frequency of storms, probable width of their paths, rainfall and snow, wind velocities and the principal direction of winds. I feel certain that a close study of the U. S. Weather maps which show storm conditions over much of North America and of other data over a period of several years, would result in some marked improvement in construction that would be well rewarded in the operation of the line.

The system operators of various connecting lines should make use of the forecasts by their district meteorologists, observe all meteorological disturbances arising in their respective vicinities, and discover whether these disturbances parallel or traverse their lines. The chief load dispatcher should be informed of conditions, so that sufficient equipment can be put in service to carry the load in case a line becomes affected, for an interruption to service due to line trouble must be avoided, even though the cost of operating spare equipment during storm threatening periods does affect the operating ratios.-Nathan Hetler, Engineer, Williams, Ind.

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

The annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Meteorology Section, May 1, 1925, included a number of interesting discussions looking forward in meteorology. First Dr. H. H. Kimball told of the Madrid meeting (report published in Mo. Weather Rev.), then Dr. W. J. Humphreys discussed, "Details for obtaining samples of air from great altitudes. Dr. R. H. Goddard's rocket experiments and plans were looked upon most hopefully.

Mr. E. B. Calvert, Chief of the Forecast Division, U. S. Weather Bureau, outlined, "The possibility of broadcasting meteorological observations from the Pacific and Japan in Europe, through the co-operation of France and the United States." One of Mr. Calvert's most interesting points was that radio had practically supplanted other means for collecting and disseminating reports in some countries, but not in the United States. European countries, e. g., with their numerous national telegraph systems find radio much more convenient. Radio broadcasting as well as wire telegraphy, however, is extensively used in the United States. Radio broadcasting of weather reports is carried on over much of the world, but it is difficult to make a world-wide system. The American receipts of radio weather reports from ships at sea are now very considerable. In 1924 over 31,000 were received in about equal numbers, from the Atlantic and Pacific.

Mr. W. R. Gregg told of "Meteorological observations by airplane." Numerous weather observations were made by airplane during the war, and the British Meteorological Office continued daily observation by airplane after the war. The usual height attained is 3 km. (about 10,000 feet). In the United States, a series of observations, principally of visibility, dust content, clouds and temperature, were made at Washington, D. C., and the results of flight observations at San Francisco have

been used in Weather Bureau forecasts. Mr. Gregg mentioned the arrangements being made for daily flights at Washington, which have since begun. He hoped flights would also be made at other places. If such methods of obtaining data became well established and proved satisfactory they might supplant the use of kites. The data from airplanes are immediately available for forecasting purposes, while those from kite flights are not available till the kite is pulled down. Furthermore, the airplane is usable in more kinds of weather than is the kite.

Prof. C. F. Marvin discussed, "A form of simplified calendar." The first step in calendar reform, the fixing of Easter, has already been undertaken at an international meeting. Prof. Marvin was hopeful of further reforms, and told of the great convenience of a 28-day month. In the discussion, one of the difficulties with the fixed calendar proposed was shown to be the occasional 8-day week. Dr. Abbot pointed to the long period during which the 7-day week had been used, and how fundamental it had become in people's lives. Mr. Clayton proposed that we have running series of consecutive means by 7 days. Prof. Marvin, said, however, the work of doing this for 204 stations would be very great.

Prof. A. J. Henry discussed the replies from U. S. Weather Bureau forecasters in response to the request of the Union for a "statement of the scientific principles on which the forecasts for September 26, 1923, for each country were based. Prof. Henry pointed out that each forecaster recognized in the pressure distribution on the date in questionthe position and intensity of cyclones and anticyclones-the dominant control of the weather of the ensuing 24 to 36 hours and it was further pointed out that the day selected, September 26, 1923, was not calculated to bring out either precepts or principles of weather forecasting in the United States not already well known. The suggestion was made that several dates in the cold season would better serve to bring out, so far as possible, just the mental processes that lead to the forecasts issued. It appeared desirable to have such sampling, in order to follow present day deviations from the previously printed rules and principles.

Mr. H. H. Clayton concluded the meeting with a discussion of "The influence of solar changes on the earth's atmosphere." His summary of this paper was published in the July BULLETIN.

A BAROMETER WELL IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER BASALT Barometer wells have frequently been reported from sedimentary rocks, but no occurrence in igneous rock that has been reported is known to the writer, so a note about the phenomenon may be in order. A well about 600 feet deep was drilled for the city water works at Cheney, Washington, in the summer of 1924. It is not yet connected to the water mains, but will be shortly. When a burlap sack is tied over the open end of the casing increased gas pressure inside makes the cloth bulge out before a storm or high wind. After the storm has passed the cloth is neu

tral or even pressed in. The gas is non-combustible and seems to be nothing but air. The well is drilled through the Columbia basalt to the underlying Pre-Cambrian crystalline rocks above which the water is found. The basalt is highly fractured and pumaceous. In fact so many openings exist in the lava that the present well used by the City of Cheney is so contaminated by surface drainage that the water is chlorinated before use, although the well is over 600 feet deep. The numerous openings act as an air reservoir and when the atmospheric pressure is high in fair weather the air can descend through the well and collect underground to again emerge when the air pressure decreases before a storm.-O. W. Freeman, State Normal School, Cheney Wash.

An Introduction to Economic Geography

Vol. 1. By WELLINGTON D. JONES and DERWENT S. WHITTLESEY. 374 pp., 366 figs., 6 maps, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1925. $5 net. The purpose of the book is "to establish the fundamental principles of economic geography through a study of actual conditions in many parts of the earth." Volume I takes the elements of the natural environment with a view to distinguishing type. With each type, whether it be of climate, land form, or some other element of natural environment, the purpose is to determine (1) characteristics, (2) regional distribution, and (3) economic significance.

More than one-third of the book is given over to climate and its effect on human activities. The textual Part II includes about fifty well chosen quotations on different kinds of climate in various parts of the world, with a study of how people live under those conditions. The unusual arrangement of this book from the systematic outline and quotations of Part I, to the textual material of Part II, and pictures and diagrams of Part III, makes the book a very valuable addition to the reference library for any course on climatology.

NOTES

Monthly summaries of the weather and its effect on crops in the United States are now being issued promptly in the Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin. The first of such summaries, that for September, and also a detailed statement of the weather for the first nine months of 1925, was published in the issue for October 6, 1925.

A new and interesting daily weather map is being issued by the San Francisco office of the Weather Bureau, Major E. H. Bowie, in charge, giving conditions and forecasts for the Pacific coast. The map shows the western half of the United States and the Pacific west to about 160° West Long. There is a very liberal plotting of stations all through the west, especially on the coast, with oceanic conditions reported from vessel weather stations on shipboard. Under the forecasts is included a "Shippers' Forecast" for land shipments. Such a map as this should be of great value, not only to business men and farmers of the coast, but to those making meteorological studies of or in the region.

The addresses on various aspects of "Weather and its Relation to Forest Fires" before the American Meteorological Society at Portland,

June 17-20, 1925, have been published as an "Advance Fire-Weather Edition" of The Timberman, July 15, 1925, vol. 26.

Meteorology is benefiting from the new research Milton Fund of Harvard University. Among the first awards was one to "Alexander George McAdie, Abbott Lawrence Rotch professor of meteorology and director of the Blue Hill Observatory; for one year, to provide necessary equipment and services of an expert mechanic to permit Professor McAdie to make at Blue Hill Observatory researches upon the general problem of the dust content of free air and the special problem of the behavior of water vapor in free air during thunderstorms, which are part of a general study of atmospheric pollution."

Probably the best source of information on climate and its effects on health is the Surgeon General's Library at Washington, D. C. To this library in 1922, the Prudential Insurance Company made an unconditional gift of the public health, medical and scientific sections of its library. This collection of books, documents and data is estimated to represent about ninety per cent of the entire public health material for the civilized world, representing between fifty and one hundred thousand volumes and publications.

Through the Russian Information Bureau, located at 2819 Connecticut Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C., an opportunity is offered of contact between institutions, groups and individuals of the Soviet Union and those of other countries, through the exchange of scientific periodical and non-periodical publications. It would be possible to arrange a personal exchange of papers between scientists engaged in similar research activities.

The latest 3-cup type of anemometer, recently agreed on by the Canadian and United States weather services as the most accurate and practicable standard, is gradually coming into use in the United States. During the summer, Mr. C. E. Lord installed one on the Old Colony Trust Company in Boston, and another on his home in Newton, Mr. H. B. Newhall placed one on his home in northern New Jersey, and Clark University erected one in Worcester, Mass. Mr. Lord's anemometers flash their movements in the center of a wind direction dial inside the building. Mr. Newhall's anemometer is connected with a device of his own invention which shows wind velocities directly in miles per hour. That at Clark University, modified from the old 4-cup type by Mr. S. P. Fergusson of the U. S. Weather Bureau, records miles in the usual fashion on a turning drum. It seems anomalous that non-Weather Bureau stations should be putting this new pattern into use before the regular Weather Bureau stations outside Washington are so equipped. It is hoped that a special appropriation may soon make possible the replacement of the less satisfactory instruments now in use by the new ones.

RAINFALL IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Dr. G. F. McEwen, Oceanographer of the Scripps Institution, La Jolla, California, has sent us his usual statement of "The relation of seasonal rainfall in southern California to surface ocean temperatures at the Scripps Institution Pier, La Jolla: Indicated rainfall for the 192526 season." (Cf. Bulletin, Oct., 1924). A printed graph and summary show that the average ocean temperature for 9 years, Aug. 1 to Oct. 15 has been 67.5°F., and the average rainfall of the following wet season 11.4 inches. With an inverse relation of 2 inches more rainfall for every one degree lower ocean temperature Dr. McEwen says:

"According to the relation indicated the observed temperature of 66.9° for 1925 indicates a seasonal rainfall for 1925-26 of 12.6 inches, which is more than an inch above the average."

In 8 of the 9 years heretofore the seasonal rainfall has been above or below the average when the ocean temperature previously was below or above the average, respectively. The single discrepancy came in 192425, when the rainfall continued far below normal notwithstanding a low ocean temperature "indication" of unusual wetness.

AEROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT SEA

According to Commander L. G. Garbett, R.N. (Retired), superintendent of the British Naval Meteorological Services a new era of aerological observations at sea is opening to meet the demand for adequate knowledge of winds on trans-oceanic air routes and of conditions preceding and accompanying the development of tropical hurricanes. In an illustrated article contributed to The Marine Observer, May, 1925, pp. 75-79, Commander Garbett outlines the history of aerological observations at sea and describes some experimental flights of pilot and sounding balloons made in the English Channel during June, 1924. A mirror theodolite, employed by Wegener in his trip from Germany to Mexico and return in 1922, was found practicable for following balloons. The sounding balloon work was readily carried out with the use of two balloons in tandem, a releasing device for the large one, a Dines meteorograph weighing but 2 ounces, and a float and sea anchor of canvas. The line from the sea anchor to the meteorograph was 30 feet in length, and from the instrument to the balloons 15 to 30 feet more.

As a result of correspondence between the Weather Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Imperial Marine Observatory at Kobe, Japan, arrangements have been made to supply the latter institution with the vessel reports received twice a day by radio at the San Francisco station of the Weather Bureau from the region of the Pacific east of the 180th meridian. The very creditable series of daily weather charts of the North Pacific Ocean published by the Kobe Observatory will in consequence be materially improved in value. These daily charts are issued in monthly collections a few months after the period to which they refer.-U. S. Agr. Clip Sheet, Oct. 26 1925.

NOMINATIONS FOR 1926

Nominations for President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and five members of the Council are now in order. Ballots with nominations by the Council and such other nominations as are made by 20 or more members of the Society will be printed and sent out about December 1.