26 Proceedings. 



Mrs. Tyndall exhibited Crucibulum vulgare, a small fungus 

 resembling a bird's nest and eggs, found on her gravel-path 

 at Eedhill. 



Mr. James B. Crosfield read the following ' Notes on an 

 UNUSUAL Phenomenon ' : — 



I arrived at Freshwater on the morning of June 15tb, 

 having crossed from Lymington to Yarmouth ; the weather 

 ■was rainy, though with occasional fair intervals. I started to 

 ■walk along the high chalk-cliflfs which extend westward about 

 three miles, being terminated at the Needles. The weather 

 ■was as little like Midsummer as can well be imagined. A 

 strong S.W. wind -was blowing, and squalls of rain from time 

 to time came driving in from the sea. The wind was too high 

 for the drops to be large, and it was sometimes difficult to 

 hold an umbrella against it ; but the rain was at times very 

 thick and wetting. The line of the cliffs is nearly due east 

 and west, and there are (as is the case on most chalk-cliffs) 

 slight undulations which run across the line of the cliffs, and 

 consequently north and south. It was natural to suppose 

 that the western slope of these dips or undulations would be 

 least exposed to the wind and rain, and accordingly, when 

 one of the squalls came on, I took my stand on the slight 

 slope, endeavouring to find the exact point where I should be 

 best protected from the rain. In more than one case I suc- 

 ceeded in finding what I may call a cyclonic centre, where 

 the wind was only very slight, and it was scarcely raining — 

 in fact so little that it ■was not worth while keeping my 

 umbrella up. As I stood at such a point I could see the rain 

 driving in sheets from the south-west on the oj)posite slope of 

 the dip, while along the bottom of the hollow intervening it 

 was driving with almost equal force from the north ; there 

 was thus the curious phenomenon of two distinct showers of 

 rain, one above and beyond the other, being driven in almost 

 opposite directions. If I moved my position from the focus 

 where I stood, I at once again encountered the wind and rain, 

 from the S.W. if I went higher up the slope, and from the N. 

 if I went lower down. It was to me a striking instance of 

 the way in which the course of a strong current of air may 



