Transactions. 31 



greatly retarded the work of the harvest, and caused in many cases 

 serious damage to the grain crops. In the other autumn mouths 

 there was an unusual decline of temperature, the mean of October 

 being only 45° and that of November 39"7°, as compared with 

 -l:9-8° last year in the former month and ■42-1" in the latter. As 

 early as the 8th October the higher hills in Dumfriesshire and 

 over Scotland had a covering of snow, and on the night of the 

 11th or morning of the 12th the thermometer registered 8° of 

 frost. Northerly and easterly winds prevailed in both these 

 months, and in November the sky was for the most part overcast, 

 with a consequent minimum of sunshine, which made the Aveather 

 both cold and gloomy. October had 10 nights of frost, with an 

 aggregate of 28°, and November 13 nights, with an aggregate of 

 47°. The total number of days throughout the year in which the 

 thermometer was at or below the freezing point was 9G, and the 

 aggregrate degrees of frost 360. In 1886 the number of days was 

 112, and the aggregate 536°. So far, however, was the excess of 

 cold this year counterbalanced by the unusual heat of June and 

 July that the mean temperature of the year was 1° higher than 

 that of 1886, viz., 472° as compared with 46'2° in the latter year 

 Comparing this with the mean temperature of other parts of Scot- 

 land, as reported this week in some of the newspapers, I find that 

 Ardrossan had a mean temperature for the past year of 47-3°; 

 Leith, of 47 2'; Aberdeen, of 464°; and Wick, of 45-3°. It may 

 be interesting to note, as showing the difference between a northern 

 and southern temperature, that the mean annual temperature of 

 Greenwich for the last fifty years is 51-8°. Mr Dudgeon of Cargen 

 reports a mean for the year of 46-2°. How this diflerence from 

 the temperature of Dumfries is to be explained 1 cannot say ; but 

 I have repeatedly observed that both the highest maximum and 

 the lowest minimum temperatures of the month at Cargen are, as 

 a rule, lower than those reported at Dumfries by one or two 

 degrees, and sometimes more. There must be different local con- 

 ditions affecting the temperature to give rise to this difference in 

 places so near one another. The mean of 47 '2°, though above the 

 mean of the previous year, is still somewhat under the usual average. 

 Rainfall. — There were 181 days on which rain or snow fell 

 (rain, 170; snow, 11); on 34 of which, however, the fall did not 

 exceed one hundredth of an inch ; total, 30-99 inches. In 1886 

 rain or snow fell on 224 days, with a total of 41-13 inches. Tiie 

 heaviest fall in 24 hours in 1887 occurred between 9 A.M. of 6th 



