Miscellaneous Intelligence. 421 
It is here evident that the frozen condition of the earth’s sur- 
face has a vast deal to do with the height of the winter floods, 
and the extent of the forest region very little. 
he conditions affecting the amount of discharge are (1) the 
loss by evaporation; (2) the loss by absorption. 
Loss by evaporation becomes greater (1) as the seasons advance 
from cold to warm; (2) as forest regions become changed into 
dry fields of earth, or earth and rock ; (3) as obstructing dams are 
multiplied, making the stream more or less a string of ponds. It 
is least, other conditions équal, when streams are deep in propor- 
ion to their breadth ; and when the velocity is great, the time 
inished, 
_ Loss by absorption becomes greater as the season advances 
from cold to warm, but only after the ground of the drainage 
area has become unfrozen ; (2) the more the area is forest-covered ; 
(3) the more porous, fissured, or cavernous the underlying ig oe 
i i j is least 
phic rocks; where the cold has produced a frozen surface—rock- 
like—over the drainage area, : 
Hence the best conditions for a great flood are a frozen drain- 
atory, No. 7,—The 
Observations of Messrs. Stone and Wilson upon nine comets in 
1880-2, both for positive and physical, are given in this valuable 
contribution. Ten plates illustrating the physical observations 
are added. 
. Lar- 
n fund to 
UX. : 
6. Hermann Mueller Fund.— The citizens of Lippstadt in 
ommittee to collect funds for a 
mnasium of that town, an : 
al relations of insects and flowers. 
The proposed 
fund is “to preserve the memory of Professor Mueller, and ae 
his family by creating a foundation, whose revenues shall 
