1 38 Notices respecting Ncvj Books, 



might }30ssibly be led to the prediction of great storms/^ 

 Although up to this time no such law has been recognized hy our 

 leading meteorologists, it may be permissible to inquire if the steps 

 which have hitherto been taken^ such as are exhibited in the 

 preceding Tables, and capable of being rendered still more in- 

 telligible by curves and sections, have not developed these prin- 

 ciples, viz. that the vast bodies of air, possessing regular grada- 

 tions of pressure analogous to wave-forms associated v/ith cer- 

 tain definite winds which always accompany these gradations of 

 pressure, move in certain directions, viz. from N.W. to S.E., and 

 from S.W. to N.E., and also if such regular motions are not of 

 the nature of "laws'" different from Bays Ballot^s law. The 

 present paper shows that other forces of a still higher character 

 than wave-motion come into operation, producing changes of 

 elasticity the laws of which require to be investigated. This 

 work is a laborious one, but without it little progress will be 

 made in meteorology. The study of atmospheric waves must 

 conduce to a clearer conception of the changes giving rise to 

 the production of new or the modification of existing waves. 



XVIII. Notices respecting New Books. 



British Rainfall, 1871. By G. J. Symons. London: Stanford, 

 Charing Cross. 



^pHIS annual, which has made its appearance recently, contains the 

 -^ usual amount of information on the rainfall during the past year in 

 the British Isles, accompanied with a few most interesting notices of 

 rainfall on the Continent and in India. We notice it especially on 

 account of some important experiments on rainfall at different ele- 

 vations, particularly at Aldershot Camp, by Colour-Serjeant Arnold, 

 who found that at heights of 6 feet and 20 feet respectively gauges 

 with the receiving apertures tilted at an angle of 45° and kept to the 

 wind by powerful vanes, collected as nearly as possible the same 

 amount of rain ; while gauges at 6 feet and 25 feet of elevation 

 with the receiving apertures placed horizontally collected different 

 amounts, the greatest quantity being found in the lowest gauge. A 

 collateral phenomenon, although not mentioned in the volume, may 

 yet be gathered from the Tables inserted : it is that during four 

 years (1868 to 1871) at Rotherham a gauge placed horizontally 5 

 feet above the ground gathered 71 per cent, of the rain gathered in 

 a rotating gauge (angle 45°) at the same elevation, the quantity 

 gathered at Aldershot in the horizontal gauge as compared with the 

 tilted gauge at an elevation of 6 feet being 70 per cent. These re- 

 sults at two stations, extending over four and three years respectively, 

 show that vre have much to learn as regards rainfall, especially in 

 relation to the standard quantity ; for if gauges separated from each 

 other by a vertical space of 24 feet gather the same quantity, our 



