1870.] Meteorology. 123 



period on a definite system. There is one special table which calls 

 for notice, that of the daily temperature of the river Weser. The 

 results tend to set at rest the moot question of the relation between 

 water and air temperature. They show that while the water was 

 permanently warmer than the air to the extent of 3° • 5 F. on the 

 mean of the year, its changes followed those of the air in point of 

 time, but were less in extent. There are several very suggestive 

 deductions froin the tables, and the calendar concludes with some 

 useful practical weather rules. 



We mentioned lately that M. Coumbary had organized a Meteoro- 

 logical service in the Turkish empire. He has now begun to 

 publish a monthly resume of his observations. The provincial 

 stations from which returns for September are published are : 

 Smyrna, Beyrout, Diarbekir, Bagdad, Fao, Eustchuk, Sulina, Varna, 

 Trebizonde, and Salonica. M. Coumbary is very anxious to obtain 

 daily telegraphic reports from Bombay, an idea even more novel 

 than that which is already an accomplished fact, the regular 

 daily service across the Atlantic. 



The ' Bulletin ' of the new central observatory at Montsouris, 

 near Paris, has now assumed a definite shape as regards its contents. 

 It gives for the observatory eight readings daily of the various 

 instruments, with reports of the state of the atmosphere and the 

 amount of cloud. Observations are also printed from some stations 

 near Paris, as well as from six stations on the coast, the same as 

 are published in our own ' Daily Weather Keport,' and the daily 

 summary of British weather supplied by telegraph to the Ministere 

 de la Marine is appended. 



Le Terrier's 'Atlas Meteorologique ' for 1868 contains, in addi- 

 tion to the usual charts and accounts of the thunder and hail storms, 

 and a general sketch of the rainfall in France during the year, a 

 number of memoirs of very varied scope. Among them we find one 

 by M. Bayet, on the climate of the Isthmus of Suez ; another, by 

 M. Belgrand, on the rainfall in the Seine basin at the Quaternary 

 epoch (this latter might almost as suitably find a place in the 

 1 Journal of the Geological Society') ; and a number of special notices 

 from the various departments. There is, however, a paper by 

 Mr. Buchan, " On the Meteorology of North-west Europe in 1868," 

 which calls for remark. The author is well fitted for the pre- 

 paration of such a paper by his experience in studying storms ; 

 but in our opinion the value of his reasoning is much diminished 

 by the introduction of too much theory. More than once we have 

 a long train of argument depending on a succession of " ifs." This 

 is not logical reasoning at all, and is rather out of place in a paper 

 like that we are discussing. This tendency to theorize we have 

 before had to notice in Mr. Buchan, as a blemish on his work. Let 



