10 



intestinal and putrescent debris found in the stomach and intes- 

 tines of animals, as if the herring actually fed on nothing but air 

 and water. When he approaches the shores, thus quitting the 

 proper feeding-ground, he takes to other and coarser food ; his 

 condition alters, and his flesh becomes soft and tasteless. The 

 stomach and intestines are found loaded with putrescent remains, 

 and gutted or ungutted, this 6sh could never be brought into the 

 market as equal to the product of the Dutch fisheries. 



February 4. 



Sir THOMAS MAKDOUGALL BRISBANE, 

 President, in the Chair. 



The following Donations were presented : — 



The Present State and Future Prospects of Mathematical and 



Physical Science in the University of Oxford. By the Rev. 



Baden Powell, Savilian Professor of Geometry. — From James 



D. Forbes, Esq. 

 Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Vol. IV. 



Part III. — From the Society. 

 Charter and Bye-Laws of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. — 



From the Society. 



The following communication was read : — 



Account of some Optical Phenomena observed upon the 

 Rigi, on the 16th October 1832. By James D. Forbes, 

 Esq., F.R.SS.L.&Ed. 



The object of this paper was to describe an example of a class 

 of phenomena, which is imperfectly understood. The author ob- 

 served an indistinct mass of reflected light, surrounded by a faint 

 glory, on the surface of a stratum of thick white clouds, 1000 or 

 1200 feet below him, when descending from the Rigi. The centre 

 of the coloured circle was the point diametrically opposite to the 

 sun, and consequently varied with the position of the observer. 

 As he approached the level of the cloudy ocean, the colours became 

 brio-hter, and the circle more distinctly formed, and the shadows of 

 the author and his companion were thrown with distinct outlines 



