February 19, 1886.] 



SCIEXCE. 



1G7 



inquire, by means of their mediums, whether what has 

 been dictated to us has really been dictated by them, 

 and whether its publication has been demanded. In 

 obtaining this permission we were assured that the 

 spirits would everywhere assert the truth of the fact. 

 In case this event should take place, your worship will 

 understand its weight and importance : and this is 

 the reason why I, always in the name of science and 

 humanity, ask you to bring together under your 

 supervision competent and honest persons, and, em- 

 ploying known spiritualistic mediums, to call forth 

 the spirits and ask them : — 



1. Is it true that at Catania a perfectible spirit, by 

 order of his prime spirit, has dictated a work which 

 he wishes to be called ' Spiritualistic apocalypse' \ 



2. Are the premises established, and the conse- 

 quences deduced, from the theories and principles 

 dictated in this work the true ones ? 



3. Will this work be useful to humanity ? And, 

 further, all other questions which may be thought 

 necessary to ascertain the truth. 



I likewise pray and authorize you, in the name of 

 my friends, to invite other scientific societies, and 

 individual men of science, to make similar experi- 

 ments, with the request that you will have the kind- 

 ness to communicate to us the answers obtained. 



In the hope of soon having the honor of seeing 

 your handwriting, 



I remain with all respect and obedience, 

 Yours devotedly, 



Antonino "Scavo Yita. 



Catania (Sicily), Jan. 20. 



Montana climate. 



The interesting notes of Dr. Dawson and Mr. Davis 

 on the origin of the Chinook winds of the north-west 

 are undoubtedly correct. Their characteristics are 

 exactly those of the foehn. But Dr. Dawson limits 

 the range of these winds too much. They extend at 

 least as far south as the great western bend of the 

 Rocky Mountain divide, north of Henry's Lake; and 

 their tempering influences reach to the extreme 

 boundary of Montana. 



In recent climatological articles in Science, I notice 

 several misleading references to ' Montana climate,' 

 as if it were comparable, in steady, extreme cold, to 

 the winters of Siberia, or even Canada. This is far 

 from being the case. There is no such thing as a 

 ' Montana climate.' The climate of Port Assiniboine 

 and Glendive is one thing, while that of Bozenian and 

 Helena is quite another. Here seems to be the bat- 

 tle-ground between the cold waves descending from 

 British America, and the temperate western currents 

 from the Pacific. Changes are sometimes very sud- 

 den from temperatures far below zero to above the 

 freezing-point, and vice versa, as one or the other 

 gets the upper hand ; but many a cold wave which 

 extends from the mouth of the Yellowstone to the 

 Atlantic is deflected by the pressure from the west, 

 so as not to be felt in central Montana. The recent 

 severe storm, for instance, kept entirely east of us. 

 On Feb. 2, the minimum at Assiniboine was — 16° ; 

 at Benton, — 1° ; at St. Paul, — 26° ; while it was 

 -+- 15° at Helena, and 4- 33° at Bozeman. It was calm 

 and mild here, and not till two days later did the ther- 

 mometer reach the freezing-point at Benton. Mild 

 weather has since prevailed throughout Montana. 



The only extreme cold weather experienced here 

 was during the January storm on the Pacific, when 



we had a week of below-zero weather, with a very 

 low thermometer, — something very unusual here, 

 and altogether unaccountable to me, until I learned 

 of the storm on the coast. 



If it were not for the warm Pacific currents, our win- 

 ter climate would probably be arctic ; but those cur- 

 rents make it usually far milder and more enjoyable 

 than at corresponding latitudes farther east. In 1885, 

 when during February and March one blizzard suc- 

 ceeded another from Dakota to the seaboard, I gath- 

 ered buttercups (Ranunculus glaberrimus) in bloom 

 at Bozeman on March 15 ; and on April 5 I gathered 

 more than half a dozen species of flowers (Ammoni 

 patens. Douglassia montana. Phlox canescens, Fritil- 

 laria pudica, Synthyris, Townsendia, etc.) on a 

 mountain side, at an altitude of about six thousand 

 feet near the Bozeman tunnel, the highest point on 

 the Northern Pacific railroad. 



I send you enclosed specimens of what I gathered 

 yesterday (Feb. 7) : Ranunculus glaberrimus with 

 well-advanced buds, well-developed catkins of alder, 

 and catkins of willow and quaking asp, showing the 

 white, silky covering:. P. Koch. 



Bozeman, Montana, Feb. 8. 



Oil on troubled waters. 



During a portion of the years 1839-41 , the writer, 

 as a boy, got an experience of life on the ocean in 

 New Bedford whalers (two of them). Though a boy, 

 I was noted for ' seeing every thing.' Being between 

 decks one day, whilst the vessel was lying to in a 

 storm, I observed, that, with every lea-lurch, the 

 weather- seams opened, and let in the daylight and 

 frequently much water. It seemed to me a danger- 

 ous conditiou, and I hastened to report to the officer 

 'of the deck,' 'on deck,' or 'of the watch.' He 

 only laughed at me, and told me to rig the pump and 

 pump her out, if I thought she was sinking. He said, 

 '' The way they make a whaler is to buy a worn-out 

 merchantman, put a new deck on and new sticks 

 in her, and send her out as a new vessel ; and you 

 know what the Bible says about putting new and old 

 together ? Well, it oftens happens in such cases that 

 the old hull sinks, and the deck and spars sail on as 

 though nothing had happened Oh ! we get used to 

 that." 



That I knew to be 'a yarn ; ' but when I saw a 

 ' merchantman ' laboring in a sea that was not very 

 bad for a whaler, and learned that the life of a 

 ' merchantman ' was much shorter than a whaler's, I 

 wanted to know why, for it seemed to me that there 

 must be a reason for it. I found, for one thing, that 

 whalers always made better weather than merchant- 

 men, when they were in company ; that seas would 

 not break in our wake, that would in the wake of a 

 merchantman ; that the wake of a whaler was per- 

 sistent, whilst that of a merchantman was rather 

 evanescent ; and that placid waters, or ' short seas,' 

 are the rule on 'cruising ground,' when whales are 

 about. All ' whalers ' have their decks, at times, 

 reeking with oil ; and, although the decks are 

 ' cashed down' daily, it takes a great many wash- 

 ings to free them from all the oil ; and much that 

 goes out of the scuppers clings to the sides of the 

 vessel to be gradually washed off by the sea. 



A little oil goes a great way on a car- wheel to 

 relieve friction, and it does in that case what it does 

 on water in a storm. I think rain acts in the same 

 way in beating down waves. The drops roll to land- 



