14 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



and I believe that even these figures are exceeded in some 

 other parts of the world. Two waterspouts were seen on 

 August 16, 1915, at about 1.0 p.m. off Dymchurch, in Kent, 

 during a thunderstorm, consisting of a long narrow funnel 

 connecting a dark cloud with the sea at a point where the 

 surface was violently agitated. In one case the funnel was 

 seen to be in rapid rotation. Observations taken for several 

 years at Helwan in Egypt, 80 miles W. of Suez, shew nearly 

 half the days with a clear sky. On the rest, cirrus clouds are 

 the most frequent, other forms being more occasional. Fogs 

 occur sometimes in the early morning during the winter 

 months. During a thunderstorm near Gibraltar on May 25, 

 1915, a shower of frogs is said to have fallen, drawn up, it is 

 supposed, from a lake 20 miles distant. This is believed to 

 have been a genuine shower, but a sudden migration of small 

 frogs from a pond during a shower of rain might in some 

 cases furnish an explanation of such a phenomenon. The 

 month of January last was exceptionally warm, the mean 

 temperature at Greenwich being 7'2 above the average of 

 75 years and 2 higher than any year since 1841. The 

 highest actual reading recorded was 57 on January 1 and 

 17, which has only once been equalled in the course of the 

 past 75 years, viz., on January 28, 1843. For those interested 

 in upper air temperatures, a report has been lately published 

 of the results of about 60 ascents in Java. In the report of 

 the Australian Antarctic expedition lately published, the 

 extreme force of the wind is spoken of as one of the greatest 

 trials of the expedition in Wilkesland. Gusts are recorded 

 with a velocity of 200 miles an hour, and 180 miles was 

 common. On May 15 the mean for 24 hours was 90 miles 

 per hour, and the average speed of the whole year 50 miles, 

 a speed which would constitute a very severe gale in this 

 country. How anything could stand against these fearful 

 hurricanes, often with driving snow, one can hardly imagine. 

 There may have been a little uncertainty about the accuracy 

 of the anemometer in the higher records, as these instruments 

 are apt to be unreliable, but the force was in any case 



