CURRENT PAPERS. 201 



CURRENT PAPERS, No. 7. 

 By H. 0. Russell, b.a., c.m.g., f.r.s. 



[With Diagram.] 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N. 8. Wales, September 3, 1902.'] 



The number of current papers is steadily increasing year 

 by year. The first paper which was read before this Society 

 on October 3rd, 1894, contained 43 current papers — the 

 accumulation that had extended over four years. No. 2 

 contains the current papers which had accumulated in two 

 years, and numbered 200, of these the late Dr. Neumayer, 

 then the Director of the Hamburg Meteorological Obser- 

 vatory, sent me 23, and Captain A. Simpson contributed 

 41, which he had himself sent out and then collected. 



No. 3 pamphlet contains 167 current papers, collected in 

 two years and one month, all of which were sent to me. 

 During this time north-west winds were prevalent, blow- 

 ing off the Australian Bight, and in this way hindered the 

 landing of current papers in the Australian Bight, as the 

 diagrams in No. 3 shew. This pamphlet bears out the 

 experience from No. 2, viz., that the rate of drift south of 

 Australia is gradually increased from Latitude 30° to 47° 16' 

 South. At that time 101 icebergs were reported by 

 captains of ships on the voyage between Australia and 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



No. 4 pamphlet contains amongst other things the drift 

 of the "Perthshire," and this is the first pamphlet in which 

 the period of collecting papers is confined to twelve months. 

 It is also noteworthy that this year 1899 the drifts in the 

 Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the Southern Indian Ocean 

 were all unusually strong. 



