7 
372 
1677, (67% 1878, 2:33: 1879, 2:22 -- Team 
4.50; 1881, 4.95; 1882, 7.04; 1883, 8.22; 
1884, 8.87. We hazard nothing in asserting, 
that it does not lie within human ability to 
arrest such mighty storms as occurred in 1883 
and 1884: and it may fairly be questioned 
whether the ingenuity of man can devise means 
to prevent the wide-spread and destructive 
floods which must follow such a volume of water 
as then fell; whether any extension of forests, 
or system of catch-basins or reservoirs, could 
possibly retain or mitigate to any considerable 
extent such general and overwhelming floods. 
A system of artificial lakes might indeed be at 
such times a serious element of danger ; for, if 
one of them should break its restraining banks, 
its accumulated waters would be likely to carry 
away others, and then the waters, suddenly let 
loose, would do damage of which we have had 
a few frightful examples on a small scale. 
Tue demands of progressive agriculture for 
a more substantial scientific basis are just now 
beginning to find definite expression in the Do- 
minion of Canada. From the known attitude 
of certain members of the government, from 
the recent examination of experts before a spe- 
cial House committee at Ottawa, and from the 
general expressions of those who have a direct 
interest in the question, it is apparent that a 
‘keen sense of the utility of experiment-sta- 
tions is now developing a movement, which, it 
is to be hoped, will secure for the Dominion one 
or more much-needed stations, founded upon 
the European idea of their utility from a scien- 
tific stand-point, and from that of the practical 
application of acquired results. 
THIs season promises to be offe of unusual 
activity in the observation and study of torna- 
does. In response to an invitation from the 
signal-service, a considerable number of tor- 
nado reporters is secured; and the first fruit of 
their labors has just appeared with most praise- 
worthy promptness in the form of a set of four 
preliminary charts illustrating the recent nu- 
anerous and destructive tornadoes in the south- 
ern states on Feb. 19. Further investigation is 
SCIENCE. 
needed before a final account of these terrible 
storms is prepared; but it is shown by these 
charts, that over fifty tracks of tornado-action 
have been reported for Feb. 19, between seven 
in the morning and midnight, all occurring 
within a cyclonic area, and from three to seven ~ 
hundred miles south-south-east of the centre of 
low pressure. As the broad cyclone moved for- 
ward, its centre passing from Illinois to Lake 
Huron, the tornado district on its southern 
edge had a similar advance across the south- 
ern states. The cyclone was peculiar in show- 
ing a long, trough-like barometric depression, 
and in presenting notably strong contrasts of 
temperature between its south-eastern and 
north-western sides. ‘The tornadoes were all 
developed within the district occupied by warm 
southerly winds, somewhat in advance of the 
cold north-westerly winds; but they moved, 
without exception, in a north-easterly direc- 
tion. Their destructive action was’ most se- 
vere in eastern Alabama, northern Georgia, 
and centrally across the Carolinas. Rough 
estimates place the value of property destroyed 
at between three and four million dollars; the 
loss of life, at about one thousand ; the wound- 
ed, at more than double that number; while 
the homeless and destitute people are report- 
ed to count from fifteen to twenty thousand, 
many of whom are in a starving condition. 
About ten thousand buildings are said to be 
destroyed, and domestic animals were killed 
in great numbers. It hardly need be urged, 
that the possibility of giving some warning of 
immediate danger before such storms warrants 
the fullest and most careful investigation of 
all their attendant conditions. 
In preparation for this work, the ‘ tornado 
circulars,’ issued by the signal-service to pro- 
mote the accumulation of record and statistics 
of these destructive storms, have now reached 
the number of twenty. The most considerable 
of the later ones is No. 16, which contains, in 
all, two hundred and three questions or direc- 
tions designed to aid in the precise description 
of tornadoes and the conditions of their forma- 
tion: these are arranged under several head-— 
