366 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 117. 



of Coffin's great work on the winds of the globe, 

 is one of the most industrious, as well as one of the 

 best, writers among the modern meteorologists. He 

 has lately published a good-sized volume on clima- 

 tology, in Kussian, from which a sample chapter on 

 the influence of forests is translated in a recent 

 number of Petermanrts mittheilungen, to which we 

 shall shortly refer. Besides this, the German and 

 Austrian journals of meteorology contain frequent 

 contributions from his study devoted largely to the 

 discussion of the climate of the eastern dominions of 

 Russia. Among these, that on the climate of East 

 Siberia contains many facts of interest, especially in 

 relation to the extremes of winter cold observed at 

 Yakutsk and other low inland stations, where the 

 average January temperature is close about the freez- 

 ing-point of mercury. It is found that the excessive 

 cold that characterizes the long, clear, quiet winter 

 nights of that region is most severe in the low val- 

 leys, while the elevated stations have a distinctly 

 milder winter, although still surely cold enough; so 

 that at this season the air is generally warmer at a 

 moderate altitude above the earth than at its surface. 

 This inversion from the normal decrease of tempera- 

 ture vertically, had already been inferred by Hann to 

 be a characteristic of the cold season of continental 

 interiors, but its best observational proof is now given 

 by Woeikof. It results directly from the ease with 

 which the land cools by excessive radiation in win- 

 ter, while the air which is slower to lose its warmth 

 departs less from its average annual temperature. 

 An example of a similar condition in this country is 

 given in an account of the cold island in Michigan, 

 by Alexander, in a late number of the American 

 meteorological journal. 



CLOUDS SEEN I If MEURTHR-ET-MOSELLE. 



Miliot, secretary of the Meteorological commission 

 of Meurthe-et-Moselle, describes in L 1 Astronomie 

 some very singular clouds which he observed in the 

 morning of Dec. 18, 1882, directly after a rain-storm 

 and severe squall from the west. Scattered equally 

 throughout the pallio-cumulus rain-clouds were 

 hemispherical grayish pockets slightly elongated, 

 which Miliot calls globo-cumulus clouds. They are 

 represented in the accompanying cut. 



Elfert, in his paper on cloudiness in central Eu- 

 rope, presents statistics of cloudiness from three 



hundred and nineteen stations scattered generally 

 throughout western Europe between latitudes 39° 

 and 60°, and longitudes 4° and 30°. The stations 

 range in height from near sea-level up to nearly nine 

 thousand feet above. The periods of observation 

 vary from one year to forty or more, and few stations 

 have been occupied for a less period than three years. 

 Statistics of the monthly, seasonal, and annual per- 

 centages of cloudiness are given for all these stations, 

 showing a mean percentage of cloudiness in central 

 Europe, in winter, of 69; in spring, of 59; in summer, 

 of 55; and in autumn, of 64. The mean of the 

 year is 62 %. Over the greater part of the area under 

 discussion, the maximum of cloudiness is reached 

 in winter, and the minimum in summer; but in the 

 alpine region these conditions are reversed, while in 

 the low region of Holland and Belgium the maximum 

 is in spring, and the minimum in the autumn. The 

 distribution of the annual cloudiness shows little 

 appearance of design, further than the general fact 

 that cloudiness is more general in the northern than 

 in the southern part of the area. The general tables 

 are succeeded by discussions concerning the relations 

 of relative humidity and of the direction of the wind 

 to degree of cloudiness, and of the relative proportions 

 of cloudiness at different times of the day. The paper 

 is illustrated by maps and diagrams. 



THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY TO AFGHAN- 

 ISTAN. 



The origin and growth of the present Rus- 

 sian empire are intimately connected with the 

 courses of the great rivers of Russia. Between 

 the White Sea and the Pontus Euxinus, the 

 Baltic and the Caspian seas, the country, total- 

 ly devoid of dominating elevations, bears the 

 character of an extensive lowland, stretching 

 towards the south. Orographically it may be 

 considered as the continuation of the plains of 

 central Asia, with which it is connected. Over 

 this tract of land various Slavonic tribes, the 

 present Russians, have been spreading at a 

 more or less rapid rate, especially in a south- 

 eastern direction. Subjugating those who of- 

 fered resistance, they ever remembered the 

 words, ' to conquer, or to perish,' — the proud 

 device of SwatoslofT, their first great leader. 

 Unlike the bloodthirst}' Asiatic warriors, them- 

 selves an agricultural people, the}' were the 

 bearers of civilization, whether they moved 

 toward the north, east, or south. In some 

 directions their progress necessarily had to be 

 slow ; but it has steadily been going on for the 

 past two thousand years. 



Reise der russischen gesandtschaft in Afghanistan und Bu- 

 chara in den jahren 1878-79, von Dr. J. L. Jaworskij. Aus 

 dent russischen iibersetzt und mit einem vorwort und anmerkung- 

 en versehen, von Dr. Ed. Petri, docent fur geographie und an- 

 thropologic an der Universitat Bern. Bd. i. Jena, Coztenoble, 

 1885. 12+427 p., illustr. 8°. 



