Miscellaneous Intelligence. 81 



made at the Magnetic Observatory at Sitka, Alaska, in 190*7 and 

 1908. Twenty-three figures reproduced from magnetograms 

 show in a striking manner the principal magnetic storms of the 

 period named. 



3. Report on the Progress and Condition of the TI. S. National 

 Museum for the year ending June 30, 1910 / by Richard Rath- 

 bun, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in 

 charge of the U. S. National Museum. Pp. 146. Washington, 

 1911. — This interesting volume gives a vivid picture of the rapid 

 growth of the National Museum at Washington, the extent and 

 wide range of its collections, and the many directions of its scien- 

 tific activity. Dr. Rathbun has been connected with it so long 

 that he is able to present the matter in a very full and interesting 

 form. The completion of the new building, and the rapid trans- 

 fer of the collections to it, makes this a period of great import- 

 ance in the history of the Museum. 



4. Frost Data of the United Stales ; and Length of the Crop- 

 growing Season, as determined from the Average of the latest 

 and earliest Dates of killing Frost; by P. C. Day, Chief of 

 Climatological Division. Prepared under the direction of Willis 

 L. Moore, Chief of Weather Bureau. Pp. 5 ; 5 charts. U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. Weather Bureau, Bulletin V. 

 Washington, 1911. — The Weather Bureau has instituted a new 

 service for the country in presenting the five charts contained in 

 this Bulletin. These have been prepared from data obtained at 

 about one thousand stations, having records, except for some 

 localities in the West, extending back from ten to thirty years. 

 Furthermore, observations have been made in the open country, 

 and hence are not subject to the modifying conditions involved 

 in stations in the large cities. The importance of frost statistics 

 for agriculture is obvious at a glance. The five charts show 

 graphically for the entire country the average date of the last 

 killing frost in spring and the first in autumn ; the latest date in 

 the spring and the earliest in the autumn ; also the average length 

 of the crop-growing season, reckoned between the average date 

 of the last spring and early autumn killing frost. 



5. Carnegie Institution of Washington. — Recent publications 

 of the Carnegie Institution are noted in the following list (con- 

 tinued from vol. xxxi, p. 245. 



No. 128. Guide to the Materials for American History in 

 Roman and other Italian Archives ; by Carl R. Fish. Pp. ix, 

 289. 



No. 131. The Root Habits of Desert Plants ; by William A. 

 Cannon. Pp. 96 ; 23 plates. 



No. 134. The Polynesian Wanderings ; Tracks of the Migra- 

 tion deduced from an examination of the Proto-Samoan Content 

 of Efate and other Languages of Melanesia ; by William 

 Churchill. Pp. viii, 516 ; 2 plates. 



No. 13V. Inventory of unpublished Material for American 

 Religious History in Protestant Church Archives and other 

 Repositories ; by William H. Allison. Pp. vii, 254. 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Vol. XXXII, No. 187.— July, 1911, 

 6 



