May 30, 1884.] 
information concerning wrecks, ice, ete., gained 
during the preceding month. Through the kindness 
of Commander Bartlett, we are enabled to present 
a copy of the chart for May, reduced to two-fifths of 
the original, from a special printin black. As stated 
in the legend, every thing concerning the current 
month (in this case, May) is printed in blue in the 
regular issue; thus the direction and force of the 
winds are given, with the probable limits of the trades 
and of floating ice. On the May chart, the sailing- 
route to the equator, and the safe route to England, 
are added., On the other hand, information received 
concerning floating wrecks, ice, and notable storms 
or fogs, is printed in red. Only the geographic out- 
line, the currents, and the permanent wording, ap- 
pear in black on the original charts. The first four 
numbers, December to March, were accompanied by 
a few pages of letter-press, giving information con- 
cerning wrecks, storms, etc.; but it has later been 
found possible to present sufficient detail on the 
chart itself. Although the publication of these 
charts was duly authorized, no special appropriation 
was made for the collection of the information that 
they are designed to show. The co-operation of sea- 
faring men, and those interested in the weather of 
the ocean, is therefore solicited. The distribution 
of the charts from the branches of the hydrographic 
office lately established in New York, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, and Boston, as well as from the central 
office in Washington, will, doubtless, prove a strong 
incentive to a more complete reporting of the desired 
observation. 
Having thus considered what has been already 
accomplished for the North Atlantic, we may give 
a few lines to studies now in progress in different 
parts of the world. Germany, England, and Holland 
have entered into a kind of co-operative agreement 
by which each party is to take charge of a relatively 
small part of certain oceans, and examine all the 
observations, furnished from all the parties, with the 
utmost detail; this plan being the outcome of several 
meteorological congresses. So far as I can learn, 
the German government, through Dr. Neumayer of 
the Deutsche seewarte at Hamburg, is at work on the 
North Atlantic between latitudes 20° and 50°, from 
shore to shore, the results to be tabulated in one- 
degree squares. About one-eighth of this work has 
been published.! The British meteorological council, 
of which Gen. R. Strachey is chairman, and Mr. R. 
H. Scott, secretary, has about completed a series of 
sea-surface temperature charts of the three great 
oceans for the cardinal months, February, May, 
August, and November, ang have on hand a similar 
set of barometrical charts. A more original under- 
taking is the preparation of daily synoptic charts of 
the North Atlantic, in charge of Capt. H. Toynbee, 
for the thirteen months beginning Aug. 1, 1882, and 
ending Aug. 31, 1883; this being the period covered 
1 Deutsche seewarte, Resultate meteorologische beobachtung- 
en ton deutschen und holldndischen schiffen fiir eingradfelder 
des nordatlantischen Oceans. (Quadraten 146 und 147.) Ham- 
burg, 1380, 1881. These include the area between 40° and 50° 
north latitude, and 10° to 30° west longitude. 
SCIENCE. 
657 
by the international circumpolar observations. It is 
estimated that there will be at least four hundred 
observations for each day; and from these it may at 
last be discovered what becomes of our Atlantic gales. 
The Indian meteorological service, in charge of Mr. 
H. F. Blanford, is studying the Indian Ocean north 
of the equator, lapping to the eastward over the area 
taken by the Dutch. The Dutch government, repre- 
sented by Dr. Buys-Ballot of the Meteorological insti- 
tute at Utrecht, has undertaken the investigation of 
the China seas (0°-30° north latitude, 100°-150° east 
longitude), but the results have not yet appeared. 
The former work of this office on the surface tem- 
peratures of the Atlantic, although of much impor- 
tance, has, perforce, been omitted in this review; nor 
has there been space to consider various essays on 
ocean surface temperatures by Petermann, Corne- 
lissen, and Koldeway, which might well be compared 
with the results on our hydrographic charts. The 
winds furnish material enough for examination in 
one essay. 
It is surely fitting that our government should bear 
its share in these invaluable studies, and we trust 
the work now approaching completion for the North 
Atlantic may be speedily followed by similar studies 
of the rich material in our possession from the other 
oceans. W. M. Davis. 
INVERTEBRATES OF THE TALISMAN 
EXPEDITION. 
IN a communication to the French academy, 
Dr. Paul Fischer observes, that, during the voyage, 
attention was directed especially to determining 
whether the deep-sea fauna of the tropical seas is 
peculiar to the geographical region, or derived by 
emigration from arctic seas. By dredging in a north 
and south direction in the eastern Atlantic, and com- 
paring the results from different latitudes with those 
obtained by others in northern. seas, it was hoped 
to arrive at a satisfactory solution of the problem. 
The line upon which work was done extended from 
the mouth of the Charente, over thirty degrees of 
latitude, to Senegal. 
It is known that the superficial and abyssal faunae 
of the seas of tropical Africa differ greatly. The 
genera are not the same: their respective assemblages 
have no parallel relations. If the remains of these 
two contemporaneous faunae were fossilized, it might 
be supposed that they belonged to two different 
epochs, or represented the population of two uncom- 
municating seas. The abyssal fauna of the coasts of 
the Sahara, Senegal, and islands of Cape de Verde, 
contains a number of mollusks common to the arctic 
seas which have an immensely wide distribution. 
Such are Troschelia berniciensis, Chrysodomus island- 
icus, Scaphander puncto-striatus, Lima excavata, 
Malletia obtusa, Limopsis minuta, Syndosmya longi- 
callis, Neaera arctica, N. cuspidata, Pecten vitreus, 
and P. septemradiatus. These range from Ice- 
land and Finmark, or northern European seas, in 
comparatively shallow water, southward to various 
