1 1 Transactions. 



exceptionally dry — February and September in particular showing 

 a register of less tlian 1 in. each for the month, February, 0-GO in., 

 September, 0-97 in., or 1-50 in. for the two months, in place of an 

 average of 4 in. for each month, and October a deficiency of 1 h 

 inches. 



Thunderstorms. — There were six occasions on which thunder 

 and lightning were observed, the 18th and 19th of May, the 9th 

 and 14tli of June, the 26th of July, and the 10th of August. 

 There might have been more, but these were the only instances 

 which attracted my attention. The most severe were those of the 

 19th May and 14th June, which occasioned considerable loss of 

 life, especially in the south and west of Scotland. The former 

 travelled from the south northwards, and affected more or less the 

 whole country from Cumberland to Aberdeen. 



Floods. — I have also noted the occasions on which the river 

 Nith was in flood, viz., from the 4th to the 7th January, the 30th 

 May, the 23d to the 27th July, the 'iSth October, during a con- 

 siderable part of the latter half of November, and on the 3d Decem- 

 ber, the river reaching its highest point on the last-mentioned 

 date. 



11. Some Notes on tlie Abbey of Holyivood and on the Welshes of 

 CoUiestoun and Craigenputtock. By Mr John Carlyle 

 AlTKEN. 



Although there are excellent " Lives " of the famous John 

 Welshes, of the family of CoUistoun, who figured in the days of 

 John Knox, as well as in the tragic time of the great Whig 

 Persecution at the close of the seventeenth century, and in the 

 reigns of King Charles the Second, and of James, his brother, 

 nevertheless, we may here endeavour to do something in the way 

 of further illustration of some of the more local featiires, the truly 

 classic vale of Nith seeming to afford a fair field in its still greatly 

 unwritten history. Therefore, should we be fortunate enough, in 

 the course of our notes, to develop any \\%wf or characteristic 

 features in the process, our labour may noi be altogether in vain. 



In the first place, as a featural peculiarity of those mountain 

 and hill regions, amid which lay the ancient homelands of the 

 Welshes, of Dunscore and Nithsdale generally, there is a pi-onounced 

 and somewhat unusually Celtic association in the surnames of the 

 clans, or communities of folk, who for so many ages lived and 



