264 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 111. 



SCIENTIFIC GEOGRAPHY IN ITALY. 



An encouraging sign of progress in geo- 

 graphical instruction is found in a note on 

 the Scientific Systematization of the Study 

 of Military Geography, by Lieut.-Col. C. 

 Porro (Rev. Mil. Ital., 1896, 30 p.). After 

 reviewing the various methods of geograph- 

 ical study for some time back, he adopts the 

 guidance of Lapparent in emphasizing the 

 importance of a rational understanding of 

 the origin of topographic forms as a means 

 of better perceiving the forms themselves, 

 and urges such study as a basis of special- 

 ization in military geography. The Italians 

 already being well advanced in the produc- 

 tion of elaborate maps and reliefs, they are 

 prepared to profit greatly by exchanging the 

 earlier empirical methods for more mod- 

 ern scientific and systematic study. Geo- 

 morphology, as recognized in this country, 

 has hitherto had no place in Italy, in spite 

 of the beautiful variety of topographic forms 

 on which its methods might be exercised. 



NOTES ON ASHANTI. 



Major C. Barter gives some N'otes on 

 Ashanti, taken while on the (British) 

 Ashanti expedition of 1896 (Scott, Geogr. 

 Mag., xii., 1898, 441-458). He says, in his 

 preface, that the most he could offer, out- 

 side the military features of the campaign, 

 would be a record of general impressions 

 and of local accounts and traditions which 

 his memory had retained. His interesting 

 narrative is largely concerned with other 

 than physiographic matters. Landing in 

 surf boats, a fatiguing march followed across 

 twenty miles of sandy undulating country, 

 covered with low bushes, gradually merg- 

 ing in the primeval forest, of which an im- 

 pressive description is given. The forest 

 belt is about 300 miles broad, and beyond its 

 northern border, which limits Ashanti, come 

 rich prairie plains, with healty climate and 

 an abundance of big game, under the Sultan 

 Samory. The forest country is undulating. 



except in isolated hilly districts of small 

 area; the water courses are broad and 

 swampy. The clearings about villages are 

 connectad by paths, on which from one to 

 four men can walk abreast. The excessive 

 dampness is relieved by the Harmattan, or 

 ' Doctor,' a steady cool breeze which blows 

 from a northerly direction during the winter 

 months, apparently a local manifestation of 

 the normal northeast trade. 



This note is offered not so much for its 

 physiographic value as for a sample of the 

 gleanings that may be gathered from the 

 usual observations of the military explorer. 

 If British military training were based on 

 the recommendations of Porro, above, the 

 geographical harvest of foreign expeditions 

 would be richer ; but those in charge of the 

 program of British military schools might 

 plausibly say that they are so well satisfied 

 with the success thus far attendant on their 

 graduates that they find no reason for alter- 

 ing their curriculum. 



"W. M. Davis. 



Harvard University. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 

 CLOUD HEIGHTS. 



In a recent number of Nature (Deo. 31) 

 Clayton makes some important suggestions 

 concerning possible errors in calculating the 

 heights of certain forms of clouds by means 

 of theodolites and photogrammeters. At 

 Blue Hill Observatory the average height 

 of nimbus obtained by theodolite measure- 

 ments is 6,814 feet, while the height of the 

 base of the same kind of cloud as shown 

 by sending kites into it is usually less 

 than 1,640 feet. There is seen to be a con- 

 siderable discrepancy here. Evidently the 

 kite measurements are the most accurate, 

 and there can be no doubt that the nimbus 

 cloud belongs lower down in the cloud 

 classification than the position it now occu- 

 pies in the International Nomenclature, as 

 given in the new Cloud Atlas. In the 



