11 



wet and stormy everywhere, and at Montevideo was, with 

 the exception of October, the wettest month of the year. 

 One of the greatest falls during a thunderstorm in the London 

 districts was experienced on June 16th, 1917, when amounts 

 up to 3.37in. were measured between 5 and 7 p.m., which 

 has only been exceeded in that locality in the same interval, 

 by 3.42 on July 23rd, 1903, and 3.90 on April 10th, 1878. 

 Here there was a good deal of thunder between May 26th 

 and June 19th. On the night of March 7th there was a 

 fine display of aurora in the neighbourhood of London and 

 other more northerly places. This coincided with a large 

 magnetic disturbance, whick reached its greatest intensity 

 at about 2 a.m. on March 8th. It is suggested that this 

 disturbance was connected with the large magnetic storm 

 of December 16th- 17th, 1917, there having been repetitions on 

 January 12th and February 8th, the interval in each case 

 being 27 days. Some instances of rainbows caused by the rays 

 of the sun being reflected from the surface of water have been 

 recorded. In such cases the usual two rainbows are generally 

 seen, and also portions of another pair, which cut the first 

 two at the horizon and comprise much larger arcs of circles 

 of similar sizes. After more than 3 years of war, opinions 

 are still divided as to whether the rainfall is or is not influenced 

 by gunfire, the evidence being very inconclusive on the subject. 



ELECTRICITY. 



The magnetic storms of December 16th, 1917, and March 

 7th, 1918, have already been alkided to. Another of consider- 

 able magnitude occurred on August 9th- 10th, and was also 

 noted from Australia, where it was accompanied by a display 

 of aurora. The magnetic survey work of the " Carnegie," 

 which in the winter of 1916-17 surveyed the portions of the 

 ocean between San Francisco and Easter Island, and thence 

 to Buenos Ayres, shows that the errors of the British Admiralty 

 charts in the first portion are less than half a degree, and 

 slightly more in most of the second portion from Easter Island 



