10 



fixing dish. I have, as I prefaced my remarlis, 

 talked of many branches of photograpliy which 

 might not at first sight appear to come under the 

 heading of my lecture, but I hope I have shown 

 that one step leads to the next and it follows that 

 one part being unsatisfactory will injuriously 

 affect the portions following. Experience and a 

 constant determination to improve is essential to 

 good work, but the subject is one that no one 

 need be afraid to undertake. 



Mr. Fielding kindly brought many enlarge- 

 ments, which were much admired, some of them 

 measuring 23 in. by 17 in. The various effects 



obtained and the colours suited to each subject 

 were very appropriate. 



The President, in moving a vote of thanks to 

 Mr. Fielding, stid that the lecture was one of the 

 most practical and helpful that had ever been put 

 before the Society, and he hoped those present 

 would carefully examine the numerous pictures 

 shown and question the lecturer about them. 



The vote having been unanimously carried, Mr. 

 Fielding suitably replied, and afterwards explained 

 several points of interest in couaeotion with his 

 lecture to the members. 



NINTH WINTER MEETING— FEBRUARY nth, 1902. 



"THE WIND AND THE WEATHER." 

 By Mr. A. Landeb. 



The ninth winter meeting was held on Tuesday 

 evening, Feb. 11, in the Reference Library at the 

 Beaney Institute. Mr. Sidney Harvey presided, 

 and the attendance also included Capt. Stead, Mr. 

 W. P. Mann, Captain Gordon McDakin, Mr. W. H. 

 Hammond, Mr. A. Lander (Hon. Secretary), Miss 

 Cole, etc. 



Announcement was made of the fact that at the 

 next evening meeting of the Society a fort- 

 night hence a lecture would be given by Mr. 

 Snell on the Photography of British birds' 

 nests and other natural objects. Mr. 

 Lander mentioned that in a recent competition, 

 which was open to the world. Mr. Snell obtained 

 first prize with his photographs of birds' nests. 

 They might therefore rely upon it that the 

 quality of the pictures to be shown would be the 

 best procurable. Among the exhibits on the table 

 that evening Miss Oole had kindly brought 

 pictures of several curious objects and some prints 

 of ferns. Mis5 Palin had sent down a lot of 

 " Brownie " photographs with which she was 

 recently successful in winning a prize, although 

 she had only taken up photography a few weeks 

 before. She had also sent a tiger's skull, lent by 

 Captain Phelips.which was shot by his son Vivian 

 in India. It was the biggest skull ever known to 

 have come from India, and was that of a fierce old 

 man-eating tiger which was a terror to the neigh- 

 bourhood. Mr.W. P. Mann had also kindly brought 

 his registering aneroid.whichwouldregister every 

 fluctuation of the barometer for a week at a time. 

 In briefly introducing the lecturer, the Chair- 

 man said he considered that Canterbury people 

 were much behind in the study of meterology. 

 The records were not suiRciently numerous, and 

 he thou/ht they were greatly indebted to those 

 who would take observations and report in a 

 systematic way. 



Mr. A. Lander then proceeded to give a very in- 

 teresting address on "TheWind and the Weather," 

 his remarks being illustrated by means of a large 

 number of excellent slides. Although everybody 

 one met had something to say about the weather, 



yet if a few questions were asked it became 

 evident that they had not much idea about the 

 weather, and perhaps the wind was even less 

 understood. To obtain an idea of the weather 

 it was necessary to study the atmosphere surround- 

 ing the earth as a whole. If one threw a pebble into 

 a pond, the resulting waves would gradually widen 

 out until they reached the edge of the pond and if 

 a duck slowly made its way across the pond to the 

 side the waves would surround the bird and 

 gradually move forward with it. That gave them 

 some rough idea of what he wanted to convey. The 

 atmosphere was subject to depressions, areas of low 

 pressure andalso areasof high pressure were formed. 

 They would readily understand that the water in 

 a pond would be lowest immediately under the 

 duck and the surface would rise until it came 

 to tha edges of the pond. In the same way if they 

 could get on top of the atmosphere they would 

 find in the area of low pressure a hollow, and, as 

 this travelled forward, the waves, or isobars, would 

 gradu.ally spread out until they got to a high place. 

 (Figs.l toG). Thus they had different heightsofthe 

 atmosphere, and got a higher or lower barometer 

 according to the weight of the atmosphere. 

 While in one place they had a depression, 

 a cyclone, or area of low pressure, elsewhere 

 they would have an anticyclone. These 

 depressions nearly always travelled in some 

 easterly direction. Mr Lander went on to 

 show by weather charts the course of the terrible 

 gale last November by whiclt about 300 lives were 

 lost around the British coasts. At eight o'clock 

 on the morning of November 12 it had 

 reached a point over Ireland, on the following 

 morning the depression was over Yorkshire 

 and the North Sea, next day it was over 

 Denmark, and the gale had ceased over Ireland 

 and the western British coasts, while a day Kter it 

 was partlyacross Russia (Figs. 1 to 3.) The British 

 MeteorologicalO ffice received messages from a num- 

 ber of stations in Western Europe at eight o'clock 

 every morning and six o'clock every night. Those 

 reports were forwarded in cypher, consisting of 



