Meteorological Summary for 1824. — Hampshire. 159 



By these curious results, we find that the cumulus and cu- 

 mulostratus approximate nearest in number : tlie former is a 

 fair-weather cloud, and evaporates at or soon after sunset when 

 the atmosphere is not in a humid state ; the latter is generally 

 a prognostic of an approaching change in the state of the at- 

 mosphere. Next to these, the cirrus and nivibus approximate 

 nearest in number : the cirri are precursors of, and very ge- 

 nerally become the crowns of, the passing nimbi. The re- 

 spective electricities they at all times possess, are positive and 

 negative, and the rain is induced by their inosculation, gravity, 

 and electric effluvia. Of all the modifications of clouds, the 

 cirrostratus, it will be perceived, prevails most, being fre- 

 quently formed from the descending cirrus, and sometimes 

 from the cumulus, when changes are about to take place in the 

 direction of the winds, and in the temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere. The proportional appearance of the cirrostratus to the 

 cirucs is as 1 13 to 81. The cirrocumulus and strattis are also 

 fair-weather clouds; the former is an indication of increasing 

 heat, and is generally transformed into cirrostratus with a 

 moist wind ; and the latter into nascent cumulus, after sunrise. 



Weather. — The year, although not cold, was generally 

 wet and windy, particularly the last four months, during which 

 time many of the vales and low parts of England were often 

 under water, which occasioned the loss of both lives and pro- 

 perty to a considerable amount. There has been rain, more 

 or less, on 232 days ; but 80 days and nights is the time it 

 has rained. 



The hurricane that blew across this country on the 22d and 

 23d of November last will be long remembered, from the 

 great loss in wrecks along the southern shores. It was felt 

 powerfully in the Western Ocean at the same time. 



Nothing })eculiar has occurred this year in the appearance 

 of atmospheric and meteoric phaenomena. 



About six minutes before 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 

 6th of December, a shock of an earthquake was very generally 

 felt in these towns and neighbourhood ; also at Havant, Ems- 

 worth, Chichester, Bognor, and Arundel, that is, in the di- 

 rection of from S.W. to N.E. It was accompanied with a 

 rumbling noise, and put both light and heavy furniture in a 

 treiiiour about five or six seconds of tinie. It is now about 

 twelve years since the last shock was felt here, which occurred 

 ia the night, and was more violent than this one. 



METEORO- 



