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land, and pass over Tasmania and New Zealand. The gathering 

 area of these storms is probably the southern portions of the 

 Indian Ocean, following the lines of atmospheric currents and 

 •condensation of vapour, they impinge on the south-western 

 limb of the continent, where they are turned southwards by 

 the anti-cyclonic conditions which normally prevail on the land- 

 Hugging the shore they pass eastwards, and usually gather 

 intensity as they approach the eastern limits of the continent, 

 probably reinforced by aqueous currents flowing southwards 

 along the eastern coastline. This intensifies the barometrical 

 depression, whilst the area of the storm widens out, heavy 

 gales are experienced in Bass Strait and over the adjacent 

 •coasts, spending their greatest force upon Tasmania and New 

 -Zealand. A few of our storms come up from the Southern 

 Ocean, or have a retrograde motion from the east westwards, 

 but these are very exceptional instances. The average rate at 

 ■which storms travel may be given as about sixteen miles an 

 bour, or iOO miles in the twenty-four hours. But this is a 

 Yery uncertain feature. A storm centre may hang over a given 

 region for several days together, or it may move forward, 

 slowly or rapidly, without any apparent cause for such irregu- 

 larity of movement. It generally takes from two days to a 

 week for a storm to pass from the Leuwin to Adelaide, and 

 about twenty-four hours more to reach Melbourne. The 

 ■diameter of storms is seldom under 600 miles from lip to lip of 

 the depression, but they are often vastly larger, taking in the 

 whole of Europe, or stretching from Australia to New Zealand 

 in one vast turmoil of wind and rain. They die a natural 

 death by the filling up of the barometrical depression, but this 

 sometimes does not take place until they have travelled more 

 than half round the world. A short discussion ensued, in 

 which the lecturer was asked to explain some points, and 

 .amongst them how it was that the readings of the barometer in 

 South Australia did not show such extremes as in Oreat 

 Britain for example. The reply was that the majority of 

 storms which visited us had their centres well to the southward 

 ■of the continent, so that Adelaide was brought only under the 

 influence of the northern lip of the depression, where the 

 readings of the barometer were not so depressed as nearer the 

 storm centre. 



Fifth Evexii^g Meetiin'g — Tuesday, July 28, 1885. 

 On this evening Mr. G. Beazley gave a second " Demonstra- 

 tion in Taxidermy." There was a fair attendance. Mr. 

 Beazley read a paper dealing with the bony frame of birds, and 

 •explained how lightness and strength were combined in its con- 



