The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-22

practice of teegraphing facts has been adopted.
Besldes all this, the London office makes known
TO Liverpool aud TO Holland the existence of q
certain amount OF barometric pressure between
two stations within defined area The
influence which the distribution Of atmospheric
pressure exerts on the motion of the air has
been much dwelt on by Or. Buijs Ballot, of
Utrecht and rule has been propounded by him
lor interring the coming direction of the wind,
IRON simultaneous readings of the barometer at
different places. For more than year past the
London office has sought to test this rule by
systematic discussion Of daily meteorological
charts of the British Islauds and the nearer
coasts of the Continent. IL is satisfactory to
hear that the results of this investigation are
on the whole encouraging.
"As may be anticipated, the eclipse Of the
sun of August last was treated of at some length
in General 5abne's address, particularly with
reference 10 the spectroscopc observations
thereof. But as our columns have recently
presented much on this sabect, we need not on
this occasion do more thau mention that the
President of the Royal Society takes paius to
Illustrate the new facts by lormer observations
and intervening researches, thereby rendering
them more significant and valuable. In cou-
nection with the most recent spcctroscJoic OBJ.
seryauons OF the sun. body OF information has
been gained which cannot fail to be of high
importance IN cosmical science. Tue RoyalSo-
clety expended nearly f300 for instruments to
send out to InOIa for observation of the eclipse
and 1t Is gratifying to learn that, notWith stand
ing clouds and bad weather brought blythe
monsoon, so many of the interesting phenomena
were real y observed To this, as forming part
OF the astronomical details, we append the inti-
nation that the great Melbourne telesc )pe was
shipped in July last, and has probably arrived
| ere this at its destination.
"The dredging expedition by DR.. Carpenter
| and Professor Wyville Thomson, in the North
| Atlantic, west of the Farce Islands, in a vessel
| furnished by the Admiralty, was mentioned by
| General Sabine. Allowing for untaVorable
| weather, it was successful as wall appear from
| the report by DR.. Carpenter which IS to be
read at the evening meeting of the Royal
| Society, and, as we may infer, will prove an.
| usually interesting to naturasts and biologists.
1t throws light on the condition of animal life,
and enlarges our knowledge OF temperature at
! great depths. To pass from this to the 5 Redsh
| Arctic expedition was natural transition; we,
| however, refer for the particulars to another
! column, and pass on to the collection of fossil
| plants brought from Greenland by Mr.. Whym-
| per, aided by contribution from the Govern
| ment Grant Fund of the Royal Society. The
meeting was informed the entire collection had
| been sent Tor examination aud description to
| Professor Oswald Her, of Zurich, who has
| already published work, Flora Fossils Arc
! tica.' The DESCRIPTION, it appears, has been
received, and will ere long be submitted to the
! Royal Society. Among the specimens are two
! cones of ofmaguolia aud the flowers and truIt of
a chestnut, which afford fresh evidence OF the
| vigorous growth and ripening that once took
| place in a high nOrtherl latit9de. BY Mr.
| Whymper's collection the number OF FOSSIL
| species OF vegetable remains discovered III
! Greenland is now increased to 1877, of winch
! 46 are common to the mloCene deposits of
Europe Wneu Professor Heer returns the
| specimens to London, complete series is to
| be deposited in the British Museum.
Terrestrial magnetism aad the coincidence of
periods of magnetic phenomena With periods Of
! sun-spots, and the question therein involved
| foIm topic on which General Sabine might
have been tempted TO enlarge for, as he in-
| formed the meeting, the greater part of his lie
has been devoted to tue nyestle alton of terres-
| trial magnetism. Here we quo.e his own
| words, promising that the papers aud maps
| therein mentioned as completed, or in prepdra-
| ton, are his own achievements. The reIac-
| ton he says of the great scientific work. the
| Maene ic Survey of the South Polar Regions,
conn enCed in 1889, under the auspices and at
| the expense OF her Majesty's Government has
been &C mpleted in the present year by the pre-
! sentatlon to the Royal Society and the pgbCa-
! ti0D in the Philosophical Transactions of Maps
OF the thee Magnetic Elements in Southern
| Parallels, commencing in 30o south, and extend
! ing far beyond the limits of ordinary navigation.
| These maps accompanied by tables contain
! ing the numerical coeffcients to be employed in
| a revision of Gauss General Theory ut the in-
| tersectiOn OF every fifth degree OF latitude and
| every tenth degree OF longitude, between 300
south latitude aud the south terrestrial pO,e.
The magreiical determine ions of the survey
| correspond TO the epoch 1sl2-45. Similar maps
Tor the corresponding latitudes of the North
| ern Hemisphere, from 800 north latitude to
| the north terrestrial pole, are III preparation,
founded on a co ordination of results obtained
by magneticians of all countries III the fifteen
| years fOllOWHgthe same mean epoch OF lS42-45,
and reduced to it. 1t is hoped that these maps,
with an accompanying memoir, will be pre-.
sented to The Royal Society before the close of
for subsequent com pletion, the filing up lstill
fer the same epoch) OF the space between the
parallels OF 30 deg. north aud 80 deg. south
| latitude, for which much preparation has been
made in the assCmblage of materials requiring
only for their coordination the allotment Ufthe
time needed for the due examination and treat-
ment of so large body OF materials. Should |
be so happy as 10 be able TO complete this task
also (my work on Terrestrial Magnetism has
now extended, more or less, over hale Ii
| 'Century) }, venture to express a hope that the
great work of which the foundation will thus
have been laid viz, the revision of the Gaus-
sian Theory, corresponding TO a definite epoch
in the great cycle OF terrestrial magnetism, may,
when a suitable time shall appear to have ar
rived, be taken up and completed under the
auspices OF the Royal Society
'Who is there will not join in the wish that
the Nestor OF the Terrestrial Magnetism may 90
on TO finish his admirable work!
"FIOm this rapid summary II will be g." en- that
the entire address as delivered by General
Sabine covers wide range of scientific subject
treated in way worthy OF the occaslon.'
North Polar Exploration.
1t appears now pretty cerlain that our cousins
across the Atlantic purpose equipping au cX-
petition next spring to I've the interesting
problem as to the existence of open water
around the north axis of our globe. Tue dis
cOveries of Kane and Hayes show beyond all
doubt that the western shore OF Smith Sound
extends to The nOTthWard for considerable
distance, pointing to tue conclusion that the
land TeDds in the direction OF the Pole. Hayes
| further cOnceiyes that beyond Cape COnsJltu-
| tiOn the Greenland Continent TERMINATES, and
that open wafer exists fIom this termination to
! the Pole. Thus, Smith Sound is one of the
best, il not the best, starting points tor North
Polar explorations and as the Americans have
| tha nf nnin in hia n1it sfp hlp =