520 THE ANTARCTIC CLIMATE 



cisions. These relate almost entirely to the northwestern part of Canada, 

 in the Yukon region. It appears that, as long ago as March, 1888, the 

 question of the establishment of such a board was agitated, and again in 

 1892, but for some reason the matter was not followed up. The present 

 board, constituted by an order in council approved by the Governor- 

 General, is composed of two representatives of the Department of Marine 

 •and Fisheries, and one each of the Department of Railways and Canals, 

 Postoffice Department, and the Geological Survey, and the Queen's Printer. 



The by-laws of the board governing its organization and methods of 

 procedure are very similar to those of the United States board. The rules 

 of nomenclature which have been adopted are also quite similar, but we 

 note the absence, except by inference, of the most important of all such 

 principles — i. e., that local usage should prevail. On the other hand, 

 great stress is laid upon priority of publication of names. The first of 

 these rules is as follows: " When the priority of a name has been estab- 

 lished by publication, particularly when such publication has occurred 

 in any standard or authoritative work or works, that name should, if 

 possible, be retained." 



We do not think that our Canadian neighbors appreciate what the re- 

 sult of the application of this principle will be on their nomenclature. 

 It is safe to say that the majority of Canadian place names, as now used, 

 are not identical with those first applied. From our limited knowledge 

 of the history of the place names of Canada, we could cite scores or hun- 

 dreds of names which, as now used, are different from those originally 

 applied in maps and books. In biology it may be possible to carry out 

 .this principle of priority, although it must be said that its application in 

 this branch of science involves a vast deal of labor and confusion, but in 

 geographic names it is simply impossible. 



The organization of the Canadian board will relieve our United States 

 board from the necessity of making decisions on names in Canada, and 

 doubtless our board will accept, without question, all decisions made by 

 the Canadian board. 



H. G. 



THE ANTARCTIC CLIMATE 



Henry Arctowski, the meteorologist of the recent Belgian Antarctic ex- 

 pedition, in The Geographical Journal for October gives a preliminary 

 account of the meteorological observations conducted by him during the 

 expedition. Because of their relatively small distance from the open sea 

 and great distance from the pole, the positions ranging from 81° to 95° 

 west longitude and 09° 50 / to 71° 30 / south latitude, two distinct types of 

 climate were experienced, according to the direction of the wind — a con- 

 tinental and an oceanic. July was the coldest month, its mean temper- 

 ature being — 2o.r>° C. f — 10.3° F.), and the lowest temperature observed 

 during the month, —37.1° C. (—34.8° F.). 



The warmest month was February, with a mean temperature of — 1.0° 

 C. [30.2° F.j, and a minimum for the month, —9.6° C. (14.7° F.). If we 

 regard June, July, and August as the antarctic winter months, and De- 



