Meteorology of Whitehaven. 379 



inches, so that the first nine months only received three inches more 

 rain than the last three months of the year. 



In the Lake Districts the disproportion was still greater. 



In 1847, there "have been five days in vrhich the quantity of rain was 

 between 1 and 2 inches, viz., one day in August, one in September, two 

 in November, and one in December ; and one day (in November) in 

 which the fall exceeded 2 inches. 



The mean temperature of 1847 is y^ths of a degree below the average 

 for this place. 



The driest days in 1847 were the 9th and 15th of March ; on the 9th, 

 the difference between the dew-point and air temperature was 21"; on 

 the loth at 10 a.m., it was 21°, and at 3 p.m. 27°. 



In the past 3ear, there have been 534 deaths in the town of White- 

 haven, the average number in the previous 8 years being 331 ; the mor- 

 tality is consequently 62 per cent, in excess. In 1839, the deaths in 

 this town were 313; in 1840, 260; in 1841, 316; in 1842, 303; in 

 1843, 337 ; in 1844, 309 ; in 1845, 287 ; in 1846, b'22 ; and in 1847, 

 534. 



This summary, which I have just made from authentic data in my 

 possession, shews a frighful increase in the mortality of the town of 

 Whitehaven during the last two years ; it must be borne in mind, how- 

 ever, that this excess has been general over the kingdom, though pro- 

 bably not to an equal extent. 



John Fletcher Miller. 

 AVhitehaven, August 1848. 



On the Asteriadce found Fossil in British Strata. By EDWARD 

 Forbes, Esq., F.K.S., Professor of Botany in King's Col- 

 lege, London, Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of 

 the United Kingdom. 



During the course of the researches of the Geological Survey of 

 Britain many remarkable fossil Kadiata have been brought to light, 

 some of which involve important considerations, both geological and 

 zoological. Not long ago. and until within a very few years past, it 

 was supposed that true star-fishes were animals whose appearance in 

 the earth's seas dated from the oolitic period at earliest. The few fossil 

 species on record had been observed in secondary formations. Their 

 relations with existing forms were uninvestigated, and, indeed, the 

 scientific study of the latter had scarcely commenced. Within the 

 last ten years, however, the attention of zoologists has been strongly 

 directed towards the Echinodermata, and numerous memoirs, both 

 physiological and systematic, have been published upon this interest- 

 ing order of Radiata. 



The structure, liabits, and sources of character, generic and speci- 



