finds that both the southeast and northwest storms experienced at that place are much modified by the influence of the Alps. The southeast, or föhn, wind has, at all seasons and at all points, a notably high temperature, the exception. only being in the three summer months, in which the föhn decidedly depresses the temperature. In the winter and summer the temperatures of the southeast and northwest storms are nearly the same, but in the spring and fall the southeast are decidedly warmer than the northwest storms. In the high southeast winds the air is clear and dry, but in the northwest cloudy and moist.

ON ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE, WINDS AND RAIN.

A recent supplementary volume of Dr. Petermann's geographical notes gives us a comprehensive memoir on our present knowledge of the atmospheric circulation by Dr. A. Wojeikof, which is accompanied with highly interesting and valuable charts; the last of the charts gives us a new view of the distribution of rain over the earth, in that it distinguishes between the areas of summer and winter rains, besides giving us the results of the most recent investigations as to the general distribution of the rain-belts of the earth. In general, Dr. Wojeikof finds that between the poles and 40° of latitude the rainfall is liable to occur at all seasons of the year, the variations being seasonal in their nature. Thus Siberia and British America receive most of their rains in the summer time; Great Britain, Norway, France, and Portugal receive their rains in the fall. Between these polar regions and the rainless zone of the trade-winds Wojcikof introduces belts of sub-tropical rains, which are, he thinks, essentially oceanic, while the polar rain-belts are essentially continental. In considering the distribution of rain in Siberia, he states a law which, verified by independent observations, is a remarkable confirmation of a theoretical deduction due to Mr. Ferrell. According to Dr. Wojeikof, the atmospheric pressure in winter in the higher latitudes is lower over those seas that have no connected ice-fields. According to Mr. Ferrell, the pressure in the polar regions of the earth is lower in proportion as we diminish the frictional and other resistances offered by the earth to the movement of the air. If, therefore, the resistance offered by fields of ice is sensibly greater than

those offered by the open sea, or small ice-floes, then Professor Ferrell's proposition explains at once Dr. Wojeikof's generalization.-Petermann's Mittheil., Ergänzungsh., No. 38.

THE IMPORTANCE OF METEOROLOGY.

The annual report of the Radcliffe Observatory, delivered at Oxford, June 29, states that the principal labors at that institution continue, as formerly, to be given to the transit circle and the heliometer, and that the meteorological observations made at that observatory are reduced much more elaborately than is done at the greater number of astronomical observatories, and are presented to the public in the most scientific shape that they admit of. "I am also of the opinion that they are worthy of the labor which is bestowed upon them, and I differ in opinion from some eminent authors as to the rank which meteorology already occupies among the physical sciences. At all events, I think a similar system. of reduction should be employed at other observatories."

SECULAR CHANGES OF CLIMATE.

"The Indications of Spring" is the title of a work communicated to the Royal Society, in 1789, by Mr. Robert Marsham. These indications were based upon observations, commencing in the year 1736, by Robert Marsham, and which were continued until 1812 by his descendants of the same name. The record was again begun in 1836, and continued until the present time by the Rev. H. P. Marsham. This record of one hundred and forty years which we owe to the Marsham family has preserved innumerable notes in reference to botanical and other natural-history phenomena, and, for a greater portion of the time, the record was very full and careful, the first Mr. Marsham being an observant naturalist, and exceedingly fond of rural pursuits. An analysis of these observations has recently been presented by Thomas Southwell to the Naturalist Society of Norfolk and Norwich, who states that, as it has often been stated that "our old-fashioned winters have departed," and that the springs have become later, he has sought to test the question by taking the average days of the occurrence of twenty-five different phenomena indicative of the seasons during the years 1763 to 1774 inclusive. He did the same with the ten years ending

1874, and finds that the average date corresponding to the whole twenty-five phenomena is, for the eighteenth century, April 7, and for the nineteenth century March 28, showing that the springs are now nine days earlier than they were one hundred years ago. These dates are based respectively upon 196 and 181 observations; and it is not probable that the difference is owing to any fault of observing, but it is possibly due to drainage or cultivation. The extreme variability even of the English climate is illustrated by the range in the dates of certain phenomena. Thus, turnips are reported in flower December 25, 1846, and May 14, 1784. The wood-anemone was observed in flower March 9, 1775, and April 30, 1837. The average range of phenomena noted by Mr. Marsham is about seventy days.- Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalist Society, 1875, 46.

METEOROLOGY IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

The private observatory of Mr. John Tebbutt, of Windsor, New South Wales, contributes to the meteorology of that part of the world a volume of observations made from 1867 to 1870, which observations have been recorded regularly at 9 A.M., and are supplemented by the records of self-registering maximum and minimum thermometers. The geographical position of the observatory has been determined by an extended series of observations of moon-culminating stars for longitude, and by observations in the prime vertical for latitude. The observatory is also connected by telegraph with the Sydney Observatory, which has, until recently, been under the directorship of Rev. W. Scott. The observatory of Mr. Tebbutt is situated on a hill near the centre of the peninsula at the eastern extremity of the town of Windsor. It is about 28 miles from the sea-coast on the east, and about 8 miles from the Blue Mountains on the west, and is surrounded by the forest except in its immediate neighborhood, where the soil has been cleared and cultivated for more than fifty years. Many of the meteorological instruments used in these observations were made in Sydney; others were brought from England, where they had been carefully compared with accepted standards. From the tables given in this volume of observations, it appears that the total amount of rain, as measured at Windsor, has been, in 1867, 44 inches;

in 1868, 27 inches; in 1869, 32.6 inches; in 1870, 62.5 inches. The evaporation from a basin of water, stationed seven feet above ground, amounted, in 1867, to 82.5 inches; in 1868, to 75.6 inches; in 1869, to 75.9 inches; and in 1870, to 60 inches. But the evaporation from a similar basin placed on the ground is about one half of these amounts. The highest average barometric pressures occur in April, May, June, and July, and the lowest average pressures occur in December and January. The highest temperature of the air recorded. by the thermometer shaded from the direct rays of the sun occur in December and January, and reached, in 1867, 113°; in 1868, 113.6°; in 1869, 108°; and in 1870, 112.5°. The lowest temperatures recorded by the minimum thermometers shaded from the influence of radiation at night occur in July and August, and were, in 1867, 29.7°; in 1868, 24.8°; in 1869, 29.5; and in 1870, 29.6°.-Meteorolog. Observations by John Tebbutt, Sydney, 1874.

CARBONIC-ACID GAS IN THE AIR.

According to experiments that have been made by many chemists since the discovery of carbonic-acid gas, a larger per cent. of this substance is found in the atmosphere in the summer than in the winter, in the proportion of 71 to 48. Boussingault found that, out of ten thousand volumes of air, 31% were carbonic-acid gas during the day, and 4 during the night. Peligot having calculated the quantity of carbonicacid gas that must result from the burning of oil and coal, from various industrial operations as well as natural phenomena, shows that there must be a large compensation, such that the gas produced by one class of operations is decomposed by another; so that it happens that the proportion of the gas in the atmosphere remains nearly constant, at least at the surface of the ground. The recent balloon ascensions in France have undertaken to determine the rate at which the quantity of gas varies with our ascent in the air. According to the experiments that had previously been made upon mountains, the proportion of gas diminishes slightly with the ascent in the air; but balloon ascensions have the special advantage that the observer is, by the balloon, carried far above the influence of the soil. The results of the first of the recent voyages in the "Zenith" gave, for carbonic-acid

gas at 800 meters' altitude, 24 parts out of 100,000; and at 1000 meters, 30 parts out of 100,000. The difference between the two figures is the limit of the errors of observation.-13 B., III., 333.

EARTHQUAKE IN THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK, DECEMBER 10, 1874.

On the 10th of December, 1874, an earthquake was felt in the neighborhood of New York, especially near Yonkers. It has formed the subject of study by the New York Lyceum of Natural History. From a report made to the Lyceum by Professor D. S. Martin, it appears that exact observations could not be obtained sufficient to give a definite basis for any physical investigation; showing, we may remark, forcibly, as is shown in a thousand other ways, the importance of having a uniform standard time, which shall replace the innumerable erroneous local times adopted in every portion of our country. Had each of Professor Martin's observers possessed a time-keeper set to correct time, he would have been able to add much of interest to our knowledge of the nature of this earthquake. In general, he states that the shock was felt from near Fishkill, southward, eighty miles, to Sandy Hook, and in an east and west direction from Morristown, New Jersey, eastward, sixty miles, to Stamford, Connecticut. The movement was felt far more strongly and frequently on rocky than on soft ground. In the main, the shocks seem to have been limited by the Highlands of New York and New Jersey. In only one case was the shock reported as felt on the water, which was by a schooner in the harbor of New Rochelle.

VOLCANOES IN ICELAND AND ASH-SHOWERS IN NORWAY.

A series of interesting volcanic phenomena has been, for some time past, in progress in Iceland, outbreaks having occurred from January to April. The eruption was steadily spreading over the wilderness, and so large a district of the surrounding country has been covered with ashes that the farmers have been obliged to remove, in order to find pasture for their stock. The eruption from the principal crater takes place through a fissure, from which the molten red-hot lava is thrown two or three hundred feet into the air, in one