ent heights from the sities fated | it appeared that more 
was received near the surface of the earth than at higher points. 
Further experiments show that these results vary much with the 
nature of the gauge employed, and with the local situation of 
their exposure. The globular rain-gauge of Dr. Robinson was 
explained. A globe of copper stands on a stem with a funnel, so 
as to leave exposed to the rain its upper part ; the rain, as it trick- 
les down the globe, is caught by the funnel ; when the wind is 
high, the drops, as they collect below, are in danger of being 
blown off, unless the funnel extends out so as to stand under 
about one quadrant of the globe, thus leaving about 270° expos- 
ed. In this way, the copper globe always presents a nearly equal 
cross section to the descending rain, whether the rain-drops fall 
in vertical lines, or in lines considerably inclined. This gauge 
had been fitted up on the flat roof of the observatory at Armagh, 
in the close vicinity of an ordinary horizontal gauge, the mouth 
of which exposed exactly one hundred square inches: the diam- 
eter of the globe had also been so regulated as to expose exactly 
an equal cross section. Except during the violent gale of Janu- 
ary 6, 1839, he had never found the rain to be blown out of the 
receiving funnel of the globular gauge. It had been set up since 
Sept. 1838, and the mean result was, that the ratio of the quan- 
tity received by the globe gauge to that received by the ordinary 
gauge is almost exactly 2: 1; this ratio, however, was very much 
departed from, on one Ps se during a very severe gale in No- 
vember, 1839, in which the barometric column descended rapidly 
to a very low point, the globular gauge received 0.76, while not 
one drop had entered the horizontal gauge beside it: the curvets 
upon the roof, doubtless, having given rise to this remarkable 
circumstance, in the manner described by Prof. Bache, of Phila- 
delphia. 
_ Mr. T. Hopkins presented a paper on the Influence of Moun- 
tains on Temperature in the Winter in certain parts of the north- 
ern hemisphere. Mr. H. stated, that between the latitudes of 
40° and 70° North, there is in the same parallels, a great differ- 
ence of temperature, particularly in the winter, amounting in 
some cases to as much as 40° or 50° F. The western coasts of 
the two continents are much warmer than the eastern, and the 
winds generally blow from the sea to the western coasts; and it 
has been inferred that the prevailing winds passing over sea to the 
