1870.] Meteorology. 277 



directions from true S.W. and N.E. are explained by the relations of 

 pressure. That these variations do exist is shown by the fact that 

 in the great continent, the coldest point of the windrose shifts 

 through 108°, from N. 62° E. over the North Sea, to W. 44° N. in 

 Eastern Asia. The warmest point shifts similarly through 61°. 

 Corresponding changes are noticeable in the baric windrose, so that, 

 as Buchan shows, the main directions of the wind are not S.W. and 

 N.E. As to the effect on rain, it is found that the sea winds are 

 always the rain bringers, and the land winds the contrary. Our 

 driest wind is N.E. ; that for Pekin as well as for Toronto is N.W. 

 Part II. is a special application of the results contained in the tables 

 to the peculiarities of climate of the respective stations. 



The quarter has on the whole been rather barren of meteorolo- 

 gical papers both here and on the Continent, but this deficiency has 

 been more than supplied by some works of a general nature. Mr. 

 Keith Johnston, jun., has just brought out a ' Handbook of Physical 

 Geography,' as a companion to the ' Physical Atlas.' The chapters, 

 three in number, relating to Meteorology are very compact and 

 comprehensive. Much of what he says on winds has been adapted 

 from Mr. Buchan's paper just noticed ; but as regards climate, the 

 account of the Kange Lines is a reproduction of a very good paper 

 by the author, which appears in vol. vi. of the ' Proceedings of the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh.' In this paper he has discussed the 

 range of temperature from January to July all over the globe. This 

 map is an entirely new idea, and a most useful one, as in the ques- 

 tion of Kange all the differences between insular and continental 

 climates are involved. Thus in these islands the range is about 20°. 

 At Yakutsk it is 106°. No part of the open ocean has a range 

 above 40°, while the curves above 60° are confined to the great 

 continents. 



On the whole, Mr. Johnston finds, as a practical result, that in 

 the Temperate Zone the West coasts of continents have 15° less 

 range than the East coasts, and a similar contrast is noticed between 

 the opposite coasts of inland seas and lakes. Thus the coasts of the 

 Mediterranean, which face East, have 10° more range than those 

 which face West. The same fact is noticed on the shores of Lake 

 Superior. 



Dove has at last published Part II. of his ' Klimatologische 

 Beitrage,' twelve years after its predecessor. In this he furnishes 

 the text and tables to the ' Atlas of Monthly and Yearly Isotherms,' 

 which appeared in 1864. The first fifty pages are devoted to a 

 brief discussion of the climate of Western Europe, which is very 

 interesting, but hardly worthy of the author's reputation. If we 

 test it by what he says of these islands, it is evident that the sources 

 of information are old and not quite accurate, while the statements 

 themselves bear signs of haste and carelessness. Thus we are told 



VOL. vii. u 



