JANUARY, 1907. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. . 15
was a well-defined path thru the woods; none but the tall,
strong trees were standing, and these had their branches very
nearly all stript off. When the spout was relieved of the
weight of its base it swung out in a long, flattened curve, very
much like a long rope hanging from a ehip’s rigging when one
end is free and the wind is blowing.
We were surprised to see such an unusual demonstration at
that time, because we were a t anchor in calm water; for the
storm had lost its energy fully a half hour before the appearance
of the two spouts. It was sultry and hot where we were, and
the sun was not shining directly on us, yet the clouds seemed
so thin that the heat came thru very readily and diffused itself
in the still air. The trees oz the surrounding shores showed
no evidence of wind, nor did the surface of the water. It was
a dead calm, except for a little swell. I recall no thunder and
lightning during the morning storm nor at the time of the
waterspouts. That evening, shortly after sunset, we had a
terrific thunderstorm, and during all the encampment we had
severe thunderstorms and floods of rain. As we were living
in tents, life was far from pleasant. * * * I have left out
uncertainties, and the only part that might be doubtful is
whether the larger spout was on the west side of the island or
whether the spouts occurred in reverse directions from what
I have stated. The sun was not shining nor do I know the
direction of the tide, hence the points mentioned above might
be questioned, but not their actual occurrence.
WEATHER BUREAU MEN AS EDUCATORS.
Dr. 0. L. Fassig, on January 10,1907, delivered the first of
a series of ten lectures on “ Weather and climatology ” at Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.
Under date of January 30,1907, Mr. M. L. Fuller, Observer,
Canton, N. Y., reports that the teaching of meteorology in the
St. Lawrence University at Canton has been properly recog-
nized by his formal election aa ‘‘ Professor of Meteorology and
Climatology ”, with voice and vote in the faculty. His course
of instruction for junior and senior students involves two or
three one-hour lectures per week, and by unanimous request
of the students enrolled therein the work will be extended
thru the remainder of the college year. A course embracing
only one semester in climatology has also been outlined for
other students who can not take the full course.
Arrangements have been made for a course of eighteen lec-
tures on meteorology and climatology before the Clarkson
School of Technology, at Potsdam. The students will be es-
amined in these lectures and receive credit for one hour’s
work per week. A popular lecture committee representing
the University, the School of Technology, and the State Nor-
mal School desires also a series of popular lectures. An aver-
age of about twelve hours a day has been given to meteorologi-
cal work since July 1 by Mr. Fuller, and a considerable amount
of time by his wife. He has also arranged to employ, at his
own expense, an assistant to aid in the preparation of material
for class work and lecture work, which expense will consume
all of the special allowance made for these lectures by the above-
mentioned committee. This extra work has been undertaken
in the interest of the service, as the field appeared to be a most
promising one.
I n later reports Mr. Fuller states that the class beginning
the work in general meteorology a t St. Lawrence University
numbers 28, and 10 of the 90 students of Clarkson School of
Technology are enrolled for the course at that institution.
Owing to the absence a€ the head of the department of
geology at the University Mr. Fuller has taken charge of the
class in physiography, numbering 20 students. A large por-
tion of the remainder of the course, relating to the atmosphere,
the topography of the lands, the climatic control of land forms,
etc., will be easily combined with the course in climatology.
Mr. J. Warren Smith, Section Director, on January 3, 190’7,
began regular lectures to the class in elementary meteorology
at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; the lectures
are given twice a week during the winter term.
Mr. A. H. Thiessen, Section Director, Raleigh, N. C., on Jan-
uary 19, 1907, began his regular course of lectures to seniors
in the agriculture course a t the Agricultural and Mechanical
College, West Raleigh; the course will be practically the same
as that given last year.
Mr. John R. Weeks, Local Forecaster, Binghamton, N. Y.,
under date of February 16, submits a manuscript lecture ‘‘ On
the weather-what i t is and how it is observed and fore-
cast ”. The test occupies about sixteen pages of manuscript,
and is accompanied by a list of about a hundred slides, belong-
ing to the Weather Bureau. When the lecture is transmitted
for use copies of brief printed articles are also incloaed for the
use of the lecturer, who is asked to read them and present a
synopsis of their contents in connection with the exhibition
of the slides. There are more slides in this lecture than in
those usually delivered by the New York State Department
of Education in order to provide additional popular interest.
It is espected that the lectures and notes will be memorized,
and that the lecturer will not read from the manuscript. Mr.
Weeks states that this lecture has already been read and the
slides exhibited by five persons to whom it has been loaned,
and that about forty requests for its loan were received during
February. He suggests the practicability of placing such a
lecture, “localized for each State ”, in the hands of each section
director, to be loaned to schools, free of cost, for public use.
This recommendation is quite in line with the work that has
been clone in the State of New York during the last twenty
years by Prof. Albert S. Bickmore, ‘‘ father ” of the American
Museum of Natural History in New York City. Thru his
efforts in the line of geography and travel the Education
Department of the State has organized a Division of Visual
Instruction, of which Mr. De Lancey M. Ellis is now chief;
and Mr. Ellis has issued a circular letter, dated Albany,
February 1, 1907, in which he indorses Mr. Weeks’s efforts
ani1 esplains the conditions under which his lecture can be
obtained :
bIr. Weeks offers to send the manuscript and slides without cost to any school in the State, under the general rules governing the loan of
slides issued by this department. These proride that slides shall not be used for other than educational purposes, nor upon any occasion at which an admission fee is charged or a collection of any kind is taken.
Borrowers must also agree to bear cost of loss or breakage. Slides are sent by mall under Government frank, and provision is made for their
return in the same way.
TSTe heartily indorse the following paragraph from one of
Mr. Weeks’s letters:
A high official once said to me that it is a waste of time to lecture to high school students 8nd that lectures to older people were more impor-
tant. My belief and experience is j u s t the opposite, for at least two
reasoiis. It is much easier to reach, interest, and convince high school htudents, and once interested they have time and opportunities for
studying the subject that older persons do not have. Their minds are also free from the notions that older persons RO easily get in regard to
the weather. The high school boys and girls of to-day are the business
men and women of four or flve years from now; but now is the time to reach them with such instruction, not when they are absorbed with
business cares and worries.
The Department of Education of the State of New York,
with its headquarters at Albany, and Dr. Andrew S. Draper as
Commissioner of Education, seems to have associated together
under it the Regents of the University, the Director of the
State Library, the Director of the State Museum, the Division
of Visual Instruction, under De Lancey &I. Ellis, and many
other branches of activity bearing on education thruout its
whole range from the kindergarten to the university. The
JANUARY, 1907 16 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW.
circulars that it has published, especially the syllabus for
secondary schools in physical geography and agriculture, and
the catalogs of lantern slides, arranged in sets, accompanied
by printed lectures, should be known to all teachers in this
country and elsewhere.
Mr. Wilford M. Wilson, Section Director, Ithaca, N. Y., re-
ports that he will begin the regular course of instruction in
meteorology at Cornel1 University with the opening of the
second term, February 2, 1907; the course calls for three
weekly periods of one hour each, and extends thru the re-
mainder of the school year.
A typewritten syllabus of the course has been prepared,
based on Davis’s Elementary Meteorology. gbout two hun-
dred slides have been collected for illustrative purposes, and
the facilities for teaching have been considerably improvecl.
The following lectures a n d addresses by Weather Bureau
men have been reported:
Mr. W. H. Alexander, January 17, 1907, an address to the
physical geography class of the Burlington, Vt., High School;
also January 30, 1907, a t the Young Men’s Christian Associa-
tion Hall, Burlington, on I‘The Weather Bureau and its
methods ”, with lantern slide illustrations.
Prof. F. H. Bigelow, January 22 ancl 23, 1907, at the Uni-
versity of Chicago, under the auspices of the departments of
geography and economics, on ‘‘ The circulation of the uun’R
atmosphere as the first cause of the annual changes in the
weather ”, and The circulation of the earth’s atmosphere,
and the new theory of storm energy”.
Mr. F. H. Brandenburg, before the Trans-Missouri Dry
Farming Congress, a t Denver, Colo., on ‘‘ The western limit
of sufficient precipitation for successful farming without
~~
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irrigation ”. Mr. M. L. Fuller, during October, 1906, before the Silas
Wright Grange, Canton, N. Y., on “The work of the Weather
Bureau ”; also January 25, 1907, before the Farmers’ Institute,
Canton, and January 28, before the Farmers’ Institute, at
Gouvernenr, N. Y., on ‘‘ The weather and the farmer’s boy ”. Mr. C. F. von Herrmann, January 14, 1907, before pupils of
the Western High School, Baltimore, Md., on “Forecasting
and storms ”, with lantern slide illustrations.
Prof. A. G. McAclie, January 30, 1907, before the physi-
ography class of the San Diego (California) State Normal
School on “A raindrop ”.
Mr. W. S. Palmer, of the Cheyenne, Wyo., ofice, January 26.
1907, before the Trans-Missouri Dry-Farming Congress, at
Denver, Colo., on ‘I The rainfall of southeastern Wyoming ”. Mr. J. Warren Smith, January 11 and 14, 1907, before the
students of the special short course in agriculture, at the Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio, on “The work of the Weaiher
Bureau ”, and on c r Frost warnings and protection from frost,
and lightning rods”; also, January 18, 1907, at the annual
meeting of the State Horticultural Society, on “The protection
of crops from frosts”.
Mr. J. F. Voorhees, October 6, 1906, before the Iinosville
Teachers’ Association, on I r Weather forecasting”; also, January
14 and 15, 1907, before the short course agricultural students
of the University of Tennessee, Iinosville, Tenn., on “General
meteorology ” and on <‘ Practical forecasting ancl the work of
the Weather Bureau ”, with lantern slide illustrations.
Mr. J. R. Weeks, January 17, 1907, at the Public Library,
Binghamton, N. Y., on “The work of the United States Gov-
ernment, especially the Weather Bureau ”, with lantern slide
illustrations.
Classes from universities, schools, and academies have visitetl
Weather Bureau offices, to study the instruments and equip-
ment and receive informal instruction, as reported from the
following ofices:
____
Cairo, Ill., January 16,1907, the class in physical geography
from the Cairo High School.
Chicago, Ill., during the six months ending in January, 1907,
classes from University of Chicago, Northwestern University,
Chicago Normal School, Morgan Park Academy, South Division
Manual Training School, Hoyne High School (two divisions),
Hyde Park High School (three divisions), Bernard Moos High
School, and Austin High School.
Columbus, Ohio, January 9 and 10, 1907, three classes in
physical geography or meteorology.
Mobile, ,41a., January 11, 1907, the class in physics from
McGill Institute.
Pensacola, Fla., January 10 and 14, 1907, the class in physi-
cal geography from the local high school, in two sections.
Portland, Oreg., January 16, 17, 18, 22, and 23,1907, classes
from the local high schools.
Rochester, N. Y., January 30, 1907, the class in meteorology
from the University of Rochester.
San Diego, Cal., January 23,1907, the graduating class from
the dngier Grammar School.
Savannah, Ga., January 25,1307, the class in physical geog-
raphy from Miss West’s preparatory school.
Springfield, Mo., January 18, 1907, the class in physical
geography from the local normal school; also, January 19,
1907, a class in physical geography from Republican, Mo.
THE CLIMATE OF YUKON TERRITORY.
15, 1906.
[Repriuted from Trnusaction- of the Canadian Institute, Vol. VIII.1
Ry R. F. STUPART, Director ‘t f the Meteorological Service of Canada. Dntpd December
Meteorological observations were begun a t Fort Constantine,
Yukon Territory, in Novemher, 1895, by Staff Sergeant Hayne
of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. In September, 1897,
the instruments were removed to Dawson ancl observations
were continued voluntarily by the police and by the Commis-
sioner of the Yukon until 1900, when the duty of observing
was taken over by the meteorological service, and an unbroken
record has since been obtained at Dawson. Other records in
Yukon in the possession of the meteorological office are as fol-
lows: Selkirk from November, 1808, to November, 1899; Tagish
Lake from August, 1808, to August, 1900, and White Horse
from November, 1904, to the present time. I n addition to
these Yukon stations, a station at Atlin, B. C., but 55 miles
south of the boundary, was opened by the meteorological
service in August, 1905, and will be of assistance in deter-
mining the climatic conditions of southern Yukon.
A study of all available clata leads to the conclusion that
while Dawson is farther north than White Horse, the climate
of the former place is much more suitable for agricultural
purposes than that of the latter, and in general that the
northern and eastern portions of Yukon have a warmer sum-
mer climate than have the snore southern portions. This is
probably owing in part to the fact that the former are at a
lower level than the latter, and in part to the fact that southern
districts are much nearer the ocean from which the westerly
winds blow; while in the north the westerly winds are from
the broader land area of Alaska, ancl the country generally is
protected by mountains ranging from 5000 to over 10,000 feet.
The mean summer temperature a t Dawson is fully 5’ F. higher
than at either White Horse or Atlin, B. C.; and while frosts
seem to be frequent at the latter places in both June and
Augiist and occur occasionally even in July, in the former
both June and July are practically free from frost and it is
not until about August 20 that there is much danger; and
very frequently September opens with as yet no frost. After
the close of August the downward trend of the Dawson tem-
perature curve is very rapid, and the winter months are prob-
ably between 15’ and 20’ colder than at mhite Horse. A
sninmary of the general conditions of each month at Dawson
will probably give the best idea of the climate.