154 Meteorological Retrospect 



s. w. winds. Vegetation recovered its healthy appearance, but 

 remained very scanty. 



July commenced with great heat, especially during the first 

 ten days. Thunder on the 5th and 6th. The 20th and 21st 

 were remarkable for being tempestuous, with strong gales, 

 accompanied with thunder, lightning, and heavy rain, which 

 greatly reduced the temperature. On the 20th, so great was 

 the change, that the thermometer, which at noon stood at 75°, 

 at 3 p. m. was only 50°. One of the most perfect solar halos 

 I ever witnessed, exhibiting the prismatic colours in high per- 

 fection, with a parhelion below the sun, appeared at 8 a. m., 

 and continued visible till 11a. m. The barometer was sinking 

 at the time the halo appeared, and rain followed in twenty 

 hours. 



August was decidedly the finest month in the year, notwith- 

 standing the great prevalence of n. e. winds. A violent 

 thunder storm passed over on the 14th, accompanied with 

 heavy rain. This storm was very violent, between 8 and 9 p. M., 

 at Liverpool, and did much damage to the shipping in the 

 harbour. A violent thunder storm, on the same day, did much 

 damage in Austria, destroying houses, barns, and even life. 



September. The cold northerly winds, and constantly cloudy 

 sky, for the first twenty days of this month, reduced the tem- 

 perature of the month much below the mean. 



October was wet, cold, and stormy, especially the 1st, 6th, 

 11th, and 12th. Auroras boreales were visible on the 5th, 15th, 

 and 18th. On the 29th, snow fell to the depth of 4^ in. in 

 the metropolis. In the country it was considerably deeper, 

 and did not entirely disappear till the ] st of 



November, the first week of which was wet and cold, with 

 frosty nights. From the 8th there was an almost uninter- 

 rupted succession of s. w. winds, accompanied with light 

 showers, till the memorable hurricane on the 29th, which was 

 one of the most terrible known in England for many years. 

 The violent gusts of wind, chiefly from the N. w., did much 

 damage, leaving many a sad memento behind both by land 

 and sea. From the most authentic accounts of this gale 

 which have reached me, it appears that it commenced on the 

 23d, on the eastern shores of North America, off St. Lawrence. 

 A ship from Poole fell in with it on the 26th, in lat. 47° n., 

 long. 32° 20' w., and was thrown on her beam ends. It con- 

 tinued its progress across the Atlantic, and reached the 

 Land's End about 7| a. m. ; Plymouth, 8J A. m. ; Exeter, 

 9?} a. m. ; Weymouth, 10 a. m. ; Poole, 10 \ a. m. ; Farnham, 

 12 noon.; London, ljp. M. ; Suffolk coast, 2 J p. M. ; and 

 Hamburg, at 6 p. m. Thus the storm travelled at the rate 

 of about 50 miles per hour ; but the circular motion of the 



