250 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
The period embraced in this report has been rather above average tempera- 
ture for this season and we can again record quite a heavy rainfall. 
On fifteen days the temperature has reached 90° and upward, the highest 
being 98° on June 30th. The lowest temperature was 62° on June 23d. High- 
est barometer, July i8th, 29.300, reduced to sea-level and zero, 30.235. Low- 
est barometer, July 1 2th, 28.780, reduced 29.708, 
On June 23d, just after a heavy rain-storm, the air having had a temperature 
of 65° to 70° all the forenoon, the temperature suddenly rose more than 20° in 
consequence of a hot current of air from the south. This lasted but half an hour 
when the temperature fell as suddenly as it had risen. 
On the evenings of the 7th and 8th of July auroras were visible at this station 
about 9 o'clock in the evening. The wind travel has been less than any previous 
month this year, and no very high gales have occurred here. The prevailing 
wind has been from the south as usual at this season. 
BOOK NOTICES, 
From the Pyrenees to the Pillars of Hercules: By Henry Day; 12 mo., 
pp. 249. G. P. Putnams' Sons, 1883. For sale by M. H. Dickinson. 
As is justly remarked by the author of this work, Spain lies out of the ordin- 
ary route of travel and less is known of it than of any European State. It has a 
wonderful history which has never been well written by EngHsh authors, though 
the most valuable illustrations of it have been produced by such American writers 
as Prescott, Irving, and Ticknor, within the last half century. The mixture of 
Roman, Moorish, and Teutonic blood in the veins of its people gives them a 
peculiar character, accounting, perhaps, for their romantic and passionate tem- 
peraments, their daring and domineering dispositions, but not for their lack of 
that pertinacity and steadfastness of purpose which insures success. With greater 
opportunities than almost any other people, none has made a more disastrous 
failure as a great factor in the world's history. Although in the sixteenth century 
it was one of the most wealthy and powerful of the nations of the earth, and its 
literature, art, and fashions held sway in all the courts of Europe, its want of 
national coherence was such that it never crystallized into a first-class power, 
but gradually declined, until now it is principally engaged in internecine wars and 
occupies one of the lowest positions among European nations. The climate is 
admirable and the valleys lovely, and as our writer observes " it is no wonder 
that the Moors from the hot deserts of Africa and the level, sterile wastes of 
Arabia, glowed with delight as their eyes rested on these charming valleys. No 
wonder they fought to obtain them and periled their all to keep them. Here 
they found the orange, the fig, the aloe, the pomegranate, the grape, and the 
