B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. S3 



have become later. The "Indications," as they extend over 

 such a long period, and have been kept so nearly in the same 

 spot, ofier a good opportunity of testing if such be the case. 

 To this end Mr. Southwell states that he has taken the aver- 

 ao-e davs of the occurrence of twenty-five difterent phenome- 

 na, which were fully observed during the ten years iTGi to 

 1774. He then did the same with the ten years 1864 to 

 1874. The result showed that the springs are now nine 

 days earlier than they were a hundred years ago; nor does 

 it seem probable that this difference is due to any fault in 

 observing, though it possibly may be partly due to improved 

 drainage and cultivation. Transactions Norfolk and JSFor- 

 toich Naturalists' Society^ II., 31. 



ON BAROMETRIC PRESSURE IN EUROPE. 



The great work of Buchan on the distribution of baro- 

 metric pressure throughout the globe, and the recent work 

 of Rikatcheif, which is especially confined to the distribution 

 of atmospheric pressure in Europe and Siberia, are now sup- 

 plemented by a memoir by Buys Ballot, who publishes, in 

 the second part of his Jaarhoek for 1870, a second edition 

 of his memoir on the annual variation of pressure in Europe. 

 The first edition of this work, w^hich appeared in I860, af- 

 forded the foundation by means of which meteorologists for 

 many years have been able to ascertain when the pressure 

 existing at a given place on any day Avas above or below its 

 normal value. His present memoir is of much greater ex- 

 tent, and gives, of course, the results of many additional 

 years of observations. It gives the monthly, annual, and 

 decennial barometric means for one hundred and sixteen 

 stations. Zeitsdtrift filr Meteorologies Vienna^ X., 324. 



A REMARKABLE SHOWER OF DUST. 



On the 30th of March last Mr. Nordenskjold telegraphed 

 from Stockholm that a vitreous fibrous gray powder fell 

 with snow there during the night; and again, on the same 

 night, in Norway, Dr. Kars observed the same phenomenon 

 over an extensive region. The powder that fell on this oc- 

 casion having been submitted to Daubree for examination, 

 he states that, by means of the microscope, he recognizes it 

 as composed of fragments of pumice-stone ; but, on chemical 



