170 



Calopus augiistus^ Lee. This addition to the local list was made 

 by Mr. Fletcher, who picked up a dead and badly mutilated female on 

 one of our streets. The insect was recognized in the collection of 

 Mr. Evans of Sudbury who has taken there two or three examples. 



-:o:- 



A GLACIAL EPOCH. 



By W. Hague Harrincton. 



At the dinner given by the Logan Club to the Geological Society 

 of America, one of the learned speakers, in the course of a humorous 

 speech, remarked that he and his fellow-scientists had come north to 

 Ottawa to study the glaciers in their native land. At that date the 

 " good old-fashioned winter " was just in its youth, but it has since 

 been a subject of general interest, andof equally general — conversation. 

 I have heard " the oldest inhabitants " going back for terrible instances 

 to '59, and even to '37, at which ancient periods the glaciers had 

 apparently hardly withdrawn from the Ottawa Valley to judge from the 

 " cold waves " then experienced. 



Through the courtesy of Prof Carpmael I have obtained for the 

 benefit of those interested in the recent cold spell, the following table. 

 It will be observed that there was no unusually low reading of the 

 thermometer, the lowest being - 26.2 on January 4th. By reference to 

 some yearly abstracts published in earlier transactions of the Club, it 

 will be seen that there were lower readings in those years, viz : Decem- 

 ber, 1884, - 28.3 ; February, 1885, - 26.9 ; January, 1886, - 26.5, and 

 January, 1887, - 31. 6. The severity of the five weeks covered by "the 

 following table was due to the almost unbroken cold, the record show- 

 ing that the temperature fell below zero on 28 days, that it averaged 

 below zero on 16 days, and that on 6 days it was not above zero. The 

 average for the 35 days was only 1.91 above zero. With this may be 

 compared the very cold February of 1885, which averaged 4.40, and 

 the January of 1887, when it averaged 4.33- A very severe day was 

 Dec. 24th, when, with an average temperature of- 1.2, the average 

 velocity of the wind was 22^3 miles per hour. The coldest day was 

 January i ith, when the average was - 17.8, and the maximum - 10.8 ; 

 the wind averaging 14I- miles per hour. 



