896 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 362. 



dred pounds, and a doe much less, and pointed 

 out the diflferences between the color of the 

 summer coats of this and the large white-tailed 

 deer of Texas, Odocoileus texensis. 



Barton W. Evermann spoke of ' Birds in the 

 Dry Season,' stating that few realized how 

 important to birds was a supply of water, nor 

 the influence of drouth on the distribution of 

 birds. During an unusually dry summer the 

 California quails did not breed, but kept together 

 in flocks as they did during the fall. The 

 speaker gave a list of eighteen species of birds 

 that were seen to resort to a single leaking 

 water spigot and described the manner in which 

 various species drank. In conclusion it was 

 suggested that during dry seasons, or in arid 

 regions, drinking places should be provided for 



the benefit of the birds. 



F. A. Ltjcas. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS WITH KITES 



AT SEA. 



To THE Editor of Science : On page 412 of 

 Science I stated that meteorological observa- 

 tions were about to be attempted with kites 

 flown from a transatlantic steamer. With the 

 aid of my assistant, Mr. Sweetland, and through 

 the courtesy of Captain McAuley, this was ac- 

 complished on board the Dominion steamship 

 Commonwealth, which left Boston for Liverpool 

 on August 28. During most of the voyage we 

 were within an area of high barometric pressure 

 that was drifting slowly southeastward and out 

 of which light winds blew. Although these 

 were insufficient to raise the kites, the ship's 

 speed of 16 knots created a corresponding wind 

 from an easterly direction that sufficed to lift 

 the kites on five of the eight days occupied by 

 the voyage to Queenstown. On one of the three 

 unfavorable days, a following wind became too 

 light on the ship for kite-flying, and on the two 

 other days a fresh head wind, augmented by 

 the forward motion of the ship, was so strong as 

 to endanger the kites, but, had it been possible 

 to alter the course of the vessel, a favorable re- 

 sultant wind might have been produced every 

 day. The maximum height attained was only 

 about 2,000 feet, but with larger kites and 

 longer wire this could have been greatly ex- 



ceeded. Automatic records were obtained of 

 barometric pressure, air temperature, relative 

 humidity and wind velocity, which did not differ 

 markedly from records obtained in somewhat 

 analogous weather conditions over the land. 

 The most striking feature was the rapid decrease 

 of the temperature with increasing height in all 

 but one of the flights. The fall of temperature 

 was fastest in the first 300 feet, where it ex- 

 ceeded the adiabatic rate of 1° Fahrenheit in 183 

 feet, but in the last-mentioned flight the tem- 

 perature rose 6° in 660 feet, and during the 

 afternoon remained so much warmer than at sea- 

 level. The relative humidity varied inversely 

 with the temperature, the direction of the wind 

 shifted aloft toward the right hand when facing 

 it, and its velocity generally diminished with 

 altitude. These are probably the first meteor- 

 ological observations at a considerable height in 

 mid-Atlantic, and have a special importance 

 because they indicate that at sea high-level ob- 

 servations may be obtained with kites in all 

 weather conditions, only excepting severe gales, 

 provided the steamer from which the kites are 

 flown can be so manoeuvered as to bring the wind 

 to a suitable velocity. 



As the basis of an appeal for the exploration 

 of the atmosphere at sea, the records described 

 were exhibited to the Geographical Section of 

 the British Association at its Glasgow meeting, 

 and the appointment of a committee, with a 

 grant of money to undertake observations with 

 kites in Great Britain, together with the interest 

 manifested there and on the continent of Europe, 

 encourages the hope that my project will be 

 realized. The equipping of the English Ant- 

 arctic vessel Discovery with meteorological kites, 

 as mentioned on page 779 of Science, and a 

 similar installation on the German Antarctic 

 ship Gauss, are unlikely, for various reasons, to 

 have yielded much data on their voyages across 

 the equator. Although the United States has 

 taken no part in this international undertaking, 

 an opportunity is now offered, without material 

 expense, danger or hardship, to cooperate in a 

 study of the general atmospheric circulation, 

 which is one of the objects of polar exploration. 

 Indeed, for a naval vessel not actually engaged 

 otherwise, the sounding of the atmosphere in 

 the tropics, whereby the relation of the upper air 



