PART iv. OCCASIONAL PHENOMENA. 45 



cloud ? for even if that cloud was a Leste accompani- 

 ment or production, that does not explain why a Leste 

 wind began at that particular time rather than at any 

 other. 



The answer I have to make is, that while my 

 apparatus did not enable me to observe solar red- 

 prominences in Madeira, it did, with a little alteration, 

 suffice for taking pictures of the spots on the sun ; and I 

 had done so once a day as a rule, with this among other 

 results, viz. that the sun in and about the middle of 

 June was in a very languid condition, showing only 

 small spots, and these soon dying out. But on the 24th 

 and 25th an increased size of spots and vigour of forma- 

 tion began to manifest themselves. On the 26th, as 

 already remarked, no observations were taken ; but on 

 the 27th (the day after the cloud) an immense bound 

 forward was recognised to have been accomplished in 

 the formation of new, or rapid growth of old,- spots, not 

 far, too, from the middle of the solar disc. 



Now there may probably be some individuals in 

 society who still ridicule the notion that sun-spots, or 

 rather the solar energies they represent, can have any 

 influence upon anything that goes on upon this earth. 

 It may therefore be instructive to give additional cur- 

 rency here to a very new result of observation, elicited 

 by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, U.S., from 

 the Observatory of Willet's Point, New York. The 

 observers there, who are numerous enough to take watch 



