634 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 304 



by the great advances made in the apparatus both 

 for attack and for defence in recent years. The 

 absurd inadequacy of most if not all of our pres- 

 ent fortifications is pointed out ; for those of 

 them that were erected about 1812 had only to 

 withstand a 43-pound projectile fired with a muzzle 

 energy of 800 foot-tons by a 10-pound charge of 

 powder, and those built at the outbreak of the re- 

 bellion had only to withstand a 450-pound projec- 

 tile tired with a muzzle energy of 9,000 foot-tons 

 by a 130-pound charge of powder. The 16-inch 

 rifle of 1886, which is 45 feet 6 inches long, weighs 

 115 tons, and fires a projectile weighing '2,300 

 pounds with a muzzle energy of 55,000 foot-tons 

 by the explosion of 800 pounds of powder, would 

 make short work of the best of them. The bom- 

 bardment of Alexandria in 1882 is cited as an in- 

 stance of what might quite readily hajipen to us. 

 The defences of Alexandria were quite similar to 

 ours, and their armament far superior to any that 

 we have ; yet eight English ironclads made their 

 evacuation necessary after one day's bombard- 

 ment. 



Our forts, excellent during the masonry and 

 earthen ages, have never been replaced in the iron 

 age. On the other hand, twenty-eight of the 

 Gruson cast-iron cupolas, which have been found 

 efficient against the heaviest projectile, have been 

 constructed in the harbors of Germany, Austria, 

 Belgium, and Holland within a few years. Lieu- 

 tenant Griffin's treatment of modern seacoast 

 defences is very thorough, and, we should fancy, 

 authoritative. He appends to his article a very 

 valuable table, showing the name, age, displace- 

 ment, draught, speed, class, thickness of armor 

 and style of armament, of every foreign vessel 

 available for ofi'ensive operations against the 

 United States. The list is most imposing, and in- 

 cludes 71 English ships, 50 French, 14 German, 

 24 Russian, 19 Italian, 15 Turkish, 13 Austrian, 7 

 Danish, 7 Dutch, 5 Spanish, 6 Brazilian, 3 Japanese, 

 and 3 Chilian. In the face of all this, " since 1875 

 not one penny has been appropriated for the con- 

 struction of seacoast defences. The annual ap- 

 propriation of $100,000 for preservation and repairs, 

 increased to $175,000 since 1881, has not even suf 

 ficed to preserve our unfinished works, and our 

 defences are actually in a worse condition to-day 

 than they were ten years ago." 



METEOROLOGY IN CALIFORNIA. 

 The ninth biennial report of the California 

 state board of health (Sacramento, 1886) contains, 

 besides much immediately pertinent to its office, 

 several valuable descriptions and tables concern- 

 ing meteorological data, which the members of 



the board wisely deem of importance in their 

 professional studies. First in value is a long table 

 of monthly rainfall, both for the past year and 

 for the mean of several years, compiled by Lieut. 

 W. A. Glassford, in charge of the Pacific coast 

 division of the signal service. This is similar to 

 the newspaper list prepared by the same officer, 

 to which reference was lately made in Science, but 

 it is here presented in more extended and conven- 

 ient form. The weak spot in this table is the ab- 

 sence of any indication that the numerous stations 

 possess good gauges, uniformly placed and well 

 observed. On account of the difficulty in identify- 

 ing the position of many of the stations, it would 

 be of much service to readers at a distance if such 

 a table as this could be reduced to graphic form in 

 a series of monthly maps. They w^ould necessari- 

 ly be only provisional for the present, as some 

 records are much shorter than others, so that the 

 means are not properly comparable ; but even 

 these values would doubtless present a truer 

 picture of west-coast precipitation than any 

 yet prepared. It is to be hoped that similar 

 tables and diagrams of temperature means may 

 also be attempted. 



Sergt. J. A. Barwick of the Sacramento signal 

 office contributes a review of the meteorological 

 conditions of his city for the past year, and a 

 table of its temperature and rainfall since 1853 

 and 1849 from records early established by Drs. 

 Logan and Hatch. The mean seasonal tempera- 

 tures for 33 years are, spring, 59*^.5 ; summer. 

 71^.7 ; autumn, 6P.5 ; winter, 48°. 3 ; for the year, 

 60^.2. The extremes of the mean annual are57''.5 

 (1880) and 62'='.8 (1864). The absolute maxima rise 

 to 103* or 105° in July and August, and the 

 minima fall to 21° or 22° in January or February. 

 The mean annual rainfall for 38 years is 19".64, 

 varying from 8.44 (1877) to 34.92 (1844) : the mean 

 for July is 0".03 ; August, 0.003 ; December, 4.65 ; 

 January, 3.84; February. 2.80; March, 2.91; count- 

 ing the years by seasons, from July to June in- 

 clusive, the annual amounts range from 4.71 

 (1850-51) and 7.79 (1863-64) to 36.00 or a little 

 more (1849-50, 1852-53, 1861-62). These pro- 

 nounced conti'asts of seasonal fall and great varia- 

 tions in the annual total show how completely 

 unlike the western coast climate is the eastern 

 and central. Sergeant Barwick presents also brief 

 monthly notes of significant features, all of inter- 

 est and value, but easily increased in both respects 

 if the phenomena described were viewed in a 

 broader way, from a more physical and less statis- 

 tical stand-point. Annual and monthly averages 

 show general planetaiy or continental relations ; 

 monthly extremes usually result from cyclonic 

 disturbances, and should be stated in connection 



