Page 1 Advertisements Column 6

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1991, 29 January 1907, Page 1

boon entirely overlooked in this matter. It has not had a Labor representative appointed to the Council sinco the appointment of Mr IV. T. Jennings. When ho resigned and socurod a seat in the Lower House his placo was not filled. Wellington has Messrs Rigg and Jenldnson, and Chriscliurch and Dunedin are row both represented, but the Labor party in Auckland lias no one to attend to its interests in tlio Upper Chamber.”

OUR SEE-SAW ATMOSPHERE. THE MYSTERY OF WEATHER CHANGES. A fascinating article on the subject of “Some World’s Weather Problems” appears in the second number of Science Progress, the new and in ovory way admirable quarterly journal of scientific thought of tlio twentieth century. The writer is William J. S. Lockyor, and ho starts by quoting a vory good general definition of the aerial envelope surrounding our earth. Here it is: •‘The earth we inhabit is surrounded by an atmosphere of air, the height of which is known to bo at least forty-five miles. It presses upon the earth with a weight equal, at the level of the sea, to about fifteen pounds to every square inch of surface. As we ascend high mountains this weight becomes less; as we go down into deep mines it becomes sensibly greater . AVe breathe this atmospheric air, and without it we could not live many moments. It floats round the earth, being in perpetual motion; and, according to the swiftness with which it moves, it produces gentle breezes, high winds, or terrible tornadoes.”

It is astonishing how little is known oven to-day about this immense ocean of air, and of the movements which take place in it. We live at the bottom of the air ocean just as flat fish live at the bottom of the sea, and this fact may be one of the chief reasons of our ignorance of its nature and motions. But we are learning more of it daily. The time has now fortunately arrived when soundings in the air can be made nearly as easily as those in the ocean of water. By means of balloons and kites we can explore the atmosphere for about nine miles above the earth’s surface, and what we have learnt is most useful and interesting. Nowadays, instead of each nation or smaller group of people observing the weather of their own neighborhoods and saying nothing about it to others, there is an admirable spirit of co-operation abroad, and the whole world’s weather is being systematically observed. The changeableness of the weather is a truism which needs no emphasis here, but the causes of this condition are worth studying constantly. “All these conditions are produced by changes in the intensity or direction, or both, of the main currents in our atmosphere. We know that these currents are dependent for the main part on the distribution of the atmosphere over the earth’s surface, and wo are further familiar with the fact that this distribution is not homogeneous, for by means of our barometers we are able to weigh . . vertical columns of air, and these weights are far from being equal. “Observations of barometric pressure seem, therefore, to be at the base of all weather changes.” A scientist has discovered that there are motions of a see-saw character in the atmosphere. One of these seesaws acts over tho area between Siberia and Australia. “In other words, when, in some years tho pressure in Siberia was extra high, that in Australia was correspondingly low. “The present writer, with Sir Norman Loekyer, carrier, the investigation still further forward, and examined tho pressure-changes at 95 stations scattered all oyer tho globe. The result of this enquiry led to the discovery that there really existed only one largo soo-saw, and this between nearly antipodal parts of tho earth! In fact, it 1 seemed that the Indian region was about the centre of one area, while the Argentine and Chili formed the centre of the antipodal region.” What, asks the writer, does this see-saw inform us? In answering, it must bo remembered that there is a fixed quantity of atmosphere round our globe, and that if some large quantity is drawn away to any one quarter of tho globe there will be a shortage elsewhere “This barometlo see-saw tells us that such a transference of air is really in operation, and the direction of this exchange is from east to west, and from west to east alternately, and not between the equatorial and polar regions,” And how. is this barometric see-saw going to help meteorology? “Very materially,” says the writer. “Wo have here, possibly, an important clue to the close connection between the meteorological behaviour of regions which are widely separated. For instance, it is only quite recently that Sir John Elliot pointed out that the drought in the Indian region, during the years 1895 to 1902, was a more or less general meteorological feature of the whole area, including Abyssinia, East and South Africa, Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, and probably Tibet, and the greater part of tho whole of Australia. . . . All these localities fall in the Eastern Hemisphere portion of the see-saw, so that they should be affected similarly.” One fiwo-and-fro motion occupies nearly, but not quite, four years on the average. “There is, I think' now,” the writer concludes, “little doubt, that this pressure oscillation dominates, and is therefore responsible for, the very different types of weather that are experienced at any one place in the course of three or four years.”

The writer seeks, in the article, for the cause of this see-saw of our atmosphere, and he finds it in the sun, which, we are incidentally- told, becomes hotter and colder alternately every eleven years. The fact of the connection between solar activity and the state of our atmosphere is by now well established in the minds of scientists. THE PERIL OF OUR TIME. In Lung Disease. Dr. Sheldon’s New Discovery for Coughs, Colds, and Consumption cures lung trouble. Small dose. Pleasant to take. Every bottle guaranteed. For sale by A. W. J. Mann, Agent, Chemist. ANXIOUS MOMENTS. One of the most anxious times of a mother’s life is when her little ones have croup. There is no other medicine so effective in this terrible malady as Dr. Sheldon’s New Discovery. It can bo safely given and depended upon. No mother should ever be without a bottle in the house. For sale by A. W. J. Mann, Agent, Chemist. DIGEST WHAT YOU EAT. The reason why any wholesome food is not properly digested is because the stomach lacks some important element of digestion. Some stomachs lack peptone, others are deficient in gastric juice or hydrochloric acid, The one thing necessary in any case of poor digestion, is to supply those digestive elements which the stomach lacks, and nothing does tliis so thoroughly and safely as Dr. Sheldon’s Digestive Tabules.. They digest what you eat, thus giving the stomach a rest - and assistance until it is restored to its normal action and vigor. For sale by A. W. J. Mann, Agent, Chemist.

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