore seeing no value in the ques- 

 tion, and no need for an answer to it. Dr. Orton is 

 the first geologist to appreciate the value of Dr. 

 Leidy's observation of the petroleum-mud-layer at 

 the mouth of the Schuylkill River ; and his general- 

 izati(»i from it is one of the best and broadest ever 

 made in our branch of science. It accounts satisfac- 

 torily for the preservation of rock-oils in every for- 

 mation, of every geological age, all over the world ; 

 subject, however, locally or regionally, to subsequent 

 change or destruction. The eruptive rocks (lavas 

 proper) are the only formations not charged with 

 organic matter. Even the tufas, swept by the wind 

 into the sea, must hold the remains of animal air-life 

 and plant pollen. The winds are forever transfer- 

 ring dead and living organisms from place to place, 

 and every rain washes them to the surface of the 

 land and sea to be locked up in clay formations. 

 However different the regional conditions, the pro- 

 cess is continual and the results identical everywhere. 

 Compare the Levant with the Eed Sea. Each is as 

 large as our Appalachian belt from Canada to the 

 Gulf of Mexico. The one, however, is a reservoir of 

 Nile deposits, — an extension of the Delta under sea- 

 level, — replete with the original stuff of rock-oil. 

 The other is a reservoir of incalculable quantities of 

 wind-deposits, mixed with equally incalculable quan- 

 tities of tropical animal and vegetable organic stuff. 

 If any one still doubts the in situ theory, let him 

 try to invent any other for the vast expanse of petro- 

 leum ground on both sides of the Caspian, and of 

 course including the bed of that sea. There, also, we 

 see going on at present the slow process of the loss 

 of rock-oil from a formation which was originally 

 charged with it ; and that without any great struc- 

 tural disturbance. In Galicia, in Lombardy, on the 

 other hand, we see the process of loss nearly finished 

 under conditions of structural disturbance so great as 

 to make the dips vertical. If Oken had been a geol- 

 ogist, and were living now, he would probably assert 

 in his next treatise — and with a certain magnificent 

 truthfulness — that the whole crust of the globe con- 

 sists only of oiled clay, whether siliceous, ferruginous, 



