136 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 83. 



"Werkstatt der mytliologisclien "Wissen- 



schaft.' 



D. G. Beinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 

 AUSTRALIAN METEOROLOGY. 



Three valuable contributions to the me- 

 teorology of Australia bave recently been 

 published together in one volume by Hon. 

 Ealph Abercromby, under the title Austra- 

 lian Weather. All of these papers have 

 been previously published elsewhere, but 

 they are now brought together and issued 

 in book form for convenient reference. The 

 first paper, by H. C. Eussell, the Govern- 

 ment Astronomer of New South Wales and 

 Director of the Sydney Observatory, on 

 Moving Anticyclones in the Southern Hemis- 

 phere (originally published in Quart. Journ. 

 Koy. Met. Soc, Jan., 1893), gives a gen- 

 eral account of the anticyclones which 

 control Australian weather south of lati- 

 tude 20° S. The average number of anti- 

 cyclones which pass over the country every 

 year is 42 ; they are most numerous in 

 summer, and their average velocity is 400 

 miles a day. The author holds out the 

 hope of possible long range forecasts for a 

 month in advance, or even for longer pe- 

 riods. 



The second paper, on Southerly Bursters, by 

 H. A. Hunt, of the Sydney Observatory 

 (originally published in Journ. Eoy. Soc, 

 N. S. W., xxviii, 1894), was awarded a 

 prize of £25 offered hy Hon. Ealph Aber- 

 cromby for the best essay on southerly 

 'bursters.' The ' burster,' formally called 

 the ' brick-fielder ' because it was her- 

 alded by a cloud of reddish dust from 

 the neighboring brick-fields, is a strong 

 southerly wind associated with a Y-depres- 

 sion, and bearing some resemblance to the 

 ' pampero ' of Brazil and the ' norther ' 

 of Texas. This is an exhaustive study of 

 this interesting phenomenon. The last 



paper, also by Hunt, on Types of Austrliana 

 Weather, is a clear and useful account of 

 the typical atmospheric conditions con- 

 trolling Australian weather, and is illus- 

 trated by numerous maps. 



international cloud atlas. 

 The International Cloud Atlas, already re- 

 ferred to in these notes, may be purchased 

 of MM. Gauthier-Villars et Fils, 55, Quai 

 des Grands- Augustins, Paris, for 14 francs a 

 copy. The Atlas, which contains 28 views, 

 is now the of&cial cloud atlas of the world, 

 and the illustrations in it are the types to 

 which all cloud forms must hereafter be re- 

 ferred. It is the work of the International 

 Cloud Committee, appointed by the Inter- 

 national Meteorological Conference held at 

 Munich in 1891, and the standard types 

 now adopted were selected from over 300 

 photographs collected from all parts of the 

 world. The Cloud Committee is composed 

 as follows : Hann, Hildebrandsson, Mohn, 

 Eiggenbach, Eotch and Teisserenc de Bort, 

 and the sub-committee in charge of the 

 publication of the Atlas comprises Hilde- 

 brandsson, Eiggenbach and de Bort. 



meteorological work at batavia. 

 From the 17th volume (for 1894) of the 

 Observations made at the Magnetical and Meteoro- 

 logical Observatory at Batavia, we learn that 

 the sub-director of the Observatory, Dr. S. 

 Figee, is conducting an elaborate inquiry 

 into the influence of the moon upon the 

 magnetic elements at Batavia, some of the 

 results of which study appear in the present 

 volume. A large number of cloud photo- 

 graphs have also been taken at the Observa- 

 tory, with satisfactory results, as a prepara- 

 tion for the work of the International Cloud 

 Year. It is disappointing to note that it is 

 feared the cloud observations by means of 

 theodolites will prove to be too trying for 

 the eyes of the observers at Batavia, and 

 may have to be given up. 



li 



