474 



SCmNGE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 273. 



portant series of publications. A bulletin on 

 the clay industries of the State will soon be 

 issued, being a second edition of one prepared 

 in 1893. A report on the lime and cement of 

 the State is nearly ready for the printer. Work 

 is also rapidly progressing on the new edition 

 of the geologic map of the State on the scale of 

 five miles to the inch. 



A NEW edition of the Economic and Geologic 

 map published in 1894 is almost ready for the 

 engraver. It is on a slightly enlarged scale 

 and will contain a large amount of additional 

 information. A relief model of Niagara River 

 and the vicinity of the Falls on the scale of 1000 

 feet to the inch is being prepared by Mr. Edwin 

 E. Howell, of Washington, D. C, for exhibi- 

 tion at the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo. 



The sixteenth annual report of the State 

 geologist being the report of work done dui'ing 

 the incumbency of the late Professor James 

 Hall, has been issued. It contains a number of 

 papers of importance, among them, 



' Eeport on the boundary between the Potsdam and 

 Pre-Cambrian rocks north of the Adirondacks,' by 

 H. P. Gushing. 



' The Naples fauna in western New York,' by John 

 M. Clarke. 



' The brine springs and salt wells in the State of 

 New York and the geology of the salt district,' by D. 

 D. Luther. 



' The faunas of the Hamilton group of Eighteen- 

 mile creek and vicinity,' by A. "W. Grabau. 



The department has received from Professor 

 C. E. Beecher, of Yale University, a natural 

 size restoration of the immense crablike crusta- 

 cean Stylonurtw excelsior, the largest inverte- 

 brate animal that has been found in the rocks 

 of New York. It attained a length of about 

 five feet, and its remains were found in the 

 Catskill rocks of Delaware county. 



Dr. J. M. Clarke lectured on the 24th ult. in 

 the Columbia Univer.sity series on the ' Geolo- 

 gical History of Parasitism ' and will repeat the 

 lecture before the Rochester Academy of Science. 



A BULLETIN on early and recent sites of the 

 Indian tribes of the State, illustrated by two 

 maps, will soon be received from the printer. 



In zoology, the biological survey has been 

 continued and volunteers have been organized 



to observe and report on the birds of New 

 York. This is in continuance of the biological 

 work originally begun under the natural history 

 survey which led to the publication of the re- 

 ports on zoology and botany in 1824, and 

 which, though for some time suspended for lack 

 of funds, was revived two years ago in the 

 study and collection of fishes of Long Island by 

 Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, and the preparation of a 

 bulletin on the Mammals of New York, together 

 with a key to their identification, now in press. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



THE RELATIVE HUMIDITY OF OUR HOUSES IN 

 WINTER. 



' The Relative Humidity of our Houses in 

 Winter' is the subject ofa paper by R.De C.Ward 

 in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for 

 March 1st. Observations were made by rheans 

 of an ordinary sling psychrometer in a furnace- 

 heated room during three weeks of last No- 

 vember. The mean relative humidity in the 

 room for the whole period was &0^o, while the 

 mean relative humidity outdoors during the 

 same period was 71 fo . The minimum relative 

 humidity observed for any whole day was 

 24: fo and the maximum for a whole day was 

 4:0 fo. For purposes of comparison, the rela- 

 tive humidities of several stations in arid regions 

 are given in the paper. For instance, the 

 lowest mean annual relative humidity in the 

 United States is that for Yuma, Ariz., which 

 has 42.9%, and a mean monthly minimum of 

 S4.7 fc in June. Sante Fe, N. Mex., hasamean 

 annual of 44. 8 J^, with a mean monthly mini- 

 mum of 28.7^ in June. Death Valley, Calif, 

 was found to have a mean relative humidity of 

 23^ during five months (May-September) of 

 the year 1891, when a temporary meteorolog- 

 ical station was maintained there by the 

 Weather Bureau. Southwestern Siberia and 

 Western Turkestan have a mean of 45-50% in 

 July. Ghadames, in Tripoli, has 27 ^o in July, 

 lu India, Lahore has 31^ and Agra 36^ in 

 May. It thus appears that the air of the room 

 in which the observations were made was drier 

 than that of many desert regions. 



DRUNKENNESS AND THE WEATHER. 



Science for August 11th last contained an 



