50 Thk MeteoeoloCtY of 1898. 



average, excepting- April, usually one of the driest months, which 

 had an excess of about two inches. On the whole the year was a 

 very favourable one in point of rainfall as well as in point of 

 temperature. Although the drought of July gave a check to the 

 progress of the growing crops, no weather could have been more 

 favourable for the in-gathering" of the hay crop, which had already 

 received a copious supply of moisture in the early spring and 

 summer mouths, and the check of July was largely compensated 

 by the unusually fine weather in respect both of heat and moisture 

 of August and September, extending into October, which had a 

 record without frost and a temperature of 5 degs. above average, 

 and even into past the middle of November. 



4. Hygeometer. — The mean of all the readings of the dry 

 bulb thermometer, taken twice a day, at 9 A.M. and 9 P.M., was 

 48-7 deg., and of the mean wet 46-1 Temperature of the dew- 

 point, 46-1 deg. Relative humidity (saturation = 100), 81-5. 

 This shows a humidity decidedly less than the average of 12 

 years, which comes out at about 83. The monthly means of 

 humidity varied from 72 in May and 73 in July to 89 in 

 December. 



5, Thunderstorms, &c. — The past year was remarkably 

 free from thunderstorms, as far as I have observed. I noted one, 

 however, of considerable severity, w^iich lasted from 6.1.5 to 6.45 

 P.M. on the 16th of August. Once in May there was a solar 

 halo — there may hpve been others but I did not see them — and 

 lunar halos were of not unfrequent occurrence throughout the 

 year. On the night of the 15th March there was a remarkably 

 brilliant and protracted display of the aurora borealis, which will, 

 no doubt, be in the recollection of the members of the society, as 

 it excited great attention at the time and was described in many 

 of the newspapers. 



With regard to the wind observations, I find that, as usual, 

 the south-westerly wind prevailed most frequently. It claims 

 108^ days out of the 365 ; and if we add to it the southerly and 

 westerly, 39^ and 59^, we have 207 days for the warmer direc- 

 tion, while the northerly and easterly amount to about 130, without 

 taking into account the calm aud variable. We are partly in- 

 debted to this preponderance of southerly to westerly winds for 



