c ii. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



97 degrees, yet the thermometer has never before risen above 

 90 degrees on four consecutive days. Great heat prevailed at 

 this period over most parts of England, the highest temperature 

 reported being 96 degrees at Bawtry, in Yorkshire, on September 

 2nd. From the first report of the Meteorological Committee it is 

 satisfactory to learn that, with regard to the weather predictions 

 for the preceding year, complete or partial success was attained 

 as follows : Harvest forecasts, 89 per cent. ; forecasts appear- 

 ing in morning newspapers, 88 per cent. ; storm warnings, 88-4 

 per cent. A cyclone, causing great destruction and loss of life, 

 swept over Cuba and Florida on October iyth ; and on 

 September i8th a typhoon of great severity, which appears to 

 have come without any of the usual premonitory signs, burst 

 over the China seas with even more serious results. I turn to a 

 more pleasant phenomenon in the shape of a quadruple rainbow 

 seen in Orkney on September 3rd, the two primary bows rising 

 from the same points and likewise the two secondary ones. The 

 direct rays of the sun shining on the raindrops produce the 

 ordinary double bow, whilst the second pair is caused by the 

 sun's rays being reflected from some piece of water behind the 

 observer and falling on the raindrops at a different angle. The 

 distance between the bows would depend upon the sun's altitude 

 at the time. A valuable addition has been made to our know- 

 ledge of air currents by the publication of a book by the 

 Meteorological Office, entitled " The Life History of Surface 

 Air Currents," founded on a very large number of observations, 

 whilst investigations with balloons and kites continue to add to 

 our knowledge of the upper air strata. Telegraphic reports are 

 now received by the Meteorological Office from Iceland, and 

 form a valuable addition to our daily information on this subject. 



ELECTRICITY. 



Three antique sundials, provided with magnetic needles, 

 including a German one dated 1451, and all before the time of 

 Columbus, have lately been brought into notice as showing the 



