Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/523

 1899.] SCIENCE. 99

of one foot ie slightly higher than that of the air, the difference in the summer amounting to about 3°.

Dr. van Bebber suggests a new means of weather prediction. Ig- noring the vagaries of low-pressure systems, he deals with persistent anticyclones, and defines their laws.

On January 12 a cyclone of unusual energy passed over the British Isles, taking forecasters by surprise, and moving at a rate of thirty-four miles an hour. In the north-west of Ireland the force of the wind reached to 12 of the Beaufort scale, which is equivalent to ninety miles an hour, or " that which no canvas can withstand."

On August 7 a destructive hurricane swept the Island of Montserrat, West Indies. It appears to have originated on August 3, in latitude 11° 61' N., and longitude 36° 42' W., or farther east than any tropical storm hitherto recorded. During the week August 24-30, it remained almost stationary in mid-Atlantic, traversed the Azores on September 3, touched Brest on September 7, and Corsica on September 9. Its full period was thirty-six days.

The outflow of lava from Vesuvius became on January 16 somewhat alarming, as it approached the lower station of the funicular railway, and passed along by the observatory.

An earthquake occurred in Mexico on January 24. It lasted three minutes, and more than two hundred buildings were seriously dam- aged. On January 26 severe earthquakes were felt throughout Greece. Houses were destroyed at Philiatra and Kyparissia, and some damage was experienced at Corinth, Megara, Tripolitza, Sparta, Gythium, Patras and Pyrgos. Professor Milne's instruments, in the Isle of Wight, were shaken at 8h. 24m. 66s. on that morning.

It has been pointed out that the greatest volcanic eruptions on Hawaii have occurred at times of minimum sunspots. It could not, then, have been unexpected that on July 4 the crater on the peak of Mauna Loa burst into violent action.

On July 19 Etna suddenly threw to a height of three miles an enor- mous mass ot vapour, lapilli, stones and scoriae. On their descent, wooden flooring was burnt and straw set on fire, and holes a foot in diameter were made in the observatory roof. The eruption was accom- panied by no perceptible movement of the earth, and at Catania, eighteen miles off, the seismograph was unaffected.

On the same day (July 19) Rome was damaged by an earthquake. The shock, which lasted twelve seconds, was most felt at Frascati and Marino. Dr. Baratta attributes it to a seismic activity in the Alban Hills.

On September 20 many lives were lost and much property destroyed by an earthquake in Asia Minor ; and on the 27th severe shocks, even more calamitous, occurred at Darjeeling.

On September 30 there was a destructive earthquake in the Moluccas ; and on October 12 one of a violent character shook the Island of Ceram, in the Dutch East Indies, killed 4,000 persons, and utterly ruined the town of Amhei.

Dr. Omori, Professor of Seismology at the Imperial University of Tokio, as a result of his observation of Japanese earthquakes, has pub-

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