and Agitations of the Sea. 413 



I have now to notice a similar phenomenon observed at Penzance Pier 

 early in the morning of the 1st instant, when a still more dreadful thun- 

 der-storm visited the metropolis and other parts of England. 



I would previously, however, make a few remarks on the storm of 

 July. It must have been felt on the Atlantic on the 4th, as much dis- 

 tant lightning from the S. and SW. was seen in Mount's Bay before 

 midnight, and continued until between 3 and 4 o'clock of the following 

 morning, when the fierce lightning and thunder from every part of the 

 heavens became truly alarming. As the storm proceeded from Mount's 

 Bay, throughout Cornwall, towards the E. and NE., it grew still more 

 violent and destructive. It readied Exeter between 8 and 9 a.m. ; 

 Windsor, between 2 and 3 p.m. ; and London at half-past three.*" In itg 

 progress towards the north it was felt throughout Somersetshire between 

 8 and 10 a.m. ; at Leeds about 3^ p.m.; at Pe;nrith, Dumfries, Ayr, and 

 Glasgow, between 3^ and 4 p.m. ; at Edinburgh soon after 5 ; and at 

 Dundee, and in Argyleshire, about 7 p.m. Thus the storm, as it advanced 

 from Mount's Bay towards the east, moved at the rate of only about 20 

 miles per hour, whilst its progress northward was about 30. 



In many places both the lightning and the thunder were incessant 

 during most of the storm. A whirling, fitful, or " wild kind of wind," 

 accompanied it, with heavy rain, and occasionally large hailstones. At 

 Ayr and Maybole it was preceded by a whirlwind of remarkable violence. 

 At Walsall a whirlwind tore up trees by the roots. 



The temperature on the 5th of July was unusually high, not only in 

 most parts of England, but on the Continent. The thermometer at 

 Cheswick was 95^ ; at Boston, in Lincolnshire, 90° (the hottest day since 

 31st July 1826) ; at Manchester 87°; and at Paris 97^°. 



Before the storm commenced in Kent, one of the largest flights of but- 

 terflies ever seen in this country completed its passage from France to 

 England. For many hundred yards it quite obscured the sun. " During 

 the passage the weather was calm and sunny, but an hour or so after they 

 reached terra firma, it came on to blow great guns from SW., the direc- 

 tion whence the insects came." 



The storm of July was not felt in London and the eastern coasts of 

 Britain, so severely as on the western. But the storm of 1st August, 

 which visited the metropolis and its neighbourhood, was more terrible 

 than any experienced there since that of the 18th of May 1809. It com- 

 menced at 3h. 20m. p.m. In the MetedVological Report from the Green- 

 wich Observatory, it is stated that at Lewishara the hailstones " were 

 nearly all as large as pigeons' eggs." It was felt severely the same even- 



which had been loft by the tide iu Penzance, St Michael's ilount, and New- 

 lyn, were again floated and left dry — the rise and fall being between three and 

 four feet. The interval from the commencement of one influx to that of the 

 next was about fifteen minutes. The flux and reflux were greatest in Penzance 

 Pier, but w^ere observed there only once j whereas, at Marazion and Newlyn, 

 they were noticed two or three times successively." 



* In the Journal des Dchats was the following communication from Ilavre, 

 dated Gth of July : — " Yesterday, at five P.M., a violent storm suddenly rose 

 from the west, and still continues unabated." 



