Apeil 23, 1897.] 



SCIENCE, 



649 



half-drowned Penobscot valley. Small 

 modifications of form are ascribed to glacial 

 action. The processes of to-day cut back 

 the salients and fill the re-entrants of the 

 shore line. 



' Glacial flood deposits in the Chenango 

 Valley,' described by A. P. Brigham (Bull. 

 Geol. Soc. Amer., VIII., 1897, 17-30), are 

 good examples of forms produced by the 

 constrained drainage of the retreating gla- 

 cier, passing from the Mohawk valley, over 

 a divide and through the plateau country 

 on the south, to the Susquehanna. 



W. M. Davis. 



Haevaed Univeesity. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 

 WINTER STOEMS ON THE COAST OF CHINA. 



Two noteworthy publications come to us 

 from the Shanghai Meteorological Society. 

 They are the 3d and 4th Annual Eeports 

 of that Society, and were prepared by Eev. 

 S. Chevalier, the energetic President of the 

 Society, and Director of the Zi-Ka-Wei Ob- 

 servatory, at Shanghai. The first is entitled 

 an ' Essay on the Winter Storms of the 

 Coast of China,' and the second, which is 

 really a part of the same investigation, con- 

 cerns ' The Variations of the Atmospheric 

 Pressure over Siberia and Eastern Asia dur- 

 ing the Months of January and February, 

 1890.' Both of these monographs furnish val- 

 uable information concerning the meteorol- 

 ogy of the eastern coast of China. Among 

 the results of Father Chevalier's study we 

 note the following : The cyclones which 

 travel across Europe and reach western Si- 

 beria experience great difficulty in crossing 

 this region, and are generally driven off to- 

 wards the North Pole by the anticyclone 

 over Siberia, but some may cross the whole 

 of Asia directly from west to east, or else 

 may be deflected to the southeast towards 

 China. These depressions over Siberia af- 

 fect the weather on the coast of China in- 

 directly. There are, in addition, cyclones 



developed over China or further west, 

 which cross the Chinese coast with an east 

 or northeast movement, and it is such cy- 

 clones as these that precede the winter 

 storms on the coast of China. The gale in 

 these storms bursts more or less suddenly 

 after the passage of the center, and depends 

 for its violence on the depth of the depres- 

 sion, as well as on the height of the suc- 

 ceeding cj'clone in the rear. 



THE ' ILTIS ' TYPHOON. 



The somewhat remarkable typhoon,which 

 resulted in the loss of the German gunboat 

 ' litis,' with all her ofi&cers and the ma- 

 jority of her crew, during the night of July 

 23-24, 1896, in the neighborhood of the 

 Shantung Promontory, on the coast of 

 China, has been made the subject of a spe- 

 cial study by Eev. Louis Froc, S. J. The 

 results are published by the Zi-Ka-Wei Ob- 

 servatory in a monograph entitled ' The 

 litis Typhoon, July 22-25, 1896.' The 

 conclusions reached by the author are in- 

 teresting. He says: " There is never 

 any advantage in undertaking a struggle 

 with a typhoon. Even with the powerful 

 forces which our great steel liners carry 

 within their breast, prudence is yet in this 

 instance a good adviser, and a safe anchor- 

 age is far better than the risks of a wrestle ; 

 no time is gained thereby, and the vessel is 

 exposed, if not to a fatal loss, at least to 

 serious damages. Several steamers (in 

 this typhoon) were kept back, despite the 

 force of their engines, in the neighborhood, 

 or even drawn in towards the center of the 

 hurricane." The swell from this typhoon 

 was noted 500 miles in front of the advanc- 

 ing center. There was a marked fall of 

 the barometer 310 miles from the center, 

 and the lowest pressure recorded was 27.97 

 inches. 



ANGOT'S ' THE AURORA BOEEALIS.' 



An English translation of Angot's ' Les 

 Aurores Polaires' appears as Vol. LXXVII. 



