Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/394

 [Vol. v..

��I

��ot Coffin's great work on the wiiiJs uf llie globe, i» one o[ Ihu moat Inditstrioua, as well as one of the beat, writers among the modern meteorologlats. He baa lately published a good-sized vohime on cllina- ^^"SJi 'n Russian, from which a sample chapter on the Influence of forests is translated In ft recent snmber of J'eiermann'ji iniUkeIttin;jen, to wbleh we sball shortly refer. Besides this, the Genoui and Austrian joumala of meteorology contain frequent contrlhutions from his study devoted largely to Ibe diaeiiasion of the climate of llie eaalern dominions of Bussia. Among these, that on the clluiale of East Siberia contains many facta of interest, especially In relation to tba eniremes of winter cold observed at Yakutsk and other low inland stations, where the arersge January temperature is close about the freen- Ing-polnt of mercury. It is found that the exceaalre cold that eharoclerizes the long, clear, quiet winter nights of that region ia most severe in the low val- leys, while the elevated stations have u distinctly milder winter, although still surely cold enough; ao that at this season the air is generally warmer at a moderate altitude above the earth than at its surface. This Inversion from the normal decrease of tempera- ture vertically, had already been inferred by Ilann to be a characteristic of the cold season of coutlnental Interiors, but its best observational proof is now given by Woelfcof. It results directly from the ease with which the land cools by excessive radiation in win- ter, while the air which is slower to lose Its warmth departs less from its average annual temperature. An example of a similar condition in this country Is given in an account of the cold island in Michigan, by Alexander, In a late number of the American tMteorokigical Journal.

���Mlllot, secretary of the Meteorological commission ot Hear the- et-Moaelle, describes In L' Aatronomit some very singular clouds which he observed in the morning of Dec. 18, ISS2. directly after a raiu-slorm and severe aqual! from the west. Scattered equally throughout the pallio-cumulus rain-clouda were hemispherical grayish poc'icelji alightly elongated, which Mlllot calls giobo-cuniulus clouds. They are repreaeuled in the accompanying cuL

Eltert, in hla paper on cloudiness In central Eu- rope, presents atalistici of cloudineas from three

��hundred and nineteen stations scattered generally throughout western Europe between latitudes 319^ and 00", and longitudes 4" and iMV, The sUtlons range in height from near sea-level up to nearly nine thousand feet above. The periods of ol>aervation vary from one year to forty or more, and few stations have been occupied for a leas period than three yean. Stalistici ot the monthly, seasoual, and annual per- centages of cloudiness are given for all these stations, showing a mean percentage of cloudiness in central Europe, in winter, of dB; in spring, of 6H; In summer, of 55; and in autumn, of S4. The mean of the year Is 62 %■ Over the greater part of the area under discussion, the maximum of cloudiness is reached in winter, and the minimum in summer; but in the alpine region these conditions are reversed, while in the low region of Holland and Belgium the maximum Is in apring, and the minimum in the autumn. The distribution ot the annual cloudiness shows little appearance of design, further than the general fact that cloudiness is more general in the northern than in the southern part of the area. The general tables are succeeded by discussions concerning the relations of relative humidity and of the direction of the wind to degree of clcmdiiiess, and of the relative proportions of cloudiness at different times of the day. The paper Is ilUiKtrated by m.iips and dii^rama.

��The origin and growth of the present Rus- siao empire are iotimatelj connected with the tioursea of the great rivers of Rngsia. Between the White Sea nud the Foutiia KoxinuB, the Baltic and the Caspian seas, the country, total- ly devoid or dominating elevations, bears the ciuiracter of an extensive lowland, stretching towards the south. Orograpliically it may be considered as the continuation of the plains of central Asia, with which it is connected. Over this tract of land various Slavonic tril>es, the present Russians, have been spreading at a more or less rapid rate, especially in a south- eastern direction. Subjugating those who of- fered resistance, they ever remembered the words, ' to conquer, or to perish,' — the proud device of Swiitosloff, their first great leader. [Inlike the bloodthirsty Asiatic warriors, them- selves an agricultural people, they were the bearers of civilization, whether they moved toward the north, east, or south. In some directions their progress necessarily had to be slow; but it has steadily been going on for the past two thousand yearn.

ReUi tier ru^HteAeii ottantlltcAa/l In A/iiXaniilan uvi Bu-

- - )?S-T»,vonDr.J.L.J.wuB

���� �