December 23, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



891 



areas of low barometric pressure than it is 

 over the adjacent areas of high pressure. Kite 

 flights on Blue Hill are now usually made 

 once a month — upon the day fixed by the In- 

 ternational Committee for Scientific Aero- 

 nautics. 



CYCLONIC DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL. 



Too much attention has always been paid 

 to the annual, monthly and daily rainfalls, 

 while far too little study has been made of the 

 distribution of rainfall in individual cyclones. 

 Cyclones are not regular in their occurrence, 

 that is true, but they are our great rain-pro- 

 ducers and from that point of view they de- 

 serve more attention. An important paper by 

 Dr. H. E. Mill, ' On the Unsymmetrical Dis- 

 tribution of Eainfall about the Path of a 

 Barometric Depression,' read before the Brit- 

 ish Association last August, deserves special 

 mention as an investigation of a kind of 

 which we have far too few. Ten instances of 

 severe and widespread cyclonic rains have 

 been investigated by Dr. Mill, and maps have 

 been drawn showing the amounts of rainfall 

 in each case, and the paths of the depression 

 which brought the rain. It is found that the 

 belt of cyclonic rains' is much wider on the 

 left of the path than on the right, and the 

 heaviest falls occur in advance of the center. 

 One of the most' remarkable facts discovered 

 is that the widespread cyclonic rains appear 

 to bear no relation to the physical features of 

 the country (Symon's Met. Mag., October, 

 1904). 



MORE LIGHT ON ANTARCTIC METEOROLOGY. 



Meteorology is coming to the aid of the 

 geography of the lands in rather an interest- 

 ing way in the Antarctic. To the Geograph- 

 ical Journal for August, Dr. Drygalski, leader 

 of the German Antarctic Expedition, contrib- 

 utes a paper on some of the notable results 

 obtained by the expedition. Dr. Drygalski 

 believes that the new land discovered by the 

 Gauss — Kaiser "Wilhelm II. Land — is a part 

 of the Antarctic continent, basing his opinion 

 largely upon the meteorological conditions, 

 especially the frequency and uniformity of the 

 easterly gales. These galfes have a fcehn-Wke 

 character, and sweep dovm from t}ie south 



over the vast, uniform, and but slightly in- 

 clined surface of the inland ice. The gales 

 raged through nearly all of May and August, 

 and were numerous in April and September. 

 They even occurred in midsummer, but while 

 they sometimes lasted from three to five days 

 in winter, they only lasted for a day or two in 

 summer. These storms were always accom- 

 panied by a heavy snowfall, and were a great 

 obstacle in the way of scientific work. 



THE PHYSICS OP THE FREE AIR. 



Under the general supervision of Drs. Ass- 

 mann and Hergesell, a new publication has 

 been issued under the title, ' Beitrage zur 

 Physik der freien Atmosphare,' which is to be 

 devoted to a discussion of the results obtained 

 by means of balloons and kites. Mention has 

 so often been made in these columns of the 

 importance of the meteorological observations 

 made in the free air during the last few years 

 that there is no need of emphasizing the mat- 

 ter further at present. That there should be 

 a field for an independent journal devoted 

 solely to balloon and kite meteorology is very 

 significant. There is a strong corps of asso- 

 ciate editors, including Messrs. Eotch and 

 Clayton, of Blue Hill Observatory, who have 

 done so much work in ' sounding the ocean of 

 air ' in this country. In the same list we note 

 also the following : Hann, von Bezold, Hilde- 

 brandsson, Pernter, Sprung, Abbe, Koppen, 

 Shaw and others. The first number appeared 

 in August, 1904, and is a quarto of 54 pages. 

 The price per volume is 15 Marks. 



NOTE. 



It is announced that the arrangement and 

 discussion of the meteorological records ob- 

 tained by Dr. Sven Hedin during his travels 

 in Central Asia have been intrusted to Dr. 

 Nils Ekholm, of Stockholm. The observations 

 are to be ready for publication at the end of 

 this year; the discussion is expected to appear 

 next spring. R. DeC. Ward. 



TEE ISAAC NEWTON STUDENTSHIPS AT 

 CAMBRIDGE. 



Professor G. H. Darwin writes as follows 

 to the editor of the London Times: In 1891 



