SUN-SPOT, STORM, AND PAMINK. 37 



orb of the sun may give to any region rather more or rather 

 less heat according as his surface is more or less spotted. 

 But that in special regions of that rotating earth storms 

 should be more or less frequent or rainfall heavier or lighter, 

 as the sun's condition changes through the exceedingly small 

 range of variation due to the formation of spots, seems ante- 

 cedently altogether unlikely ; and equally unlikely the idea 

 that peculiarities affecting limited regions of the sun's surface 

 should affect appreciably the general condition of the earth. 

 If a somewhat homely comparison may be permitted, we can 

 well understand how a piece of meat roasting before a fire 

 may receive a greater or less supply of heat on the whole as 

 the fire undergoes slight local changes (very slight indeed 

 they must be, that the illustration may be accurate) ; but it 

 would be extremely surprising if, in consequence of such 

 slight changes in the fire, the roasting of particular portions 

 of the joint were markedly accelerated or delayed, or affected 

 in any other special manner. 



But of course all such considerations as to antecedent 

 probabilities must give way before the actual evidence of 

 observed facts. Utterly inconsistent with all that is yet 

 known of the sun's physical action, as it may seem, on d 

 priori grounds, to suppose that spots, currents, or other local 

 disturbances of the sun's surface could produce any but 

 general effects on the earth as a whole, yet if we shall find that 

 particular effects are produced in special regions of the earth's 

 surface in cycles unmistakably synchronizing with the solar- 

 spot-cycle, we must accept the fact, whether we can explain 

 it or not Only let it be remembered at the outset that the 

 earth is a large place, and the variations of wind and calm, 

 rain and drought, are many and various in different regions. 

 Whatever place we select for examining the rainfall, for 

 example, we are likely to find, in running over the records 

 of the last thirty years or so, some seemingly oscillatory 

 changes ; in the records of the winds, again, we are likely to 

 find other seemingly oscillatory changes ; if none of these 

 records provide anything which seems in any way to corres- 



