Meteorological Ohservatioiis for June 1829. 159 



On the 13th a solar and a lunar halo appeared, and set with the sun and 

 moon which they circumscribed. In the evening of the 16th, after another 

 dry and dusty period of twenty-two days, very refreshing showers of rain 

 came on by means of a change of wind to the S.W. ; they were followed 

 almost every day to the end of the month by gentle rain, and a tolerably 

 imiform temperature. 



On the "30th and 29th, lightning and thunder occurred by the inoscula- 

 tion of two currents of wind : and solar halos again presented themselves 

 in beds oi cirrostratus on the 23r3, 24th, 26th and 30th, and were followed 

 by rain, mostly in the nights. The mean temperature of the atmosphere this 

 month is nearly half a degree under the mean of June for many years past. 



It would be difficult to describe with any degree of accuracy the richness 

 and beauty of the colours that appeared in the clouds, and in the water 

 about the shore here at sunrise and sunset in the early part of the month : 

 the same gradation of colours which the condensed aqueous vapours and 

 falling dews passed through at these times, was successively painted on the 

 water beneath them, as yellow, orange, red, lake, light blue, &c. 



The red light is remarkable for its frequency in the clouds ; and in pass- 

 ing through a prism it appears the least refrangible of any other, and makes 

 the strongest impression on the retina of the eye; it forces its way through 

 very dense media ; hence it is that we see through a fog the discs of the 

 sun and moon red, and also distant terrestrial lights, as was the case on the 

 16th of last month. 



The atmosphere a few miles high is permanently transparent and cloud- 

 less, where solar hght neither suffers alterations in its colours, nor obstruc- 

 tion in its passage by aqueous vapours, and where it shows a cerulean tint 

 of different shades from light to dark blue, according to the temperature 

 and elasticity of the atmosphere at that height. These shades, unchanged 

 in their transmission, penetrate the deep sea- water in high latitudes to some 

 depth, and by strangers to marine views are looked upon with admiration, 

 while the shallow water about the shores to some distance in the offing, 

 preserves a varying green colour. The colours seen on the water are in 

 the rays of light, not in the bodies that refract or reflect them. When 

 wind and attenuated vapours prevail, the blue tint that appears on the wa- 

 ter under an azure sky is changed to a variety of green shades, and even 

 to a turbid colour, according to the density of the vapours above, and the 

 quantity of solar light intercepted by them. A dark nimbus, for instance, 

 has often the effect of producing a dark green on the sea-water, and other 

 modifications of clouds produce other colours thereon, as they are co- 

 loured. 



The atmospheric and meteoric phaenomena that have come within our 

 observations this month, are two lunar and six solar halos, two meteors, 

 three rainbows, lightning twice, thunder three times, and two gales of wind ; 

 namely, one from the South-east, the other from the South-west. 



KEMARKS. 



Lo7j(/o«. — June 1. Cloudy. 2—5. Very fine. C. Fine. 7. Very fine. 

 8. Cloudy, with slight rain at night: fine. 9. Cloudy morning: very fine. 

 10 — 15. Very fine. IG. Cloudy.' 17. Sultry, with some thunder at noon. 

 18. Sultry, with heavy thunder showers in the afternoon. 1!>. Very fine. 

 20. Very fine: rain at night. 21. Overcast: very fine. 22. Cloudy and 

 wet : fine at night. '-':!. Very fine : rain at night. 2'1. Very fine. 25. Fine, 

 with showers : heavy rain at night. '2(i. Very fine. 27. Rainy. 28. Sultry, 

 with thunder showers. 29. Drizzly. 30. Rainy. 



Meleoro- 



