256 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [vol. ix 



Barometer. Temperature 



October 3, 8 a.m 30 . 120 57 



" 2 p.m 30.010 61 



lop.m 30.005 59 



October 4, 8 a.m 29 . 923 63 



" 10 a.m 7c 



' ' 2 p.m 29 . 780 70 



6 p.m 29.527 — 



10 p.m 29 . 332 62 



October 5, 8 a.m 29 . 450 55 



2 p.m 29.456 55 



" 10 p.m 29.665 46 



Excepting on the 1st of October wind has been southwest since the 

 29th ult. The wind was from south in morning but backed to east, 

 then veered to south, and at 10 p.m. to southwest. The 5th was raw 

 and blustery, wind going to northwest between 5 and 6 p.m. The total 

 rainfall on the 4th. was 0.530 inch. The barometer reading at 10 p.m. 

 of the 4th was the lowest during storm. 



When violent storms occur near the New Brunswick coast compari- 

 son is sometimes made with the great storm above described, known as 

 the "Saxby gale" because Lieut. Saxby of the British Navy wrote the 

 London press in November 1868 predicting the Earth would be visited 

 by a storm of unusual violence attended by an extraordinary rise of tide 

 at 7 o'clock on the morning of October 5th, 1869. Saxby concluded his 

 letter as follows: 



"I now beg to state with regard to 1869 at 7 a.m. October 5th, the 

 moon will be at the part of her orbit which is nearest the Earth. Her 

 attraction will be therefore at its maximum force. At noon of the same 

 day the moon will be on the Earth's equator, a circumstance which never 

 occurs without marked atmospheric disturbance, and at 2 p.m. of the 

 same day lines drawn from the Earth's centre would cut the Sun and 

 Moon in the same arc of right ascension (the Moon's attraction and the 

 Sun's attraction will therefore be acting in the same direction) in other 

 words the new moon will be on the Earth's equator when in perigee, and 

 nothing more threatening can, I say, occur without miracle. The earth 

 it is true will not be in perihelion by some 16 or 17 seconds of semi- 

 diameter. 



With your permission I will during September next (1869) for the 

 safety of mariners briefly remind your readers of this warning. In the 

 meantime there will be time for the repair of unsafe sea walls, and for 

 the circulation of this notice throughout the world." 



