380 Scientific Intelligence.' — Meteorology. 



. Extreme Cold and Heat by Six's Thermometer. 



Coldest, 26th December, Wind, W 16* , ul 



Hottest, 28th July, do SW^.^ia" ,|^jyy 



Mean Temperature for the year 1830, 47^626 



Remits of Two Rain Gauges. -■■ -,■■ 



In. \m. 



1. -Centre of Kinfauns Garden, about 20 feet above the level of the sea, 36.85 



2. Square Tourer, Kinfauns Castle, 180 feet, 36.85 



9,. Thunder-Storms in France. — The Count de Triston has 

 made observations on the direction of the thunder-storms which 

 have devastated the department of the Lorich for the last six- 

 teen years. The following general inferences have been made 

 bv him, respecting the progress and intensity of thunder-storms 

 in plain countries, intersected by shallow valleys. Thunder 

 storms are attracted by forests. When one arrives at a forest, 

 if it be obliquely, it glides along it ; if directly, or if the forest 

 be narrow, it is turned from its direction ; if the forest be broad, 

 the tempest may be totally arrested. Whenever a forest, being 

 in the path of a thunder-storm, tends to turn it aside, the ve- 

 locity of the stonii seems retarded, and its intensity is augment- 

 ed. A thunder cloud, which is arrested by a forest, exhausts 

 itself along it, or, if it pass over, is greatly weakened. When a 

 large river or valley is nearly parallel to the course of a thunder 

 storm, the latter follows its direction ; but the approach of a 

 wood, or the somewhat abrupt turn of the river or valley, makes 

 it pass off. A thunder cloud attracts another which is at no 

 great distance,, and causes it to deviate from its course. There 

 is reason to believe, that the action is reciprocal. A cloud at- 

 tracted by a larger, accelerates its motion, as it approaches the 

 principal cloud. When there is an affluent cloud, which was 

 committing ravages, it sometimes suspends them on approach- 

 ing the principal mass, which is perhaps a consequence of the 

 acceleration of its course ; but after the union the evil generally 

 increases. Twenty-one thunder-storms, whose course has been 

 distinctly traced, have extended from N.NW. to S.S.W. 

 No destructive thunder-storm has come from any other points 

 of the horizon. Lastly, the position and form of the forest of 

 Orleans, Blois, &c.j satisfactorily accounts for the frequency of 

 hail-storms in certain communes, and their rare occurrence in 

 others. 



