264 Vice- President's Address. 



it continued the less likelihood was there of a change. If 

 the centres of cyclones passed to the south of us in winter, 

 there was cold weather ; if to the north, mild weather. 

 It was one of the most difficult and one of the most press- 

 ing problems of meteorology to throw light on the causes 

 that determine the patli's of storms, on the one hand to the 

 north, on the other to the south of us. The cold weather 

 began in the first week of October last year, the mean 

 temperature of this month being 4° "5 below the average. 

 During the whole of the past 118 years there had been 

 only two colder Octobers than that of 1880. November 

 and December were each 2° below the average. The 

 •January that followed was, except in Shetland, Orkney, 

 and the extreme nortli of Caithness and Sutherland, 

 absolutely the coldest month of which there was any 

 record in Scotland during the past 118 years. In the 

 centre of Scotland, and particularly in the district between 

 the Cheviots and the Lammermoors and Pentlands, it fell 

 in many districts to 4° lower than in any previous month. 

 Hence the great havoc done to the water pipes of houses, 

 tlie arrangements of which had not been made to resist 

 such a temperature. The greatest cold occurred on the 

 two nights preceding the memorable snowstorm in London 

 on January 16 and 17. The lowest temperature they had 

 any record of occurred at Stobo, Kelso, and Paxton House. 

 At Stobo it was — -16° in the protected box ; at Springwood, 

 Kelso — 15° below zero ; and at Paxton House — 13°. 

 December 4, 1879, and January 16 and 17 last, were the 

 occasions of the greatest cold that ever was known in the 

 British Islands, and it occurred in that part of Scotland 

 lying between the Cheviots and the Pentlands, which, 

 during the last ten years, had been peculiarly liable to be 

 attacked by severe cold. July was also a remarkable 

 month. The temperature as regards Scotland was very 

 unequally distributed, the lowest being in the south-west 

 of Scotland, and the warmest in the east. He exhibited a 

 map showing the distribution of temperature over the British 

 Islands in July, bringing out this result among others, that 

 in London the heat was about 3° above the average, but at 

 Cork 3° -5 below it. This difi'erence, he stated, turned on 

 what were called anti-cyclones — that was, places where the 



