

a TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 25 
there is something very peculiar just now in the atmosphere, and from the fact that 
_ the instruments seem as strangely affected as the senses.” 
We adverted in a former issue to the singular state of the weather at Calcutta, 
Delhi, along the line of the Jhelum and Chenaub from Rhotas to Mooltan, and near 
Socotra at Aden, on the 22nd of January; and we now have an account of the ap- 
pearance at Gibraltar at the same date of nearly the same phenomena which were 
observed all over the northern part of India. Here, as at Calcutta, Bombay, and 
Aden, the mercury was remarkable for its elevation; and we have little doubt that 
were returns obtained from the intermediate points, similar facts would be supplied. 
Here we have one of the most striking cases of an atmospherical perturbation of 
simultaneous occurrence we have ever noticed, traceable over one-fourth part of the 
earth’s circumference from east to west, and 20° lat. N. by S. We now have the same 
striking chain of phenomena from Ceylon, where the heat at Colombo in the last 
week of January was altogether without precedent in the meteorological annals of 
the Cinnamon Isle. Hot winds, resembling those of the present year, were last 
experienced in 1844 [month not given], when they blew from the 16th to the 19th, 
Occasioning much injury to the crops. The waters of the Colombo lake were be- 
ginning to dry up, and the canals were nearly useless; many of the wells had run 
dry. The Ceylon Times, to which we are indebted for these facts, assures us that 
the evaporation amounts to nearly an inch per diem. 
On the Results of certain Anemometers. By FoLLetT OSLER. 
The author first stated, that, from an aggregate of upwards of 50,000 additional 
hourly observations, he had been enabled to test the accuracy of the report he brought 
forward in Glasgow respecting the hourly forces of the wind and their coincidence 
with the curves of temperature, and that the result was highly satisfactory, being 
almost precisely similar to that recorded in the report just alluded to, the wind 
rising with the temperature with great regularity. The curve of temperature for 
each season corresponded with the curve of force; but from these observations it 
would appear that the period of mean force in the evening took place about half an 
hour before that of mean temperature; showing that the motion of the air declines 
more rapidly than the temperature. The whole of the stations comprise an aggre- 
gate of nearly 200,000 hourly observations, all of which were tabulated and reduced. 
_ The direction of the wind for each hour of the day, together with its force, was first 
tabulated, and from this an abstract was obtained, giving the total force and direc- 
tion for every day. Thus, on the first of January for each year the winds for that 
day with their forces are recorded; and so on throughout the year. By thus ob- 
taining the exact period of each wind, the coincidences of a series of years were 
ascertained. In reviewing the Wrottesley observations, which were carried out 
more fully than the rest, Mr. Osler called attention to the fact of disturbances in the 
_ currents of the atmosphere taking place at certain and apparently regular intervals. 
_ A comparative calm is followed by considerable disturbances: these calms and 
"movements appear to be periodical. Jt was possible that observations for a longer 
term might neutralize these periods, and by shifting their times only leave us with 
the knowledge that intermittent pulses do occur ; but the regularity of some led him 
to hope that such is not the case, and that a law of periodicity might be traced even 
in this variable climate. 
From six years’ records at Wrottesley the average periods of greatest movement 
in the aérial currents took place towards the end of January, the middle and end of 
March, the end of April, the early part of June, a short time after the middle of 
October, about the 20th of November, and the first week in December: the periods 
of greatest calm occurred about the middle of January, about the 17th of June, and 
about the 14th of November. There were many other maxima and minima, but 
Mr. Osler thought it desirable to defer going more into detail respecting them until 
he had been able further to investigate the subject. On minutely examining the 
registers of the anemometers two kinds of currents are observed, the one moving very 
regularly and with great steadiness, the other in larger pulses or waves, causing the 
yane to oscillate over a considerable arc. One he regarded as the air moving to fill 
up a void or deficiency ; the other, flowing from an excess or from a portion of the 
