818 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No, 360. 



the phenomena of the outflowing squall. A. L. 

 Eotch contributes a short account of a meteoro- 

 logical balloon ascension in which he took part 

 at Strassburg last July. Professor R. E. Dodge 

 describes some diurnal winds in northwestern 

 New Mexico, which are developed on very faint 

 gradients, A translation, by Professor Cleve- 

 land Abbe, of the introduction to Marcel Bril- 

 louin's recent volume ' Memoires Originaux sur 

 la Circulation 66nerale de 1' Atmosphere,' brings 

 before American readers an excellent brief 

 historical summary of the various important 

 contributions made by Ferrel, Thomson, Sie- 

 mens, and others, to the subject of the general 

 circulation. ' Yukon Weather ' is the title of a 

 paper by U. G. Myers, Section Director of the 

 Weather Bureau in Alaska. Professor Abbe, in 

 his ' Notes by the Editor,' discusses the relation 

 between the scientific work of the Weather 

 Bureau and the long-range forecasts made by 

 those who believe in lunar or stellar influences, 

 and in this connection gives a translation of the 

 paragraphs of Angot's ' Traite de Meteorologie ' 

 which deal with this subject. An account of 

 the Milwaukee convention of Weather Bureau 

 officials concludes this number of the Review. 



GEOLOGICAL CHANGES OF CLIMATE IN THE 

 EASTERN CORDILLERAS. 



A RECENT paper by Professor N. S. Shaler, on 

 'Broad Valleys of the Cordilleras' (Bull. Geol. 

 Soc. Amer., Vol. 12, 271-300), explains certain 

 features of these valleys by an increased erosive 

 action due to an ancient temporary increase of 

 rainfall in preglacial time. The source of the 

 larger part of the rainfall in the Mississippi 

 valley drainage area is evidently in the basin 

 of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. 

 When these waters were of greater extent, the 

 evaporation from them might well have pro- 

 duced a much heavier rainfall over the Cordil- 

 leras than is now found there. There is evi- 

 dence in the broad valleys of several oscillations 

 of climate. At the present time the conditions 

 of the eastern section of the Cordilleras indicate 

 a recent return to an arid climate. The taluses 

 are evidently increasing. "Unless the Gulf of 

 Mexico," Professor Shaler concludes, "should 

 again be brought over a considerable part of 

 the southern lowlands, there seems to be no 



reason to expect that there will be any increase 

 of rainfall in this area." 



TREE PLANTING ON THE PRAIRIES. 



William L. Hall, assistant superintendent 

 of tree planting in the Division of Forestry, be- 

 lieves that the time has come for an extensive 

 development of forest plantations throughout 

 the Middle West, in consequence of the rapid 

 diminution of the supply of natural timber in 

 the Mississippi valley (Yearbook Dept. of Agri- 

 culture for 1900). Over extensive areas the 

 prices of posts, telegraph poles and cross-ties 

 much exceed the cost of growing them. This 

 difference promises profit in timber growing. 

 Ten years ago the area for profitable tree plant- 

 ing was, chiefly for climatic reasons, thought to 

 be much smaller than it is now known to be. 

 The past year has seen the establishment of 

 nearly 100 plantations by individuals in co- 

 operation with the Division of Forestry, and 

 during the present year more trees will be 

 planted than ever before. Mr. Hall believes 

 that if 500,000 acres of timber, well distributed 

 throughout the Middle West, were planted 

 annually, the production would still be in- 

 adequate to meet the demand, and liberal prof- 

 its could still be hoped for. R. DeC. Ward, 



PROPOSED AMERICAN ELECTRO-CHEMICAL 

 SOCIETY. 

 A MEETING was held on November 1 at the 

 rooms of the Engineers' Club in Philadelphia, 

 to discuss the question of the advisability of 

 organizing a national electro-chemical society on 

 the same general plans as the American Chem- 

 ical Society and the American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers. Some twenty or thirty 

 persons from different parts of this country, who 

 were thought to be interested in the subject of 

 electro-chemistry, had been asked to be present 

 or to express their views by letter. Among 

 the communications received, the majority, 

 especially from the electrochemical industries, 

 were in favor of the formation of such a society ; 

 the minority thought the time had not come yet 

 for such a society, that the American Chemical 

 Society and the American Institute of Electrical 

 Engineers filled the needs, that there were 

 already a number of other societies at which 

 papers on this subject could be read, etc. 



