ABSTRACTS OF CONGRESS PAPERS 



A PROJECT FOR THK EXPLORATION 



OF THE ATMOSPHERE OVER 



THE TROPICAL OCEANS 



BY A. LAWRENCE ROTCH, DIRECTOR OF BLUE 



HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, 



MASSACHUSETTS, U. S. A. 



In 1901 the writer first demonstrated that 

 kites might be flown from a steam vessel inde- 

 pendently of the natural wind, and showed that 

 meteorological data could be obtained in this 

 way under conditions and in places hitherto 

 unexplored. Such a region lies above the 

 equatorial oceans, where we know very little 

 about the thickness of the trade-winds or con- 

 cerning the direction and force of the super- 

 posed anti-trades and where we have no knowl- 

 edge of the vertical variation of temperature 

 and humidity nor whether there is a sudden 

 change in these elements between the trades 

 and the anti-trades. 



Starting from the United States in July, the 

 itinerary of a steamer equipped with kites for 

 atmospheric soundings should be northeast 

 across the Atlantic, then southwest to the 

 Azores and by way of M adeira to Teneriff e ; 

 thence with the northeast trades and through 

 the doldrums to the South American coast and 

 against the southeast trades to Ascension, re- 

 turning by a route somewhat more easterly at 

 first and then more westerly. Soundings in 

 these latitudes up to a height of two or three 

 miles would help to solve some of the most im- 

 portant problems in meteorology and physical 

 geography. 



To charter and keep in commission for several 

 months a properly equipped vessel would cost 

 about $ 20,000, and the writer made an unsuc- 

 cessful application to the Carnegie Institution 

 for a grant to defray a portion of this expense. 

 The investigation is certain to be undertaken 

 before long, but it ought to be done by Ameri- 

 cans, who have developed the kite as a meteor- 

 ological instrument, and the writer is still 

 hoping to carry out the project which he was 

 the first to propose. 



THE BEARING OF PHYSIOGRAPHY 

 UPON SUESS' THEORIES 



BY WM. M. DAVIS, HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



Suess has announced his conviction that 

 plateaus or horsts gain their altitude with re- 

 spect to neighboring lower lands, not by their 

 own local uplift, but by the depression of their 

 surroundings. The evidence for this convic- 

 tion is not a direct demonstration of the de- 

 pression of the lower lands, but an indirect 



argument based on the difficulty of accounting 

 for the forces needed to produce local uplifts. 

 In his great work, Das Antlitz der Erde, this 

 distinguished geologist does not directly in- 

 quire into the altitude that various plateaus 

 had with respect to sea-level before the occur- 

 rence of the displacement by which their pres- 

 ent altitude was gained, but it is implied that 

 both the plateau areas and the surrounding 

 areas formerly stood at (or about) the present 

 altitude of the plateaus, and that the depres- 

 sion of the surroundings necessary to leave 

 the plateaus in relief was limited to the neigh- 

 boring areas of now lower lands. 



It appears, however, that many plateaus re- 

 ferred to by Suess were formerly peneplains, 

 and hence that they once stood close to sea- 

 level. It follows that if the present altitude 

 of such plateaus was gained by the depression 

 of their surroundings, then not only the neigh- 

 boring lower lands, but all the oceans of the 

 world and all their associated low-lands must 

 also have been depressed by the full measure 

 of the altitude gained by the former peneplains. 

 It may be impossible to disprove these whole- 

 sale movements of depression, but it is desira- 

 ble to recognize their areal magnitude Until 

 direct evidence of the occurrence of depression 

 is found it seems more reasonable to regard 

 the present altitude of plateaus that were once 

 peneplains as due to local uplifts, whether in 

 our abundant ignorance of the earth's interior 

 processes we can explain local uplifts or not. 



THE CHRONOMETER AND TIME SERV- 

 ICE OF THE U. S. NAVAL OBSERVA- 

 TORY AND THE PRESENT STATUS OF 

 STANDARD TIME 



BY LIEUT. COMDR. EDWARD EVERETT HAY- 

 DEN, U. S. N. 



This department of the observatory has 

 charge of all naval chronometers and of the 

 daily telegraphic time signals. There are in 

 all about 700 chronometers used to obtain lon- 

 gitudes of vessels and in ocean and lake sur- 

 veys. These are tested at the observatory, 

 their errors and rates being ascertained by as- 

 tronomical observations with a transit instru- 

 ment in connection with standard clocks and 

 chronographs and a temperature room in which 

 continuous high, medium, and low tempera- 

 tures can be maintained. Telegraphic time sig- 

 nals are sent out at noon daily, except Sundays 

 and holidays, and transmitted throughout the 

 country by the telegraph and telephone com- 

 panies without cost to the government or to the 

 people. A special New Year's eve time signal 

 sent out on December 31, 1903, traversed some 



