XI 



Mr. Stephens exhibited specimens of a paper-like material used in 

 stereotyping at the office of the Launcesfon Examiner, and one from 

 the establishment of the Hobart Mercury. This soft and flexible material 

 has almost universally superseded the use of plaster moulds in stereotyping, 

 and the sharpness of the type cast from it, when properly prepared, 

 is quite remarkable. 



Mr. NowELL presented some tables which he had compiled with the 

 assistance of Mr. Langvvorthy, showing the mean of the observations 

 for the five years, 1871-5, taken at the lighthouses and other coast stations 

 in Tasmania, and published by the Society ; and read some remarks 

 upon the subject, with special reference to the winds in Bass' Straits and 

 the climate of the West and North-West Coasts. 



The Chairman remarked that he entirely agreed with the author as to 

 the importance of multiplying registers of the rainfall, the simplest and 

 easiest of all observations, and one which becomes very interesting for com- 

 paring different seasons. Probably the amount of rainfall has more to do 

 with the agricultural or pastoral value of different districts than tem- 

 perature or anything else ; and he had on a previous occasion advocated 

 the employment of the masters of common schools, many of whom would 

 no doubt be very willing to take charge of a rain-gauge, and j)erhaps of 

 other instruments. 



Captain Stanley remarked that he thought there must be something 

 wrong with the figures relating to the pressure of the wind. He believed 

 that those adopted at the lighthouses were guessed by the observers, 

 and not arrived at by the aid of anemometers. It was not the custom 

 in the colonies to use Beaufort's scale. That in use was one common to 

 all the Australasian colonies, and consisted in supposing that the wind 

 ranged in force from to 6, the figure 6 representing hurricane force. 

 Beaufort's scale, or that in common use in the Koyal Navy, supposed the 

 force of the wind to be represented by figures, ranging from to 12 — 

 representing a calm, and 12 a hurricane ; the intermediate figures were 

 judged by the description and number of sails the ship would carry or 

 might be happening to carry at the time, and in relation always to a well- 

 conditioned man-of-war. As regarded private observations, great care 

 would have to be taken by observers, and it would be necessary to know 

 what kind of instruments were used. Aneroids were less trustworthy 

 instruments than marine barometers ; their corrections varied according 

 to their readings ; as, for instance, an aneroid might be perfectly correct 

 when registering a height of 30'50, and much in error at a height of 

 29'o0. This description of barometer would most likely be the one chosen 

 by private observers, as being portable and simple. On board a man-of-war 

 it was only used in conjunction with a marine barometer. With regard 

 to the force of the wind observed at Mount Nelson and Kent's Group 

 being so much lower than at other localities, he thought it might be owing 

 to the fact that easterly winds, which blew during several months of the 

 year, appeared to blow much stronger at sea level. He had noticed when 

 employed in the survey of Bass' Strait that often he had been able to observe 

 with a theodolite comfortably on the summit of a high hill when it was 

 blowing a strong easterly wind at sea level ; in fact, the diminution of the 

 force of the wind was quite noticeable during the ascent. 



Mr. Justice Dobson thought it undesirable to publish any meteoro- 

 logical observations with the imprint of the Royal Society unless we were 

 satisfied as to their accuracy. That Mr. Nowell's paper cast a doubt upon 

 the accuracy of the instruments used. That these might be tested when 

 the lighthouses were visited, by procuring a duly regulated barometer and 

 thermometer of the Kew Standard, and by taking these instruments round 

 and comparing with them those used at the lighthouses, the accuracy or 

 errors of wliich would then be ascertained. 



The Chaibman remarked that he agreed very much with Mr. Justice 



