164 
the topography of the country, and the impor- 
tant distinctions in climate which result there- 
from ; then, passing to the climatic factors, he 
describes in detail the temperature, rainfall, 
humidity, cloudiness, pressure, and winds as 
they exist in the different sections, and illus- 
trates principally from the publications of 
Schott, Woeikoff, Blodgett, Loomis, Coffin, 
Dall, Gannett, Whitney, and the signal-ser- 
vice. Not content with general characteris- 
tics, he further specifies peculiarities, such as 
the suddenness of temperature changes in cer- 
tain localities, tornadoes, northers, and Indian 
summer, with appropriate quotations from va- 
rious writers; and he also appends special 
descriptions of the climate of Illinois, Lake 
Superior, the Mississippi valley, Canada, 
Manitoba, Hudson’s Bay, Alaska, the plateau 
region, Colorado, California, Arizona, and the 
Bermudas. The climate conditions of other 
countries are treated with similar thoroughness, 
making the whole valuable for reference, while 
its chief merit lies in the running descriptions 
and summaries. <A defect in the work is the 
lack of charts illustrating the various data. <A 
few only are given; the main reliance for illus- 
tration being in the statistical tables, which are 
almost unnecessarily abundant. Graphic rep- 
resentations are always specially valuable to the 
reader, and their addition to the work would be 
areal improvement. It would also have been 
well to mention the analytical method of repre- 
senting data, as well as the statistical and graph- 
ical; for, while its use is limited, it will surely 
grow in favor with the advance of the science. 
The work of Dr. Hann represents the latest 
investigations, and is brought down almost to 
the very date of publication. It will therefore 
not be soon superseded ; and, while additional 
data will accumulate in coming years, the gen- 
eral discussions will require but little alteration. 
The work is recommended for the general read- 
er, not to be read in course, but by proper 
SCIENCE. 
ee 
selection. 
maries contain a large amount of inform 
for which the details and illustrations can be 
obtained from the accompanying pages. ‘The 
student will find the work useful in calling at- 
tention to the authorities in each subject. Es- 
pecially in the section on general climatology, 
where such topics as solar radiation and atmos- 
pherie absorption are, from the design of the 
work, treated in a general way only, will be 
found quotations from the publications of the 
latest investigators. It would be well, too, if 
the treatment of the subject of climatic factors 
should call attention to the need of publishing 
statistics in such a way as to be useful for ref- 
erence. In this country particularly, we need 
to give consideration to this subject. There is 
scarcely an allusion made in the work under 
review to recent meteorological work in the 
United States, not because it has not been pub- 
lished, but because it has not been issued in a 
suitable form. In order to compare our statis- 
tics with those of other countries, it is necessary 
first to re-arrange and classify them. The in- 
ternational meteorological committee has rec- 
ommended forms of publication, the adoption 
of which will add greatly to the facility with 
which corresponding data can be compared. 
But even these forms do not give all the data 
which the climatologist would like to have ; and 
meteorological observations could be made more 
available for studies in climate by attention to 
the author’s treatment of the subject. There 
is also need of deducing more results from the 
immense collection of data which is daily ac- 
cumulating all over the world, to check the 
prevailing tendency of heaping up observations 
for no useful purpose. If this work shall have 
the effect of stimulating research, and promot- 
ing a more intelligent use of meteorological ob- 
servations, it will do much good. It is to be 
hoped that it will be translated into English to 
reach a wider circle of readers. 
RECENT PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Ottawa field-naturalists’ club, Canada. 
Jan. 31. —Mr. W. L. Scott read the report of the 
ornithological and odlogical branch, showing that a 
number of rare birds had been secured, that thirteen 
species had been added to the published lists, and 
that other good work had been done. Among spe- 
cimens exhibited was a great white egret, in full 
breeding-plumage, which had been shot on the Upper 
Ottawa, —a locality far north of its usual range, but 
where it is stated to be a not uncommon visitor. Its 
name, however, will not appear in the lists of the 
club, as the locality is considered beyond the limits . 
of its district. 
Prot, ‘Js 
‘Edible and poisonous fungi’ of the vicinity. He 
pointed out, that while at present the only fungus ~ 
collected for food is the common mushroom, Agari- 
cus campestris, there are other equally nutritious 
and palatable forms which exist in far greater abun- 
dance; as, for instance, Coprinus comatus, which 
grows in great profusion about the ae ca 
The general chapters and the sum-_ 
ation, | 
Macoun read a practical paper on the 
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