Of the Spring Months of the Year 1855. 23 



desires to acknowledge his special obligations to Mr. Gardner and Mr. 

 Hart, for the valuable aid which they have rendered. Much information 

 was also obtained by the kind co-operation of Mr. Clark of the Botanic 

 Garden. 



It is matter of regret that the Eeport now presented cannot lay claim 

 to much scientific value. The instruments whose indications are given 

 were not compared with one another, or with any common standard, so 

 as to give precisely correspondent results. When the inquiry was under- 

 taken, no combined system of observations in regard to Scottish mete- 

 orology had yet been instituted ; and the Committee had, therefore, no 

 choice but to make use of such information as they could draw from the 

 registers of isolated observers, employing instruments, probably good 

 enough in their construction, but without that value in their indications 

 which is given by inter-comparison, and the application of a uniform 

 plan of reduction. Happily, however, such a combined system has now 

 been established ; and any future Eeport having reference to years sub- 

 sequent to the present will possess a true scientific value. In September" 

 last, at the meeting of the British Association in this city, a Meteoro- 

 logical Society for Scotland was organized ; in connection with which, 

 and at suitably selected stations, there will soon be a great many 

 observers recording their observations simultaneously at the critical 

 hours, by means of instruments of the best construction, and previously 

 compared with a standard. The discussion and comparison of these, 

 under the able superintendence of Mr. Keith Johnston and Dr. Stark, 

 will, doubtless, in a few years, make us acquainted with many important 

 laws; while the publication, from time to time, of the continuous and 

 combined records of all tlie phenomena, will render unnecessary such an 

 inquiry as that entered upon by your Committee. Tliis Report, indeed, 

 can only be regarded as a feeble attempt to supply the want of such a 

 societj^ — to foreshadow the advantages which will result from its labours, 

 and to fix a sort of rudely measured approximate base, with which to 

 compare inquiries and observations in years to come. 



The spring months of 1855 were distinguished from those of many 

 preceding years by a continued low temperature. During the month of 

 December, 185i, and the early part of January following, the weather 

 was mild and open, with slight frost on a few days only, and winds 

 varying, at Glasgow, through tlie quadrant, from S.W. to N.W. Here, 

 on the 12th January, the wind went about E., and a slight frost was first 

 experienced on the night of the 12th-18th. The change of weather was 

 almost simultaneous at the other stations from which wc have returns, 

 and which range from Stornoway, the Orkneys, Elgin, and Aberdeen, to 

 Kirkcudbright. Frost, at first slight, set in between the 10th and 14th 



