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concluded they all belonged to one and the same period, either to Upper Pliocene or Post Pliocene. Strong objections were raised as to the soundness of the species by Professor Busk, especially to Stegodon, Hyæna, and Rhinoceros; it was also objected by Professor Boyd Dawkins, that there was no proof of their contemporaneity. These teeth, which are extremely various, are sold by the Chinese apothecaries as a very valuable medicine when pounded to a powder. They are described by Mr. Daniel Hanbury in his account of the Chinese Materia Medica.

Mr. Hanbury mentions that Mr. Waterhouse, of the British Museum, has determined the following species:-Molars of the lower jaw of Rhinoceros tichorhinus, tooth of Mastodon ; of Elephas insignis (?); molars of Equus; teeth of Hippotherium (two species?); teeth of sheep, stag, bear.*

They are said to come from the provinces of Shen-si and Shan-si, but the demand for them is so great that they are believed to be largely imported from the East Indies, and notably from Borneo.

Mr. Sharp's paper, "On the Oolites of Northampton," is principally of importance because of the recent discovery in this district of vast bands of ironstone, the economic quarrying of which has yielded a characteristic fauna with a decidedly Inferior Oolite facies, in beds which had been mapped as Great Oolite ("Northampton Sands") by the Geological Survey, and in which—until quite recently not a trace of a fossil remain was known to exist.

Mr. Sharp has carefully described the district illustrating his observations by numerous sections and a good sketch-map of its geology, together with lists and localities of the fossils he has been so successful in obtaining. As a rider to the paper, Dr. Wright describes a new and very finely-preserved star-fish (Stellaster Sharpii), from the ironstone of the Inferior Oolite, Northampton.

Mr. J. W. Judd, of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, has devoted much time and attention to the Neocomian strata of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and their correlation with those of north-western Germany and elsewhere. He now gives us the result of his studies, carefully prepared and illustrated with maps, sections, and tables. The Neocomian beds of Yorkshire, &c., appear to be the extreme westerly development of a great mass of strata of the same age stretching over a wide area in Northern Europe. It is also seen that in Yorkshire and in Brunswick the Neocomian series is complete, but in the intermediate districts its lowest member is absent, being replaced by the fresh-water deposits of the German Wealden.

Mr. Ralph Tate supplies two papers, on the Middle Lias in Ireland, and the Lower and Middle Lias in Gloucestershire. No higher member of the Jurassic series is known in Ireland than the

*Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society,' 1860.

Lower Lias. The Middle Lias occurs as drift on cultivated fields, &c. Mr. Tate suggests that this drift may have been transported from the Hebrides by glacial action. In the case of Gloucestershire, Mr. Tate endeavoured to apply the numerical test as to the distribution of organic remains in order to show that the zone of Ammonites Jamesoni belongs to the Middle Lias, and A. raricostatus to the Lower Lias. For the present it is exceedingly difficult to follow these minute divisions until more of their contained fossils have been identified and figured.

In addition to these, we have abstract notices of the Crag of Norfolk and Associated Beds, by J. Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S. Captain S. Hyde on Deep-mining in S.W. Ireland. Dr. E. Bunzel on a Reptilian Skull from Grünbach. Mr. R. J. Lechmere Guppy on Trinidad Fossils. M. Coumbary on the Fall of an Aerolite in Fezzan. Dr. A. A. Caruana on a further discovery of Fossil Elephants in Malta. The Journal is a very stout one, numbering 468 pp. and having fourteen lithographic plates.

8. METEOROLOGY.

THE Meteorological Office has issued Part I. of its new publication, The Quarterly Weather Report,' for the first three months of 1869. The chief features of novelty presented by this Report are the fac-simile representations of the curves of the self-recording instruments. It should be stated that the preparation of plates such as those referred to has been rendered possible by an invention of Mr. Francis Galton's. This is a pantagraph which is capable of effecting reductions simultaneously in different proportions along two rectangular co-ordinates. The proportions selected for the plates have been for the horizontal or time scale, and the vertical scale. By this means all the information for five days from the seven observatories is condensed into the space of two 4to plates, one for the barograms and wet and dry bulb thermograms, the other for the wind and rain. Scales on both the British and metrical systems are given at each side, so that the readings of the barometers and thermometers may be determined for any epoch. For the wind the scales are in statute and geographical miles.

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The letter-press consists of (1) an introduction containing some general remarks, especially on the difficulty of obtaining trustworthy records of wind at land stations; (2) the Report itself, which is a chronicle of the weather for the three months, derived from all sources which were available to the office, with tabular statistics of storms; (3) the tables for the year 1869, giving the monthly and the five-day means of various elements, derived from the hourly tabulated readings of the instruments.

In the appendix Mr. Scott has given a notice of some late easterly storms, which is an attempt to classify them and possibly discover traces of their origin. The number of storms investigated is only twenty-five, evidently far too few to allow of important deductions being drawn, but some very interesting facts come out in the discussion, and we hope that the paper may be followed by others of a similar statistical character.

The price of the Report is very moderate, being only 5s. a number. It is published by Stanford.

The Third Annual Report of the Committee has also lately appeared. It shows steady progress in the three departments of the operations of the office-Ocean Meteorology, Storm Warnings, and Land Meteorology of these islands. With regard to the last of these we regret to see that Dr. Stewart has found himself obliged to resign his position as Secretary to the Committee. His services in organizing the system of self-recording observation has been of extreme value to the cause of meteorology in England.

In Part II. of the Report we have the description of some new instruments Mr. Galton's Pantagraph, above noticed; Beckley's Self-registering Rain-gauge, which is to be introduced at all the observatories; and Dr. Miller's Deep-sea Thermometer, to which we have alluded in a previous number.

The last number of the Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society' is mainly occupied with a paper by Mr. D. Milne Home, Suggestions for Increasing the Supply of Spring Water at Malta, &c." In our notice of the last paper by the same author, in No. XXV. of this Journal, we said, "The paper consists of a series of extracts from the reports of various observers," and the same words will apply exactly to that now under consideration. Mr. Home in his remarks suggests the old and well-known remedy for local drought, viz. extensive plantations. It seems rather a pity that when the Society, as we learn from another part of the journal, is endeavouring to obtain funds from the Government, any portion of its means should be expended in publishing papers on foreign, or at least colonial, meteorology.

In our last number we noticed Dr. R. Angus Smith's paper "On the Detection and Estimation of the Impurities of Air, by the Analysis of Rain Water, and by Washing Bottles of Air." His Sixth Report, as Alkali Inspector under the Board of Trade, has just appeared, and contains much valuable information on the subject, which is, however, too foreign to meteorology to require further notice here.

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Mr. Blanford, Meteorological Reporter to the Government of Bengal, has published a paper in the Journal of the Asiatic Society,' "On the Relations of Irregularities of Barometrical Pressure to the Monsoon Rainfall of 1868-9," He finds that in both

years an area of relative depression existed in Lower Bengal which took its rise at the beginning of the south-west monsoon in April. "Its position was different in the two years, being in the former in the north-west corner of the Bay of Bengal, in the latter in the hilly country to the west of the Delta. It influenced the vapourbearing winds from the south by deflecting them towards it; and necessarily, by determining an ascending current, it produced an excessive rainfall to the north of its position, the maximum fall being at from 50 to 150 miles distance from the place where the barometer was lowest. Finally, it impeded the passage of the vapour-bearing winds to the north-west provinces, and thus deprived that region of a great part of its usual annual supply."

Considering the extreme importance to India of the periodical rainfall, papers like this of Mr. Blanford's are of great value and interest.

The Third Annual Report of Mr. Blanford's office has also appeared; it shows a steady progress in the way of systematic organization of the various observing stations in Bengal. We may now hope that the example shown by this Presidency will soon be followed in the other districts of Hindostan.

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M. Harold Tarry has published notices of the fall of red rain in Italy on various occasions. The papers first appeared in the 'Bulletin of the Association Scientifique,' and then in the Comptes Rendus.' His object is to prove that the occurrence is due to previous dust-storms in the desert of Sahara, and not to the advent of cosmical dust from the regions of space, as Arago and Quetelet formerly maintained. He has examined three recent instances of the phenomenon, viz. March 10, 1869, March 24, 1869, February 14, 1870. He says that the sequence of circumstances is the same in all cases. A barometrical depression and a storm advances from north to south across western Europe to Africa, where the sand of the Sahara is set in motion in clouds of dust. A few days subsequently a reverse action takes place: a storm advances from Africa to the south of Europe, carrying the dust with it, which comes to the earth with the rain.

The paper is very interesting, but we must say that M. Tarry has not quite proved his case as yet.

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The later numbers of the Journal of the Austrian Meteorological Society' do not contain much that is suitable for extraction for this Chronicle. The editors have adopted the practice of giving abstracts of meteorological data from isolated stations, and these cannot be rendered intelligible without the insertion of a large amount of tabular matter. The districts for which such inforınation is afforded are very various. M. Rayet's paper "On the Meteorology of the Isthmus of Suez" is reproduced, in abstract, from the Atlas Météorologique' for 1868. Then follow several papers by M. Wojeikoff "On the Meteorology of Russia," which he

has compiled from various disconnected registers of local observations for short periods lying at the observatory of St. Petersburgh. The stations are very widely distributed over Europe and Asia.

The Report of the Central Physical Observatory, by Prof. H. Wild, the Director, consists mainly of an account of the condition of the observatory, and a catalogue and description of instruments. As no report had been published since 1864 it was necessary to take stock, and to publish the account for the information of the Russian public. The only matter of general interest is that Prof. Wild appears to have finally decided not to employ photographic selfrecording instruments at the normal stations, owing to their serious initial cost and the expense and trouble of working them.

Dr. Prestel, of Emden, has published a pamphlet entitled 'Der Sturmwarner,' in which he commences by discussing the facts of storms, and the possibility of giving telegraphic intelligence of their approach. On reading this part of the paper we are disappointed to find that Dr. Prestel has not made himself acquainted with the latest facts of the subject. The principle of his storm-warner is similar to that of Piddington's horn circles.

He makes four assumptions.

I. That the barometrical reading at the centre of the storm is 28.78 ins. on the mean.

II. That the wind blows in circles round it.

III. That the diameter of the storm is nearly constant. IV. That the difference between barometrical readings for a given distance in all parts of the storm, or the " gradient," is constant.

If these four postulates be granted, the use of the transparent diagram is perfectly simple and intelligible, but as there is no foundation for any one of them, the whole reasoning falls to the ground.

Another book the utility of which we fail to discover, although it has been favourably noticed in some newspapers, is 'The Wind in his Circuits,' by Lieut. R. H. Armit, R.N.

The author proposes to subvert Maury's theory of the wind by facts drawn from his own experience. A few examples will suffice to show the character of his arguments. The italics are his:-

"The trade winds are very damp moist winds, heavily charged with vapour: every cubic inch of them containing millions upon millions of minute globules of water. On entering the equatorial calm belt, the process these globules undergo is simply that of being turned into steam.'

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"The easterly wind is formed of compressed vapour or steam.Ӡ "Lightning and thunder are caused by the Arctic current' descending to fill any vacuum that may suddenly be formed in the warm currents below it. The Arctic current' in rushing down would grate against the sides of the warm air of the under

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