378 The Weather of 1904. 



the workman's pick, and only pieces were recovered, but the 

 smaller, though imperfect, was nearly complete. Both urns con- 

 tained a considerable uantity of calcined bones. Mr Barbour 

 described the form and ornament of the urns, which may be seen 

 in the Society's Museum, and presented them to the Society 

 with the permission of the parties or authorities who had any 

 interest therein. 



The Chairman introduced Mr John Maxwell, travelling com- 

 missioner on the Gold Coast, who exhibited a number of the 

 products of the colony, which he presented to the Society, and 

 gave a number of details respecting these, for which he was 

 heartily thanked. 



II. — The Weather of 1904. By Rev. W. Andson. 



Before submitting my annual report of the weather of 1904, 

 I may mention that the instruments used, consisting of barometer, 

 certified maximum and minimum self-registering thermometers, 

 dry and wet bulb thermometers, and rain gauge, were inspected 

 by Dr Buchan, secretary of the Scottish Meteorological Society, 

 in September last, and on being compared with his standard 

 instruments were found to vary so little from the standard that it 

 was not considered necessary to apply corrections to the readings. 

 I submit first of all a table, which contains a summary of all the 

 observations taken during the year, which will be printed as usual 

 in the Transactions, but which I need not read now. The re- 

 marks which follow are founded upon these observations, and 

 intended to bring out the general character of the weather of the 

 past year, as compared with other years embraced in the period of 

 observation. 



Beginning with the barometer, I find that the highest reading 

 of the year occurred on the 21st January, when it rose to 30.655 

 inches; and the lowest on the 13th February, when it fell to 

 28.552 in., giving an annual range of 2.103 i"- The mean 

 annual pressure (reduced to 32 deg. and sea level), was 29.813 

 in. This is about one-tenth of an inch below the average of the 

 last eighteen years : and is hardly what one would have expected 

 in an exceptionally dry year. But it may be explained by a series 

 of extremely low readings in January and February, and especi- 

 ally in the latter month, which had readings below 29 inches on 



