231 



1?he temperature On the same days as shown by a verified blftck balb thermometer 

 placed in the sun, was as follows : — 



August. 



July. 



15th 132.6 



2l8t 128.2 



22Bd 133.1 



27th 126.1 



2nd 135.5 



3rd 138.5 



4th 142.2 



5th 128.7 



Upon the whole, we may conclude that the temperature of 1868 will bear com- 

 parison with that of any year of which we have authentic information. 



The summer was not tropical in its temperature ; those who think it was 

 BO cannot know what the heat of a tropical summer really is ; but it was exces" 

 sive for these regions, and had a perceptible influence on health and on the bills 

 of mortality. The grass also was burned up, hills took fire, and thus sheep- 

 walks of considerable extent were destroyed ; and the distress in agricultural 

 districts would have been very great indeed had a severe winter followed. But 

 it has been most mercifully ordered, in the providence of God, that a winter 

 unusually mild has followed the heat and destructive drought of the memorable 

 summer of 1868, and thus, up to the present moment at least, the anxious fears 

 of many have been altogether set at rest, and the apparently well-grounded 

 predictions of others have failed of realization and come to nothing. 



I have already alluded to the fact that two earthquake shocks were felt in 

 England during the past year. The first was very limited in extent, being 

 confined apparently to a portion only of one county, viz., Somerset. It is thus 

 noticed in "Symons' Monthly Meteorological Magazine" for February: — "On 

 January 4th, at 5.10 a.m., a slight shock of earthquake was felt throughout 

 the southern part of Somersetshire, Taunton, "Wellington, Langport, and other 

 places. Beds and houses were shaken, lamps and windows rattled, &c." 



The second shock, however (which occurred on the 30th of October), was 

 felt over a very large portion of the surface of our island ; for the movement 

 extended from Plymouth to Liverpool, and from the centre of South Wales 

 to the neighbourhood of London. In fact, as Mr. Symons observes, "its 

 apparent extent agrees very well with that which prevailed in October, 1863." 

 The motion was, to my own feelings at least, very gentle. Those persons who 

 were out of doors or on the ground floors of houses, speaking generally, failed 

 to observe any movement whatever. Persons in bed or in the upper rooms of 

 houses felt the shock very distinctly, and the higher the house the more per- 

 ceptible was the motion. I was in bed at the time, and my bedroom being 

 tolerably high above ground, the rise and fall of the earthquake wave was very 

 distinctly felt by me, whilst the people down stairs were unconscious of any 

 ■hock at alL 



The movement appeared to consist of a gentle but very perceptible rise 

 and fall, and there was no sound whatever. 



Thus the earthquake of 1868 differed essentially from the alarming shock 

 of 1863. Of course I speak only of those two movements as we experienced 

 them at Hereford. In 1863 there was first a trembling of the earth sufBciently 



