448 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ing conclusions, which will be found at variance with the heretofore accepted 

 views regarding the Kuro Siwo : 



''The Kuro Siwo compared with the Gulf Stream is cooler, has a much 

 smaller volume, and is subject to serious fluctuations, which appear to be due to 

 the monsoons. 



"The Kuro Siwo sends no recognizable branch northward, between the 

 Aleutians and Kamchatka, nor from any other direction into Bering Sea. 



"The chief current of Bering Sea is a motion of cold water southward. This 

 has a superficial stratum abov,e it, which has, in summer when not interrupted by 

 winds, a northerly motion of translation, but it is not sufificient, either in mass, 

 motion, op consistency of direction, to be entitled to take rank as an ocean cur- 

 rent. 



" The surface currents of Bering Sea are formed by or chiefly dependent on 

 tides, winds, river flows, the southerly motion of cold water, the distribution of 

 floating ice, and the northerly motion of slightly warmer surface water, which 

 are effective about in the order named. 



"No warm current from Bering Sea enters Bering Strait, with the exception 

 of water from the neighboring rivers or the adjacent sounds. This water owes 

 its heat directly to the local action of the Sun's rays. 



" The Strait is incapable of carrying a current of warm water of sufficient 

 magnitude to have any marked effect on the condition of the Polar basin just north 

 of it, 



"The currents through the State are cool and chiefly tidal, but with a pre- 

 ponderating tendency northward, as before fully set forth. 



"The currents in the Arctic, north of the Straits, are largely dependent on 

 the winds, but have tendencies in certain recognized directions. Nothing in our 

 knowledge of them offers any hope of an easier passage toward the Pole, or, in 

 general, northward through their agency. Nothing yet revealed in the investiga- 

 tion of the subject in the least tends to support the widely spread but unphilo- 

 sophical notion that in any part of the Polar Sea we may look for large areas free 

 from ice." 



Publications of the Washburn Observatory of the University of Wis- 

 consin. Vol. I, octavo, pp. i8o, Madison, Wis., 1882. 



This report is made by Professor E. S. Holden, who was selected to fiU the 

 vacancy caused by the death of the lamented Prof. J. C. Watson, and covers the 

 period of time from the erection of the Observatory by Hon, C. C. Washburn, to 

 the 30th day of September, 1881. 



It comprises a description of the building and instruments, with catalogues 

 of stars, new nebulse, new double stars, red stars, etc., discovered or observed 

 and reduced under the direction of Professor Watson by Mr. G. C. Comstock 

 and Mr. L. W. Burnham. The latter has as usual devoted himself to the dis- 

 covery and observation of double stars. A very valuable and interesting chapter 



