ASTRONOMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA. 273 



COLOURED EAIN. 



Professor Campani, of Siena, in a letter to Professor Matteucci, 

 states that on December 28th, about 7 A.M., in the north-western 

 part of Siena, rain of reddish hue fell copiously for two hours ; a 

 second red shower occurred at 11 A.M., and a third at 2 P.M. ; but 

 that of the deepest red fell first. It was entirely confined to the 

 north-western quarter of the town, and so nicely was the line drawn, 

 that the cessation of the red colour was ascertained in one direction 

 to be about 200 metres from the meteorological observatory, the- 

 pluviometer of which received Coloured Rain at exactly the same 

 time. The temperature during the same interval varied between 8° 

 and 10° Centigrade (40° and 50° Fahrenheit). The wind blew from 

 the south-west at the beginning of the phenomenon, and afterwards 

 changed to W.S.W. None of the rural population in the immediate 

 vicinity of Siena remarked the occurrence, so that, most probably, the 

 rain that fell round the town was quite colourless. The same phe- 

 nomenon recurred in exactly the same quarter of the town on 

 December 31, and again on January 1, the wind being W.N.W., 

 and the temperature respectively 35° and 39° 42' Fahrenheit. Each 

 time, however, the red colour diminished in depth, its greatest 

 strength having at no time exceeded that of weak wine and water. 

 Professor Campani considers that the colour must be owing to some 

 solution, since the water has deposited no sediment. A similar phe- 

 nomenon occurred in Wales in 1849 ; when a shower of rain, as red 

 as blood, fell near the village of Bonvilstone, and extended thence in 

 a westerly direction. — See Year- Book of Facts, 1850, p. 278. 



GREAT STORM IN WILTSHIRE. 



Mr. G. A. Rowell, of Oxford, Honorary Member of the Ashmo- 

 lean Society, and until recently the.obliging Assistant Under Keeper 

 of the Ashmolean Museum, has read to the British Meteorological 

 Society " A Lecture on the Storm in Wiltshire, which occurred 

 on the 30th of December, 1859." This valuable contribution ta 

 nieteorological science has been printed at the request of the Society. 

 Mr. Powell appears to have visited Calne, the locality of the storm, 

 and to have spent three days in examining its effects, and to have 

 since been assisted with many details on points of importance by 

 persons resident upon the spot, where all classes were anxious to 

 promote an investigation of the phenomena of the storm. 



" Nearly all the accounts of the storm (says Mr. Rowell) describe 

 it as a whirlwind. This may, in general, be considered a vague 

 term, as storms are often described as whirlwinds, if of a violent 

 character, and confined within narrow limits — without any con- 

 sideration as to whether the wind moved in circles or not ; but in this 

 case it was stated, that the effects of the storm gave full proof of its 

 cycloidal character, and some of the writers stated the number of 

 yards which they supposed the diameter of the cyclone to be. I 

 very carefully examined the effects of the storm, over four miles of 

 its track from the place of its commencement, within which space its 

 principal effects were exhibited. I have also obtained information 



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