12 REPORT—1846. 
zontal position. Are those flashes as scarce as it is generally believed? Are they pro- 
duced by a particular state of humidity which makes the state of the air better 
conductors in many given directions simultaneously than in others? This I am not 
able to decide; but I think that the quantity of rain which happens to fall during a 
thunder-storm has a great influence upon the falling of the electric fluid. Indeed, in 
a recent instance, a thunderbolt fell in a low part of a vintage near Lausanne, 
burning all the stems on an area of more than eighty feet square, during a shower of 
the most tremendous character, and without being attracted by more elevated con- 
ductors which were at a short distance; and, on the contrary, two years ago, during 
a storm which was accompanied by no rain, the thunder fell on a neighbouring situa- 
tion, and burned by ricochets, stems here and there, upon a surface of more than 
four acres. 
Dr. Lee presented the following tables to the Section :— 
1. Meteorological Observations for the year 1845, made by J. R. Crowe, Esq., the 
British Consul-General of Norway, residing at Christiana. These tables are a con- 
tinuation of others made in 18438, and presented to the British Association at York, 
and of similar tables made in 1844, and presented to the Association at Cambridge, 
and which are noticed in the volume of the Proceedings for 1545, at page 19 of the 
abstracts of communications to the Section of Mathematics and Physics. They con- 
sist of observations of the barometer and thermometer, and of the direction of the 
wind, made on nearly every day in the year 1845, at the hours—7 a.m., 9 a.M., 2P.M., 
4 p.m., and 10 p.m., with the means of each column for each month, and the mean tem- 
perature of each month. The depth of snow is given for the months of January, 
February and March, in cubic inches; and the quantity of rain in cubic inches for each 
of the other months of the year. 
2. Meteorological Observations made at Alten in West Finmark, at the Kaafjord 
Meteorological Observatory, in the years 1844 and 1845, by J. F. Cole, Esq. and 
J. H. Grewe, Esq., of the Alten Mining Company. These tables are a continuation 
of others for the year 1848, presented to the British Association at York, and which 
have been deemed worthy of notice by Colonel Sabine, who has referred to them in 
a note on his paper on the Meteorology of Bombay, at p. 80 of the Report of the Pro- 
ceedings at Cambridge, in the volume published in 1845. These tables contain the 
height of the barometer and thermometer, in shade, at 9 a.m., 3 p.M., and 9 P.M., with 
the maxima and minima of the thermometer at 3 p.m.; the quantity of rain or melted 
snow; the force and direction of the wind, and of the clouds, and the description of 
clouds, and the proportion of clear sky at the same hours. To which are added, 
tables of the half-hourly results of all the above observations on the 21st and 22nd of 
each month in the year. 
3. Observations on the Aurora Borealis during the year 1845, made at the Kaaf- 
jord Meteorological Observatory at the Alten Copper Works, by J. F. Cole, Esq. and 
J. H. Grewe, Esq. These tables contain observations upon the position and the 
degree of intensity, and the forms of the aurora, which have been made by these zeal- 
ous amateurs of meteorology during the months of January, February, March and 
April, September, October, November and December; no observations being practi- 
cable during the summer months, on account of the brighiness of the daylight during 
this portion of the year. 
On a New Anemometer. By Dr. BAnks. 
The instrument is worked by a vane supported on a hollow wooden shaft about 
two inches diameter and three feet long, whose upper end is supported by slight 
friction rollers, and the bottom rests on a steel point. 
Each of two levers holds a pencil, one for the direction of the wind, working 
in a spiral of three turns, which by a very simple contrivance returns to its position 
if the wind moves round the compass with frequency. The other lever is acted upon 
by the force-board attached to the vane, and which, in its retirement from an in- 
creasing wind, raises a series of weights together with a disc, upon which, by a roller, 
the lever rests. ‘The instrument is about 24 feet long by 2 feet high, exclusive of the 
vane, which is attached to a tin tube of length according to circumstances. 
