August, 1911. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



319 



interesting area of the Garlton Hills, made up mainly of 

 trachytes, with some mugearites and basalts, and an occurrence 

 of the rare kulaite (hornblende-basalt), all lavas of Calciferous 

 Sandstone age. 



A little-known and rather inaccessible, but beautiful, region 

 is described in the memoir on "The Geology of Glenelg, 

 Lochalsh and the south-east part of Skye." The geology is 

 extraordinarily complex, as the area contains the southern 

 ends of some of the great thrust-planes which are a feature of 

 the north-west of Scotland. The relation of the iMoine to the 

 Lewisian gneiss is well displayed. The Moine is shown to 

 rest unconformably on the Lewisian. with a basal conglomerate 

 at some localities. Variety is given to the geology of the 

 district by the inclusion of a portion of the Tertiary % olcanic 

 rocks of Skye, and of a series of highly fossiliferous Mesozoic 

 strata, ranging from the Trias to the Upper Cretaceous. 



The maps issued with these memoirs are colour-printed, and 

 are the first Scottish maps to be so issued. They are a^reat 

 improvement on the expensive and somewhat unreliable hand- 

 coloured maps. 



METEOROLOGY. 



Ky JoH.v .A. Curtis. K.K.Mkt.Soc. 



The weather of the week ended June 17th. as indicated by the 

 Weekly Weather Reports issued by the Meteorological Office, 

 was at first fair and dry in the South and West, but cool and 

 showery in the North and East. Towards the end of the week 

 rain set in very generally, and thunderstorms were experienced 

 in many places. 



Temperature was below the average in all districts except 

 the English Channel, where it was 0-2 above. The greatest 

 difference from average was in Scotland E., where the mean 

 was 4 ■ 5 lower than the normal. The highest reading recorded 

 was 76° at Killarney on the 11th, which was S'-O lower than 

 the maximum of the previous week. .At many stations the 

 maximum did not reach 70°, and in the extreme North it was 

 under 60 , only 54° at Lerwick, The minima ranged down to 

 28" at Balmoral and 30° at Llangammarch Wells. In the 

 English Channel, however, the minimum did not fall below 

 • 46". On the grass very low readings were recorded, 19° at 

 Llangammarch Wells, 24° at Birmingham, and 26' at several 

 stations. 



Rainfall was generally deficient in the eastern parts of the 

 country, and in Ireland N., but was in excess elsewhere, 

 though not to any great extent. Sunshine was above the 

 average in all districts and at nearly every station. The 

 sunniest stations were Rhyl 76-4 hours (66%!, and Jersey 

 70-3 hours (63''o). .At Westminster 50 -S hours (45%) were 

 recorded, while at Glasgow only 35-7 hours (30%) were 

 registered. The temperature of the sea water round the 

 coasts varied from 49° at Lerwick and Pennan Bay. to 62 ' at 

 Seafield. 



The weather of the week ended June 24th, Coronation week, 

 was generally cool and cloudy, though in the first part of the 

 week there were fairly long sunny intervals. Thunderstorms 

 were experiencd on Sunday and Monday. Temperature was 

 normal in England N.W., below it in Scotland W., England 

 S.W. and S.E., Ireland and the English Channel, but above it 

 elsewhere, the variations from the normal being, however, but 

 slight. The highest temperatures recorded were 74° at 

 Greenwich on the 23rd, and 73° at Bawtry on the 22nd. .At 

 many stations the maximum was below 70°; the lowest readings 

 were nowhere so low as in the previous week, and no reading 

 below 40' was recorded. In London the minimum was 52°. 

 and no ground frost was reported. 



Rainfall was in excess everywhere and some very heavy 

 falls were reported. .At Shields and at Alnwick Castle the 

 amounts exceeded 4-0 inches, which is more than eight times 

 the usual quantity. -At Westminster the total was 1-12 inches 

 on five days. At Bath, though rain fell on each day of the 

 week, the total collected was only 0-58 inches. 



The district values of bright sunshine ranged from twenty- 

 six hours (22%) in England N.W., to forty-four hours (39%) 

 in the English Channel, Strangely enough, the two sunniest 



places were at the extreme North and South of our Islands, 

 Stornowav reporting 49-1 hours (39%) and Guernsey having 

 49-6 hours (44%). At Stonyhurst only 11-2 hours (10%) 

 were recorded. The temperature of the sea water varied 

 from 48° at Berwick to 62' at Margate. 



The week ended July 1st, was unsettled and rainy, with 

 occasional thunder and lightning. Temperature was below 

 the normal in all districts, by as much as 4" -4 in Scotland. W. 

 The highest reading reported was 73° at York, Clacton, Raunds, 

 Yarmouth and Tottenham. In Jersey, howe\'er, the maxinniin 

 was only 63". The lowest readings were 37" at Kilmarnock 

 and 39° at Cally and at West Linton. In Westminster the 

 extremes were 72' and 50'. C;n the ground the temperature 

 fell to 27° at Llangammarch Wells, and to 31° at .Armagh. 

 Rainfall varied a good deal, but the departures from the mean 

 were nowhere so severe as in the previous week. In Scotland 

 N., the fall was about half as much again as usual, but in 

 Ireland it was only one half the usual amount. Bright 

 sunshine was in defect in all districts, the deficiency reaching 

 20% in the English Channel. Falmouth had the highest 

 record for the week, 45-6 hours (40?/ol, while at Weymouth 

 43-5 hours (39%) were recorded. Westminster had 26-6 

 hours ^25%). The temperature of the sea water varied from 

 49° at Ballintrae to 63° at the Shipwash light vessel off the 

 East Coast. 



The week ended July Sth, began with unsettled rainy weather 

 over Scotland and Ireland N., but with very fine weather in 

 all other parts. By the end of the week the fine weather had 

 extended to the Northern districts also. The average tempera- 

 ture was above the normal in most districts, though not 

 markedly so. The individual readings, however, were 

 exceptional and exceeded 80° in all parts except Scotland N. 

 and W., and Ireland N. The highest readings recorded were 

 90-" at Cullompton in North Devon, on the Sth, and 88° at 

 Greenwich, Oxford, Raunds and Wisley. The minima were 

 as low as 36° at Balmoral, and 37 ' at West Linton and Fort 

 .Augustus, but as a rule the lowest readings ranged between 

 40° and 50°, and were in some cases over 50°. Slight frost on 

 the grass was experienced at Crathes (30°t and at Llangam- 

 march Wells (29°). but in most places the grass minimum was 

 above 35°. Rainfall was slightly abo\e the average in 

 Scotland N., but was in defect in all other parts of the 

 country. At many stations no rain was experienced through- 

 out the week. .At Westminster the total was 0-01 inch, 

 while at Greenwich there was no rain. Bright sunshine was 

 in excess in all districts except Ireland N.. where it was very 

 slightly in defect. The English Channel was the sunniest 

 district with 93 hours (83%), but the most sunny station was 

 Hastings, 97-5 hours (86%), In contrast whh this was the 

 North-west of Scotland, where Glasgow reported 27-5 hours 

 (23%), and Fort .Augustus only 20-9 hours 117%). The tem- 

 perature of the sea water ranged from 48° at Lerwick to 65° 

 at Margate and Eastbourne. 



The week ended July 15th was exceptionally fine and dry 

 throughout. Temperature was above the average in all 

 districts, by as much as6°-0 in Ireland, S. The highest read- 

 ings were 89° at Crieff, and 88° at Balmoral, Cullompton and 

 in Ireland. S. The minima varied greatly. In the English 

 Channel the lowest reading was 5-f- at Scilly, giving a range of 

 temperature for the week at this station of 21°, while at West 

 Linton the minimum was 35° and the range for the week 49°. 

 .At Durham. .Alnwick and Llangammarch readings of 36° were 

 recorded. On the grass still lower temperatures were observed, 

 the lowest being 23° at Llangannnarch and 29° at Crathes. 



The rainfall w^as unusually slight : indeed over the greater 

 part of the kingdom the week was rainless. The largest 

 amounts reported were 0-35 inches at Gordon Castle, and 

 0-38 at Glencarron. Bright sunshine was greatly in excess 

 in all districts, and at many stations it was double the usual 

 amount. The sunniest stations were Newton Rigg, 100-4 

 hours (86%), Aspatria 100-2 hours (86%), and Bournemouth 

 99-9 hours (89%). .At many other stations the total duration 

 of sunshine exceeded 90 hours. Over the country generally 

 the week was the finest experienced since the general establish- 

 ment of sunshine recorders, in 1881. 



