Abstract
THE Kaiser's remark, “Our future lies on the water,” has induced Dr. Bergholz, in charge of the Bremen Meteorological Observatory, to devote a great deal of his time to the study of tropical hurricanes, and particularly to those of the Eastern Seas, because, as he states in his preface, the increase of German trade is especially noticeable in Eastern waters, a fact which is demonstrated to Englishmen by the continued transfer of Asiatic steamship lines from the British to the German flag. Dr. Bergholz has summarised all that has previously been written on typhoons, so that the present work is the concentrated essence of our knowledge of these terrible meteors. Every feature in the life-history of a typhoon seems to be carefully dealt with—the origin of the disturbance, its progress, the circulation and the force of the wind, the behaviour of the barometer, the thermometer, the sea, the clouds, and the rainfall. Several special instances are dealt with in detail, and a chapter is devoted to such anomalies as gales unaccompanied by rain, rapid falls of the barometer without increase of wind, strong winds with a slight decline of the barometer, and so on; all which go to prove that old Dampier was right when he declared that the storms of the Temperate Zones, the hurricanes of the West Indies, the cyclones of the Indian Ocean, and the typhoons of the China seas differ only in name. A selection of charts accompanies the work; but while it is permissible to begin the meteorological year with December, in exhibiting the monthly variations of pressure and temperature, there is no sufficient reason why October and November should fall between May and June. The method adopted in drawing the isobars will not meet with the approval of meteorologists, areas of high pressure not being separated in the natural way by areas of low pressure, and vice versâ, but merely by a dividing line where contrary winds must meet without any intervening calm space.
Die Orkane des “Fernen Ostens.”
By Prof. Dr. Paul Bergholz. Pp. xii + 260. With 31 lithographed charts, 33 tables, and 7 figures. (Bremen and Shanghai: Max Nössler, 1900.)
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H. Die Orkane des “Fernen Ostens” . Nature 61, 317 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/061317c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/061317c0