154 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 500. 



to be satisfactorily determined mineralog- 

 ically. Tliis clay was derived from some 

 source beyond the British Isles, but it was not 

 distinctive enough to afford much evidence as 

 to its place of origin. 



TEMPERATURE OF THE LOWER AIR. 



In the Meteorologische Zeitschrift, XXI., 

 1904, pp. 49-62, Woeikof discusses the tem- 

 perature of the lower air and the relation of 

 this temperature to the temperature of the 

 earth's surface. The vertical distribution of 

 temperature in the ground is considered under 

 two principal heads, ' I., The Sun, or Diurnal, 

 Control,' and 'II., The Radiation, or Noc- 

 turnal, Control.' There are four types. The 

 first (A) is characterized by a mean annual 

 surface temperature higher than that further 

 down. Where observations are available, and 

 where this type is well developed, the surface 

 is warmer than the air. In type B the tem- 

 perature increases regularly from the surface 

 downward; this may be called the snow type, 

 and prevails where the ground is snow-covered 

 for the whole year, or for at least three quar- 

 ters of the year. In type C the temperatures 

 of air and surface are uniform, and this 

 occurs in moist, rainy districts of the middle 

 and higher middle latitudes where there is no 

 regular snow cover. Type D has a consider- 

 ably higher mean annual temperatui'e in the 

 ground than in the air, and is, therefore, the 

 rule in tropical and subtropical climates. 



NEW MOUNTAIN OBSERVATORIES IN LAPLAND. 



Nature of June 16, 1904, notes the success- 

 ful establishment, by Dr. Hamberg, of Stock- 

 holm, of meteorographs at two high-level sta- 

 tions in Swedish Lapland. One of these, on 

 the Portitjokko, at 1850 meters, has been work- 

 ing satisfactorily since July, 1902, with the 

 exception of occasional interruptions of the 

 anemometer owing to hoar frost. The second 

 is on the Sahkok, at about 1,080 meters. Each 

 set of apparatus weighs 1,000 kilograms. The 

 clocks are to run for a year, the ' weights ' 

 being 300 kilograms each. Instead of using 

 ink, which is unsatisfactory, punctures are 

 made every twenty minutes in the papers cov- 

 ering the drums of the instruments. 



NOTES. 



Hann, in his ' Handbuch der Klimatologie,' 

 second edition, Vol. III., pp. 249-250, gives a 

 few notes on the climate of Manchuria, based 

 chiefly on an article by Rev. John Ross in the 

 Scottish Geographical Magazine for May, 

 1895. In del et Terre for June 1, 1904, a 

 summary of these same observations is given. 



In the Scottish Geographical Magazine for 

 June, Victor Dingelstedt describes the Cri- 

 mean and Caucasian coasts of the Black Sea, 

 finds them analogous in many ways to the 

 Genoese and French coasts of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and states the belief that these dis- 

 tricts are about to be developed as a health 

 resort for those who stand in need of a sojourn 

 in mild climates. 



The importance of the cyclonic control of 

 our temperatures in the eastern United States 

 in winter, and the dominance of the diurnal 

 (j. e., direct solar) control in summer, is 

 brought out in a paper on ' The Temperature 

 Element of the Climate of Binghamton, N. T.,' 

 in the Monthly Weather Review, XXXIL, 

 1904, p. 78. The discussion of climate with 

 due emphasis on the weather controls which - 

 bring about different types or extremes of 

 temperature, pressure, wind velocity, etc., is 

 a matter which deserves much more attention 

 than it has yet received. 



In a paper on ' Certain Relationships be- 

 tween the Diurnal Curves of Barometric Pres- 

 sure and Vapor Tension at Kenilworth (Kim- 

 berley). South Africa' (Quart. Journ. Boy. 

 Met. Soc, XXX., 1904, 41-53), J. R. Sutton 

 refers to the views of a number of leading 

 meteorologists on the part played by vapor ten- 

 sion as a component of barometric pressure, 

 and brings forward a series of observations at 

 Kimberley designed to throw light on the still 

 unsolved problem of the diurnal barometric 

 wave. 



Meteorological observations from the Arctic 

 and the Antarctic are accumulating with re- 

 markable rapidity. One of the latest addi- 

 tions to the collection from the Arctic is the 

 series of four years' observations taken during 

 the second voyage of the Fram, under Captain 

 Sverdrup (Appendix IV., in ' New Land : 



