208 REVIEWS—ROBERT DICK. 
Indeed, there was hardly a subject upon which Miller applied to him 
for information on which Dick did not give him invaluable aid. Agassiz 
and Sir Roderick Murchison testified to his claims on science, the latter 
again and again doing him homage. Among his most intimate friends 
was Charles Peach, born at Wansford, in Northamptonshire, and like 
himself an untiring labourer among the records of the rocks. Peach 
found fossil fishes in Cornwall, but eventually removed to Peterhead, 
where he added to the list of British fishes Yarrell’s blenny, Ray’s 
bream, and the anchovy, and then (he was in the Preventive service) 
came to Wick, when he and the baker became great friends. Dick 
pursued his researches with the greatest zeal, the principal part of his 
geological and botanical work being done between ten at night and eight 
in the morning, walking, as he says, sometimes fifty miles without 
sitting down, and with only afew biscuits to eat; and this not as an 
occasional thing, but repeatedly in order to visit afern or search for traces 
of the boulder clay, or hammer out some fish from the rocky cliffs of 
Dunnet Head. 
On laying down the book one cannot help regretting that with all 
the wealth of England a man like this could not have been provided 
with something to render the latter end of his life more comfortable. 
The book is illustrated with some capital views, though the one of 
Wansford is not very good, and that of Morven exaggerates its height — 
and steepness. 
G. C. D. 
METEOROLOGY OF THE MIDLANDS. 
THE WEATHER OF JUNE, 1879. 
BY W. JEROME HARRISON, F.G.S. 
June witnessed no improvement in the weather of this (atmo- 
spherically speaking) most disagreeable year. There were never two 
consecutive days without rain, which indeed fell on twenty-five days out 
of the thirty. Thunderstorms were frequent, and those of the 3rd, 8th, 
Oth, 12th, 24th, 25th, and 29th were general and severe; on the 1ith 
there fell at Bishop’s Castle 1-10 inches in twenty-five minutes! Tem- 
perature was greatly below the average, and there was little sunshine ; 
Mr. Davis, of Orleton, writes :—‘‘ The mean temperature here of June is 
34° lower than the average; the rainfall has only once been exceeded 
(viz., in June, 1860) during the last forty-nine years. Up to the Ist of 
July this year the maximum of thermometer in shade has never reached 
70°, this has not occurred for the last fifty-four years.” 
The barometer did not fluctuate much, but ranged somewhat low ; 
light south-westerly winds prevailed, which gained, however, in intensity 
during the last week of the month. ‘Owing to the soaked and chilled 
condition of the soil, all garden crops, grass crops, and cereals have 
advanced nothing on the condition noticed last month, and are alla full 
month later than usual.”—Rev. U. Smith, Stoney Middleton. 
