70 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION A. 



Makerstown ; he became, in fact, the honored and ti^usted fellow 

 woi'ker of Sir Thomas Brisbane. 



The following notice of his retirement appeared : — 

 [(Sydney Morning Herald, 9th Nov., 1847-] 



Mr. Dunlop, the Astronomer Koyal of this Colony, has resigned his 

 appointment. During the many years Mr. Dunlop has held this most 

 distinguished appointment he has made it a fixed rule of his life to 

 distribute in acts of charity the salary he received from the Admiralty, 

 with whom the appointment is vested. He was appointed Corresponding 

 Member of the Institute Royal de France, received the Gold Medal of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society of London and other due recognitions of talent. 

 A public Testimonial Committee is appointed in Parramatta. 



In a letter, signed James Dunlop, he says that in May, 1843, 

 he had looked over the South Head barometer readings and found 

 the points of the curves later than at Parramatta. Hence it is 

 evident that in May, 1843, he was keeping a Meteorological 

 Record. (His letter is with the South Head Observations in Sydney 

 Observatory.) In Captain King's " Hundred Observations," also, 

 it is incidentally mentioned that Mr. Dunlop had determined the 

 diurnal curve of the barometer by sixteen days of hourly readings. 

 These observations are in one of the remaining books, but the 

 observations are not for every hour of the twenty -four ; from six 

 to eight hours are omitted each night. 



Mr. Dunlop was born on 31st Octobei', 1793, at Dairy, 

 Ayrshire; resigned his position at Parramatta, August, 1847; 

 died 23rd September, 1848, and was buried at Kincumber within 

 thirteen months of his leaving Parramatta. 



P. E. DE Strzelecki. 



In a carefully prepared work by P. E. de Strzelecki, "Physical 

 Description of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land," 

 published in London, in 1845, will be found a very valuable con- 

 tribution to the Meteorology of the period 1838 to 1842 inclusive. 

 The work, or rather this part of it is largely a compilation from 

 the official records kept at Sydney and Port Macquarie ; from 

 observations made in Tasmania at Woolnarth and Port Arthur ; 

 from his own observations made during his stay of live years ; 

 and from the observations of Captain P. P. King, from which 

 particulary he derives the account of the circulation of winds 

 round the coast, and he concludes that the monsoon winds which 

 are supposed to blow round Australia, must necessarily (p. 169) 

 impart to the remaining central atmospheric fluid certain regular 

 eddies, similar to those observed in the sea or large rivers. 

 Further, that this circulation striking on the high chain of 

 mountains to the west of Tasmania "naturally gives rise to a 

 subordinate eddy," which gives the prevailing winds to Tasmania 

 and Victoria. There is a very interesting chapter on hot winds, 

 and he points out that Australia and Tasmania are not the only 

 countries subject to them. The atmospheric pressure, temperature, 



