106 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 82. 



but owing to their inaccessibility it was not 

 deemed advisable to establish stations on 

 them during 1895. 



The rivers of JSTorth Carolina flowing 

 eastward and above the fall line have many 

 large undeveloped water-power privileges. 

 The Yadkin River at the Narrows, about 

 35 miles below Salisbury, is perhaps the 

 finest water power in the State. The river 

 just above the canyon is 1,000 feet wide, 

 but as it enters the gorge it suddenly con- 

 tracts to a width of 75 feet, and in some 

 places even to 30 feet. In two miles the 

 river falls 60 feet and in four miles about 

 110 feet. The nearest accessible point to 

 the Narrows where a gauging station would 

 be established was at the Southern Rail- 

 road crossing near Salisbury. The dis- 

 charge as measured here last September 

 was 1,450 second feet or a discharge of 0.43 

 cubic feet per second per square mile of 

 area drained. The past season has been 

 one of extreme low water, and this result is 

 large compared to the run-off of more north- 

 ern rivers. In fact, all of these sand-hill 

 streams of the Southei-n States have a large 

 low- water flow. The sandy soils of their 

 basins acting as sponges absorb the spring 

 rains and let the water off gradually in the 

 summer time. A station was established 

 in 1895 on the basin of the Catawba at Fort 

 Mill, South Carolina, also one on the Cape 

 Fear at Fayetteville, North Carolina, and 

 two at Clarksville, Virginia, one on the Dan 

 and the other on the Staunton, 



A partial inspection of Georgia has been 

 made and two stations established in the 

 State on the two most important rivers, 

 the Chattahoochee and the Ocmulgee. The 

 former stream is peculiar in having a very 

 high summer flow. The gauging on Oc- 

 tober 15, 1895, near Atlanta gave a dis- 

 charge of 0.69 cubic feet per second per 

 square mile of area drained. A comparison 

 of this run- off with the minimum flow of 

 some other rivers is as follows : 



Drainage Area 



in 

 Square Miles. 



Sudbury, Mass., 78 



Pequannock, N. J., 63 



Kamapo, N. J., 160 



Paulinskill, N. J., 126 



Neshaming, 139 



Merrimac, Mass., 4,600 



Connecticut, Conn., 10,234 



Potomac, Va., 9,654 



Shenandoah, Va., 2,995 



Yadkin, N. C, 3,399 



Catawba, S. C, 2,987 



Ocmulgee, Ga., 2,250 



Oconee, Ga., 2,973 



Chattahoochee, Ga., 1,600 



Cyrus C 



Second Feet 



per 

 Square Mile. 



0.04 



0.13 



0.14 



0.13 



0.01 



0.31 



0.31 



0.12 



0.30 



0.43 



0.45 



0.34 



0.36 



0.69 



. Babb. 



AN ASTB0N03IICAL CIPHER CODE. 



In the last number of the publications of 

 the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 

 Prof. Holden prints a suggested improve- 

 ment upon the Science Observer Cipher 

 Code, devised by Messrs. Ritchie and 

 Chandler, that has been in use by astrono- 

 mers for the transmission of telegraphic an- 

 nouncement of astronomical discoveries dur- 

 ing the past twelve years. 



It will be remembered that this very im- 

 portant matter of prompt transmission 

 of astronomical intelligence was efiected 

 through the Smithsonian Institution from 

 1873 to 1883, and in the latter year ar- 

 rangements were concluded by which the 

 service was transferred to the observatory 

 of Harvard College, the observatory thus 

 becoming the central station for astro- 

 nomical announcements in this country. 

 A most useful code for the accurate and 

 economical transmission of telegrams had 

 been devised by Ritchie and Chandler, and 

 was subsequently improved upon from time 

 to time, and finally issued in 1888 in the 

 shape of the Science Observer Code Book, a 

 quarto of some 235 pages. The bulk of 

 this is taken up by a number code covering 

 two hundred pages and containing forty 

 thousand words in all. The principle 



