Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/148

 144 Japan, on the underground temperature at Nagoya and Osaka and on the thermal conductivity of snow. Among the papers officially published by the Central Meteorological Observatory are 'Typhoon of September 13-14, 1881'; 'Typhoon of September 26-27, 1881'; 'Forms of Clouds'; 'Some Researches on Agricultural Meteorology'; 'Typhoon Tracks in Japan'; 'Low Pressure in Japan'; 'Normal Pressure, Temperature and Rainfall in Japan,' etc. Since 1880 the Central Meteorological Observatory and some provincial stations have made several meteorological expeditions to high mountains in various parts of Japan to investigate the atmospheric phenomena and processes in the high strata. The results of these investigations have been published in several volumes. There may be, besides, many important meteorological papers and books written in Japanese that have not come to the notice of the present writer, who has been absent from the country for many years.

The preceding paragraphs show how excellent is the work that Japan is doing for the progress of theoretical as well as practical meteorology. A glance at a map of the Orient will clearly show how serious and difficult a matter it is to predict weather in Japan. Japan stands under the direct influences of the Pacific Ocean and the Asiatic continent, and also of the tropical and polar ocean currents, so that meteorological as well as climatic conditions in Japan are very complex. Very often a continental cyclone and a typhoon which, of course, comes from the tropics, pass through Japan simultaneously, thus bringing complexities to the weather. In spite of all these difficulties, storm tracks and other meteorological conditions have been very carefully investigated and the daily predictions that issue from the Central Meteorological Observatory are said to be most trustworthy. Our meteorological service has recently extended to Korea and China. Under the charge of Professor Y. Wada, five stations have just been completed in Korea, the Chemulpo Meteorological Observatory being the center of the system. Several stations have been established in Manchuria, and it is said that a large magneto-meteorological observatory is now planned to be established in Pekin by the government of Japan. As the writer has already described in Science (July 28, 1905), the establishment of the Mt. Tsukuba Meteorological Observatory by His Imperial Highness Prince Yamashina is another great advance. All these material items together with the alertness and native ability of Japanese meteorologists give assurance that she will make great contributions to the dynamics and physics of the earth's atmosphere and to the allied sciences in general.