METEOROLOGY. 311 



DESCKIPTION OF THE OBSERVATORY AT ST. MARTIN, 



ISLE JESUS, CANADA EAST, 



Latitude 45° 32' north, longitude 73° 36^ loest. Height above the level 



of the sea 11% feet. Erected hy Charles Smallioood, 31. D. , L. L. D. 



We preface Dr. Smallwoocl's own account of his observatory by a 

 sketch of the general appearance of the buikling and instruments, 

 from the pen of Dr. Hall, published in the Montreal Gazette. 



A small wooden building, distant about twenty yards from the 

 dwelling house of Dr. Smallwood, contains the whole of the apparatus 

 which has for so many years furnished such valuable results. A short 

 distance from it, and on a level with the ground, is the snow gauge. 

 Immediately in front of the entrance to the small building is a dial, 

 with an index to point out the course of the clouds. Contiguous to 

 the building again may be seen four erect staffs. The highest of 

 which — 80 feet — is intended for the elevation of a lighted lantern, to 

 collect the electricity of the atmosphere^ the copper wires from which 

 lead through openings in the roof of the building to a table inside, on 

 which a four-armed insulated conductor is placed. The lantern is 

 made to ascend and descend on a species of railway, in order to obviate 

 all jarring. On another pole is placed the wind vane, which, by a series 

 of wheels moved by a spindle, rotates a dial inside the building marked 

 with the usual points of the compass. Another staff, about 30 feet high, 

 contains the anemometer, or measurer of the force of the wind, which, 

 by a like arrangement of apparatus, is made to register its changes 

 inside. The last pole^, 20 feet in height, contains the rain gage, the 

 contents of which are conducted by tubing also into the interior of the 

 building, in which, by a very ingenious contrivance, the commence- 

 ment and ending of a fall of rain are self-marked. 



At the door entrance on the right side is a screeaied place, exposed 

 to the north, on which the thermometer and wet bulb thermometer 

 are placed, four feet from the surface of the earth. A similar apart- 

 ment on the left contains the scales with which experiments had been 

 conducted throughout the winter to ascertain the proportional evapo- 

 ration of ice. 



On entering the door, in the centre of tlie apartment is a transit 

 instrument in situ, for tiie convenience of using which openings are 

 made in the roof, usually kept closed by traps. This apparatus is not 

 the most perfect of its kind, but is amply adequate for all its uses. 

 On the left is a clock, the works of which, by means of a wheels are 

 made (while itself keeps proper time) to move slips of paper along 

 little railways, on which the anemometer by dots registers the velocity 



